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[Tom Darden] After Hurricane Katrina, houses
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were completely washed away.
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How can we help, rebuild in a way
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that's safe that's sustainable, that's affordable?
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[TEXT: America Is Reinventing Itself and Building
Sustainable Communities]
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[TEXT: Innovative Cities
New Orleans, LA]
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The residents were scattered all over the country.
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They wanted to come back and rebuild, but the houses
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that they could afford to rebuild were certainly susceptible to
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storm damage if another Katrina were to come along.
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[Tom Darden
Make It Right Foundation]
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We heard from the residents that they never wanted that to happen
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again. These families want to come back, rebuild in a way
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that's safe, that's sustainable, that's affordable.
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[Robert Green] Times are changing, and we have to change the way we build.
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[Robert Green
Citizen of New Orleans]
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When you realize that we don't have unlimited natural resources —
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we have to do things that are conserving those resources.
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[Andy Kopplin] People of New Orleans are innovators by choice.
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Why shouldn't we in New Orleans
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[Andy Kopplin
Deputy Mayor of New Orleans]
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be the pioneers of green building techniques?
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[Darden] We don't want to just make these houses energy efficient;
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why don't we make them produce energy?
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[Green] Look at the solar panels, the inverters, the green products inside.
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If you build wiser and you build stronger, everybody wins.
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[Darden] Rebuilding a community is about a lot more than just
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building houses, and so we are working with the residents
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to try to make sure that this community that we are helping to
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rebuild is sustainable for the long term.
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[Green] We were a community that cared about each other,
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and looked after each other, and that same
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community is coming back.
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[ America Is Reinventing Itself and Building
Sustainable Communities]
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[Share Your Ideas
facebook.com/CONX
facebook.com/ConversationsOurPlanet]
00:01:26.792,00:01:29.292
Produced by the U.S. Department of State
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