OntheWilderSide

Rebuilding Green in New Orleans

Rebuild Green is the concluding part of a three-stage plan by the Common Ground Collective.

Rebuild Green is meant to help residents of New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast create homes, employment and an environment that are sustainable in the 21st century. In so doing, Rebuild Green is working to regenerate New Orleans.

Elements of this Circle of Regeneration are:

Safe, Strong Housing that can withstand the next storm and flood

Rebuild Green will offer several means of construction that are economical and environmentally friendly to residents of New Orleans’ Upper and Lower 9th Wards and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast. Among these are Structural Concrete Integrated Panels (SCIPS), Organic Compounds (such as cobb construction, and rice and straw as matrix material), and Structural Steel Frameworks. Rebuild Green will also offer means of elevating any new or resurrected housing at least 8 feet high against the next storm or flood

Renewable-energy Features

Rebuild Green and the Common Ground Collective are assembling several options that offer renewable energy to residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Among these are solar panels (thermal and electric), water turbines, and wind turbines. For example, roofs of the Common Ground Woodlands complex have space for 65,000 square feet of solar panels.

Low-income Employment Investments

Construction and Rebuild Green are combining to train and employ residents in the regeneration of hard-hit and high-risk areas. The programs we offer will particularly recruit ex-offenders from the criminal-justice system and will particularly target storm-damaged area such as New Orleans’ Lower and Upper 9th Wards.

Employment and Training

Invest Construction and Rebuild Green are combining to train and employ residents in the regeneration of hard-hit and high-risk areas. The programs we offer will particularly recruit ex-offenders from the criminal-justice system and particularly target storm-damaged area such as New Orleans’ Lower and Upper 9th Wards.

Wetlands Restoration

Regeneration of wetlands’ natural protection of urban environments against hurricanes and storm-surges is vital to making southeast Louisiana sustainable in the 21st century. As one step, on July 6th and 7th of 2006 the Common Ground Collective and the Mayor’s Office of New Orleans combined to plant 3000 units of smooth-cord grass (or startina alterna flora) in the Bayou Sauvage Wildlife Refuge. Such efforts are expected to continue and increase.

Bioremediation

After Hurricane Katrina, the flooding of New Orleans that came from breached levees let loose miles and months of ‘Toxic Flood Water’. The Meg Perry Memorial Garden of the Common Ground Collective is raising organic crops and remediating the soil in its Gentilly location. Elsewhere, sunflower and mustard plants are drawing toxic metals out of the earth, while the use of Efficient Micro-organisms is working against mold in houses gutted by Common Ground volunteers.

In sum, Rebuild Green and Invest Construction make up the stage meant to add roots to the work done by Common Ground founders and volunteers from September 2005 onward. Using new tools and ancient methods, our work is meant to help those roots flourish through branches and flowerings in the 21st century.

Please contribute in any way that you can. Donations specifically for Rebuild Green projects can be sent to POB 74-1365, New Orleans, LA 70014. Donations are tax deductable through Rebuild Greens fiscal agent Global Exchange.

Don Paul for Rebuild Green and the Common Ground Collective

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