Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 2:17:41 PM - by Danny Vo

The devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina has provided opportunities for green redevelopment in New Orleans, an Oregon State University professor writes in Renewable Energy World.

Political science professor David Bernell is also an adviser to Maryland-based energy consulting firm Think Energy. Think Energy contributed its services to the redevelopment of a neighborhood in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward called Holy Cross.

Bernell describes the technologies that went into the Holy Cross development - solar panels on home roofs, LEED Platinum certification, salt-treated wood that resists termite damage - but emphasizes the challenges of a large-scale project.

Planning is essential to a project's rapid completion, he writes; the Holy Cross developers learned this the hard way. And, paradoxically, it's often cheaper to use less environmentally friendly building materials.

But Bernell and the other members of the Holy Cross team hope that Holy Cross can serve as a model for neighborhood-scale green development in the future. It's Bernell's belief that green materials and processes will become "hardwired" into the building process for homes and buildings. Sustainable, green construction is coming, he says, and projects like Holy Cross can serve as a template for future development.