Green Urbanism
About Green Urbanism
The Green Urbanism Program fosters sustainability in urban environments by establishing collaborative partnerships and facilitating the development and implementation of sustainable policies, programs, and projects.
Green Cities
Global Green USA works in partnership with local governments and other public agencies that are ready to “do" sustainability. We help these entities create innovative and replicable policies, programs, and procedures so that sustainable practices become standard in the planning, design, construction, and operation of the built environment.
By working closely with agency staff and community stakeholders, we have helped create a number of innovative and precedent setting green building programs, sustainability plans, green urban design proposals, and climate action strategies. These efforts include the green building programs of the Cities of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and West Hollywood, the Local Government Green Building Program Guide, the West Hollywood Environmental Task Force Summary Report, and several LEED for Neighborhood Development certified projects.
Affordable Green Housing
Over the past decade, Global Green USA has established itself as a national leader in promoting green building practices in the affordable housing community. Through our Greening of Affordable Housing Initiative, we work extensively with non-profit community development corporations, architects, financial institutions, and government agencies at the local, state, and national level.
Green affordable housing directly benefits individuals and families in need by reducing energy bills and creating healthier living environments. Affordable housing developers and operators gain through higher quality, more efficient, and more durable buildings.
Working with green building and affordable housing organizations, Global Green provides information and education on the practices and components of green affordable housing, cost issues and financial strategies, and relevant policy initiatives. At the project level, Global Green regularly conducts workshops and green building charrettes and assists development teams certify their projects through third party rating systems such as LEED for Homes, the Green Communities Initiative, and LEED for Neighborhood Development. Current and past affordable housing development partners include Bridge Housing, Mercy Housing, Abode Communities, LA Housing Partnership, Wakeland Housing, Community HousingWorks, Coachella Valley Housing Coalition, and several Habitat for Humanity affiliates across the country.
Global Green's work with affordable housing developers has resulted in thousands of energy efficient and healthy homes, including many certified to the highest levels of the Leadership in Energy Environmental Design LEED Rating System.
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On the programmatic and policy front, Global Green is engaged in a range of endeavors locally and nationally to encourage the development of green affordable housing, including:
- Developing and advocating for the inclusion of green building criteria in affordable housing funding mechanisms in California, New York and Texas.
- Participating as a national partner and technical assistance provider in the Enterprise Community Partners' Green Communities Initiative.
- Authoring the "Making Affordable Housing Truly Affordable" report, which provides an analysis of green building criteria in state qualified allocation plans (each state's guidelines for allocating low-income housing tax credits) nationally.
- Providing assistance to Habitat for Humanity on their Operation Home Delivery program which is rebuilding over 3,000 homes in the hurricane devastated Gulf Coast region.
Green Schools
A green school, also known as a high performance school, is a community facility that is designed, built, renovated, operated, or reused in an ecological and resource-efficient manner. Global Green partners with school districts, charter school operators and national and local stakeholders to assist them in creating these kinds of facilities for the benefits of their students and the planet.
Green schools protect occupant health, provide a productive learning environment, connect students to the natural world, increase average daily attendance, reduce operating costs, improve teacher satisfaction and retention, and reduce overall impact to the environment. Through its policy, program and project-level work, since 2005 Global Green has helped green over $15 billion in school construction projects.
Publications
Green Urbanism Leaders Summit: Outcomes and Ideas report.
Green Urbanism Leaders Summit. In February 2009, Global Green USA gathered a group urban and environmental thinkers and doers a two-day discussion on the compelling but elusive concept of green urbanism.
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Case Study: Andrew H. Wilson Elementary School
Andrew H. Wilson Elementary School is a model high performance school for the New Orleans Recovery School District’s $1.8 billion school construction program. Andrew H. Wilson is a kindergarden through 8th grande school for approx. 540 students. The campus includes: 26 classrooms, a cafeteria, a gymnasium, an art studio, a music room, a computer lab, a library, and administration facilities. The school features an environmentally friendly site design, and was designed to meet LEED for Schools 2007 standards and is anticipated to achieve LEED for Schools Gold certification by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
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