USGBC Louisiana Advocacy Committee

Meeting Minutes
3/5/2010
Attendees

Tony Laska, Chair Conservation tony.laska@csgrp.com 504-579-

Services Group 3633
Charlie Chartier Chartier & cchartier@speccai.com 985-626-
Associates 7800
Grasshopper Latter & Blum info@commercial504.com 504-638-
Mendoza 0839
Lenny Wormser Latter & Blum lwormser@latterblum.com 504-569-
9483
Paul Richard Latter & Blum prichard@latterblum.com 504-957-
5759
Toni Thompson Latter & Blum tonigthompson@gmail.com 504-416-
7936
Bryan McConduit Precision brian@precisionconstructionllc.c 504-782-
Construction om 9510
Steve Picou LSU Ag Center spicou@agcenter.lsu.edu 504-838-
1170
Stan Millan Jones Walker smillan@joneswalker.com 504-582-
8583
Regina Philson La. DEQ philson3@msn.com 225-205-
4609
Thomas Rush GNO, Inc. thomasgr02@hotmail.com 651-343-
4168

The meeting began at 11:30am.

Charlie Chartier introduced Tony Laska as the new Committee Chair and asked the
group for their support as Tony takes the committee to the next level.

Attendees were introduced and minutes of the January 8th meeting were reviewed and
accepted.

1. Updates

• Green Collaborative Strategic Planning - The Green Collaborative

represents 64 organizations locally. At its Strategic Planning sessions, a
professional facilitator managed meetings of the Steering Committee and the
Green Collaborative membership. Mission and vision statements were
developed and agreed upon by the Steering Committee

• Building Resilience Workshop – Grasshopper Mendoza and Steve Picou

attended and said it was fantastic. General Honore’ was one of the speakers;
his focus was on preparedness. He said for every $1.00 spent in preparation
the taxpayers save $9.00. Self-reliance was emphasized by Gen Honore’. More
than 50 participants from Canada, Japan and Germany as well as the region
were in attendance at the old U.S. Mint.

1
 • Grasshopper gave a brief report on the Horizon Initiative Water
Management committee meeting. She also reported that City Park has agreed
to use porous paving on one of the parking lots. Steve is making progress
there. A representative from LRA discussed a statewide green jobs workforce
initiative. Mayor-elect Landrieu is establishing a Sustainable Task Force within
his transition team.

• LEED for Levees – Steve reports it is still in development. Levees and

dikes are common in many states of the U.S. Levees are referenced in LEED for
Neighborhood Development so a placeholder is there. Check out
http://watershednola.org - Federal Action Steps on Levees

• Targets for 2010

o Report on effective priority development – from phone conversation with
Aaron Lande at USGBC National – Anisa/Tony USGBC has funding available to
assist local chapters advocating for specific priority areas.
o Grasshopper reported on visit with Audubon Institute Tea House reps (see
her notes) This was a successful trial run at presentations that should
eventually have a fee attached, like $50 to the chapter and $100 to the LEED
AP. Follow up was discussed and a need for listing who is accredited was
observed. Steve mentioned Second Harvest and its new 1000 square foot
building in Elmwood that will allow them to rent out cooler space and
maintain more food for longer periods to serve a fairly broad territory
reaching to Baton Rouge.
o We need to record and follow up such visits for record-keeping and
recognizing of our progress.
o Review list as proposed at January meeting (attached) No new items
suggested during this discussion.
o Discussion on the pyramid graphic Charlie and Tony saw at the Sizeler
Thompson Brown Sustainability Retreat! Highest cost measures on the top;
free or more affordable at the bottom.

2. Subcommittee Reports

• Legislature – Paul
a. Legislature meets in general session from last Tuesday in March through
June.

• Commercial Real Estate – Grasshopper

a. See notes from Grasshopper

• High-Profile project Advocacy – Tom

a. GNO sports Foundation, for Super Bowl 2013, would like to attract a green
sponsor and give them huge publicity. Superdome has built-in rainwater
detention capacity which is a desirable component for any future effort
toward ‘rainwater harvesting and use’.
b. DDD

2
 c. Methodist Hospital
d. Greenlight New Orleans – potential for installation of LED’s in commercial
facilities. They need a source of product.

• Liaison Report – Charlie

a. Charlie reported on mutual interest in collaboration with IFMA (Intl. Facilities
Management Assoc.), N.O. chapter
b. Also, links to IIDA (Intl. Interior Design Assoc.) – Delta Chapter
• Code Council update
a. Code Council Technical committee recently voted in favor of retaining the
2006 IRC instead of adopting the 2009. Jeremy has expressed concern and
is seeking better information and access to local participants. Steve will
connect Jeremy with Prisca to follow up.
b. While the current slowdown in construction may be seen as a blessing in this
narrow sense, Brian McConduit (Precision Construction) noted that some
6000 units will be coming under construction with ACS/Shaw within the next
2 months. To prevent common problems the homeowners will be given
direct assistance by the program, and contractors to carry out the work will
be assigned to the homes. Obviously the prevailing code at the time will
affect building performance and energy costs for years to come.

3. Set next meeting date and adjourn

- Next meeting to be held Friday, April 9, 2010 at GNO Inc’s offices in Canal
Place.
_________________________________________________________________________
Subcommittee Transmittals

USGBC Commercial Outreach

From Grasshopper
3-5-10

I received a call from a former colleague Lee Sands who now works as the sous chef at
the Audubon Tea Room. The Tea Room is part of the not-for-profit Audubon Nature
Institute in New Orleans which operates ten parks and museums dedicated to
"Celebrating the Wonders of Nature", including the newly-opened Audubon
Insectarium. In the call Lee asked if he could meet to discuss green building. We set a
lunch appt. for February 5, 2010. Joining me at the lunch was Steve Picou from the LSU
AgCenter, Russell Harris, LSU AgCenter horticulturalist, and Prisca Weems from
FutureProof. We met with the Executive Chef and Facilities Planner along with Lee.
During the 2 hour exchange of local green initiatives and LEED EB/green building
information, we learned that the Audubon food and events division is looking to further
reduce their waste stream, look into energy saving upgrades and possible LEED
certification for their properties. After the meeting, green links were sent to the staff,
attached.

Green Restaurant Association U.S. Green Building Council-Louisiana

http://www.dinegreen.com/ http://www.usgbc-louisiana.org/
http://www.greenrestaurants.org/
USGBC-LEED for Existing Buildings EB

3
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx http://www.louisianahelp.org/document
?CMSPageID=221 s/greenolawithldrfcoverpage.pdf

City of New Orleans Green Website

The Green Collaborative http://www.gogreenola.com
http://greencollaborativenola.com/
Popular local green site-
City of NO Green Plan—“GreeNOLA” http://www.gogreennola.org/