Sustainable Gulf
Reconstruction
November 23, 2005 — By Tensie Whelan, Rainforest Alliance
As some hurricane victims return home
while others still languish in trailer parks and temporary hotels, the
debate over rebuilding hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast communities has been
joined, though without much of a blueprint. There has been no near-total
reconstruction of a major US city like New Orleans since the 1906 San
Francisco earthquake, or the great Chicago fire of 1871, and times have
changed radically since then. We now confront twin imperatives to do the
unprecedented: to tackle the largest urban reconstruction project in
American history quickly, and to do it sustainably.
Federal hurricane relief legislation sowed reconstruction with
controversy over provisions fast-tracking hundreds of billions in
federal aid. For example the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and
Economic Recovery Act proposed an independent nine-member commission
with a majority of Louisiana officials which would replace the normal
Congressional appropriations and approvals process in overseeing federal
spending. Equally ominous-sounding are exceptional powers that would
allow the commission to waive existing federal environmental laws to
expedite projects it approves.
If such provisions get implemented, moving reconstruction forward
quickly and accountably without negative environmental impacts will be a
particular challenge. Exemption from environmental law and normal
congressional oversight are no excuse for ignoring environmental needs
and sustainability, especially when there are excellent voluntary
regimes for green planning, building and materials that the commission
and other decision makers can and should adopt.
For example, the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) is already
working with officials on green performance standards for Gulf
reconstruction, and with Habitat for Humanity to build green housing for
hurricane victims. USGBC’s LEED program (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System is now being tested
in major housing markets across the US, including in several Gulf Coast
states. It incorporates best sustainable practices into residential and
commercial buildings, ranging from site selection, permeability and
water runoff from the home site, to recycling construction waste, energy
use and indoor air quality. It only makes sense to build such standards
into Gulf coast reconstruction now.
Consider, just to focus on one of the many complex issues involved, how
the lumber for this massive rebuild will be supplied. The framing wood
of choice in the US is pine, grown in our southeastern forests as well
as in the Pacific Northwest and in Canada’s northern boreal forests. For
Gulf Coast reconstruction, much of it will come from forests from east
Texas to North Carolina. But these forests, like forests everywhere,
were already heavily stressed from the recent housing boom and other
factors, and whether and how to harvest them now is a complex and
far-reaching consideration. Meanwhile, the hurricanes left behind
thousands of acres of blown down trees in coastal forests, necessitating
large-scale salvage logging. Yet salvage operations pose their own
environmental challenges and should be handled carefully if we don’t
want to add more negative impacts to the toll of this hurricane season.
Who’s got the time or the inclination to attend to such details amid the
pressure to get on with massive reconstruction? The Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) does, and already offers the means to supply
reconstruction lumber responsibly. The FSC is a well-established
voluntary certification regime embraced alike by the LEED program,
environmental groups and major forestry companies all around the world.
It requires the best, most environmentally and socially responsible
practices for growing, managing, harvesting and milling lumber. It also
confers certain efficiencies and competitive advantages to producers, so
FSC wood ends up cost-competitive with non-certified wood. There is
already a $5 billion global market for it, with some 125 million acres
of FSC-certified forests in 60 countries worldwide, over 40 million of
them in the US covering an area the size of Washington State. Major
forestry companies in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas are FSC-certified,
and FSC framing lumber is on the shelves right now at Home Depot and
other retailers.
If the argument of the policymakers is that Gulf reconstruction is too
big and too time-sensitive to be constrained by normal environmental
regulation or congressional oversight, this is all the more reason to
encourage voluntary standards for making it more sustainable. FSC, LEED
and USGBC are all examples of voluntary approaches that aren’t utopian,
but practical and ready to go right now. All we have to do is embrace
them.
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Tensie Whelan is the executive director of the Rainforest
Alliance (www.rainforest-alliance.org),
whose SmartWood program is accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council.
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