By Ted Fischer
December 7, 2009

The EPA Brownfield's Conference in New Orleans featured interactive sessions and tours that highlighted the transition of the Lower 9th Ward into sustainable homes and ongoing neighborhood revitalization. With the flooding and destruction of homes during Hurricane Katrina, the area is slowly recovering from one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit North America. With homes still missing from its landscape and FEMA trailers lining their streets, much has been done to get the community back up on its feet.

New Orleans has proven even though they may have been dealt rough circumstances, they are rising above the tragedy.

The tour entitled "Green Job Training in the Bayou: NIEHS Job Training Programs at Work" visited The Center for Construction Research and Training that has an apprenticeship program with the Carpenters & Millwright Union in New Orleans' 9th Ward. The tour allowed participants to watch a class in session working on Brownfield clean up methods and the safe use of materials. Students who normally do not have career paths to look forward to, due to lower economic means and societal pressures, have an opportunity through this program to learn a trade and make a career. In addition to the traditional environmental and construction training, the program offers students introductory training in green building and weatherization, preparing them to enter the green construction industry.

Also included in the tour was a stop at "Make It Right Nola" green building sites, sponsored by actor Brad Pitt. Two years ago, the Lower 9th Ward was devastated, scattered with remnants of peoples' home, rows of concrete foundations and porch steps leading to nowhere. The only people living on the site were a few pioneering families in FEMA trailers. Today, Make It Right is building the largest, greenest neighborhood of single'family homes in America, while returning the neighborhood to its past. Earning the highest distinction for energy efficiency and sustainability, LEED Platinum, by the US Green Building Council, integrating and aggregating a variety of cutting edge construction materials and techniques, Make It Right Nola is making a difference where others have failed.

The final stop on the tour was at Dillard University's Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DU/DSCEJ) that conducts worker training from a facility near the university's Gentilly campus. DU's campus has two LEED certified buildings under construction and there is a green building site nearby on which DU trainees have worked. The tour featured a stop at both training facilities and an opportunity to learn about effective community outreach that led to local residents training for jobs to help rebuild New Orleans. For more information on the 2009 EPA Brownfield's Conference or the different centers toured, visit the website www.brownfields2009.org