 The Green Community Initiative by Enterprise Community Partners is a very progressive idea which recently came to EnviroCitizen.org’s attention. It is the first national green building program for affordable housing. The Green Community Initiative focuses on reducing our negative impact on the environment and increasing energy efficiency through the use of eco-friendly, sustainable materials. The Green Community Initiative is designed to help developers, investors, builders and residents to move into a greener future. They offer loans, grants, tax-credit equity, training and technical assistance to help developers and builders make green projects a reality. So far, the Green Community Initiative has given out more than $570 million in equity, loans and grants to create 250 green affordable housing developments and 11,000 green affordable homes. They have also trained over 3,000 professionals in green development and have had an impact in more than twenty cities.
Dana Bourland, the Vice President of Green Initiatives at Enterprise Community Partners, heads the Green Community Initiative. She has an impressive resume and was recently named one of the Most Influential Women Activists in Technology by Fast Company Magazine. Bourland earned her Master’s degree in Planning from the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and also holds a degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She volunteered in the Peace Corps and has worked on poverty reduction strategies with the Northwest Area Foundation. Bourland and her team recognize the need for green building. Sustainable development improves the environment as well as the health of the residents in affordable housing units and society at large. These buildings, funded by the Green Community Initiative, are more efficient, reducing both the cost of living for residents and the effects on the environment.
The Green Community Initiative also raises contributions to purchase Green Communities Credits through the Green Communities Offset Fund, which reduces carbon emissions of green, affordable housing developments. Enterprise Community Partners, a non-profit organization, believes in the importance of green housing as a means of providing low-income families and individuals with opportunities to move out of negative situations.
EnviroCitizen.org believes that groups like the Green Community Initiative and Enterprise Community Partners are reshaping how we view affordable housing. Those dark, dingy, dirty affordable housing units are becoming a thing of the past. They are creating healthy, beautiful, eco-friendly housing, which benefits low-income families and individuals as well as our society as a whole. EnviroCitizen.org hopes that other groups and organizations will step forward to follow in the innovative path groups such as these are creating, leading to a brighter, healthier future.
|
