«Katrina was a man-made disaster,» he said then. «The misconception is that it was nature. But this is manmade – decades and decades of erroneous engineering moves and really, really bad, bad irresponsible moves that I believe government has a responsibility to make right.» Pitt and his girlfriend, Angelina Jolie, have adopted New Orleans. In January, they bought an early-19th-century mansion in the French Quarter. Not long afterward, Pitt teamed with Global Green USA to sponsor a competition to design environmentally friendly and energy-efficient housing for the Ninth Ward. «I care very much for the area,» he said. A small, first step The house he showed off is his way of starting to put things right. The homes he and Global Green are building are made with studwork and sheathing that are impregnated with an environmentally friendly blue compound that makes them resistant to termites and mold. Insulation is soy-based. Paints will be nontoxic. «It is amazing,» he said. «Something we have to be more aware of is the chemicals that are in the products that we are surrounded by.» There is a terrace on the second floor that will be planted with grass – an excellent insulator. Rainwater will be captured and filtered and delivered to a cistern to be used to flush toilets and to water the landscaping. That, he said, should cut the homeowner’s water bill in half. It’s all part of his vision. «The utility bill is useless,» he repeated. «It is unnecessary.»
Global Green USA, which was created in 1993 by Diane Meyer Simon, is the U.S. affiliate of Green Cross International, an environmental organization founded in 1992 by Mikhail Gorbachev to protect our planet for future generations by promoting the development of human awareness for the Earth as a whole and thus recognizing the interdependence of humanity and nature and the need for sustainable development in our society to maintain a healthy balance of all things, be it environmental, economic or human development. Sustainable development is defined in Wikipedia as a socio-ecological process characterized by the fulfilment of human needs while maintaining the quality of the natural environment indefinitely. The mission of GCI and its affiliates is to help ensure a just, sustainable and secure future for all. Global Green USA and New Orleans – an Overview (from globalgreen.org) After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the inadequate response of the US Government, Global Green USA made a dedicated commitment to sustainable building in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.