USGBC Louisiana Advocacy Committee

Meeting Minutes
8/01/08

Attendees
Charlie Chartier, Chartier & cchartier@speccai.com 985-626-7800
Chair Associates
LeBraun Robinson Rep. Karen Carter larep093@legis.state.la.u 504 568 8346
Peterson’s Office s
Grasshopper Latter & Blum info@commercial504.com 504-638-0839
Mendoza
Miles Colley Latter & Blum milescolley@gmail.com 713-299-5785
Drew Morock Latter & Blum jmorock@latterblum.com 504-569-9321
Paul Richard Latter & Blum prichard@latterblum.com 504-957-5759
J.F. Taylor Jr. Latter & Blum jtaylor@latterblum.com 504-450-2363
Keith Bergeron DK&S kbergeron@dkslaw.com 504-581-5141
James Bourgeois Tandus jbourgeois@tandus.com 225-205-4519
Stephen Haddad haddad428@gmail.com 504-701-7312
Jaideep Karnik Wink Design jskarnik@winkinc.com 504-754-5264
Group
Kelly Nicklas Montgomery Roth knicklas@montgomeryrot 503-568-1240
h.com
Linda Stone, Co- Global Green lstone@globalgreen.org 504-525-2121
Chair ext.186
Robert Whiting Global Green rwhiting@globalgreen.org 253-970-4930

The meeting began at approximately 11:40am and included the following reports &
discussion:

• Charlie Chartier went over minutes from 6/27 meeting and brought new
members up to speed on advocacy committee activities. He explained the need
to educate the special interest groups (including Chemical, Vinyl & Forestry
Associations) and the State Office of Facility and Planning Control (OFPC).
Charlie has scheduled a LEED workshop for OFPC, and Jerry Jones, who writes
the fiscal notes on state legislation, will attend.

• Charlie also mentioned California’s recent building code changes requiring

green buildings state wide and noted that a Governor’s Executive Order is
another way to achieve similar results (to a bill or code change).

• Robert Whiting gave update on the City of Alexandria’s sustainability initiatives,

including Sustainability Conference July 2. He noted that Brian Bailey would like
assistance on green schools/green building legislation.

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• Linda Stone gave background on City’s green building and green schools
resolutions, passed in 2006 and 2008 respectively, and current efforts to create
a green schools ordinance.

• Linda briefly summarized the difficulties Global Green is having in obtaining a

variance from the La. Department of Health and Hospitals (LDHH) to use
collected rainwater for flushing toilets at its Lower 9th Ward Visitors’ Center.
LeBraun Robinson of Rep. Carter Peterson’s office said he would talk to Rep.
Peterson about intervening with LDHH.

• Charlie mentioned Northshore’s need for assistance on green initiatives. Kelly

Niklas volunteered to help with this since he lives there. Linda suggested they
talk with Frank Neelis of the Sierra Club who is working on Northshore issues.

• Paul Richard brought up the issue of defining green, which led to a discussion,
resulting in Charlie’s offer to do an educational session at the next meeting
where he will talk about green in general as well as LEED. Discussion points
included Kelly Nicklas’ comment that most people are interested more in
financial and health aspects rather than benefit of planet, to idea from James
Bourgeois on providing information to public on things they can do to save
energy, to Jaideep Karnik’s question about how to balance keeping a project on
budget while insuring lower operating costs later.

• It was noted, in response to a question from Keith Bergeron, that a list of all
existing green building legislation can be found on the U.S. Green Building
Council’s website at www.usgbc.org.

• Linda mentioned that the City Council had recently passed the Energy Smart
program, but without the funding source (which was supposed to be a mil on
energy bills). There was concern from the Hotel & Restaurant Association about
the cost being too much for small commercial without enough benefits. A
committee is trying to resolve this issue now.

• Grasshopper Mendoza said she would be interested in participating on a

subcommittee to identify savings from green building initiatives.

• Linda told committee about Global Green’s upcoming green schools workshop in
Cameron Parish for the region impacted by Hurricane Rita.

• Grasshopper Mendoza said the group can continue to meet at the Latter & Blum
Corporate Headquarters, and it was agreed that the group would meet there
next on Friday, September 5, 2008 at 11:30am. Charlie will do an interactive
presentation that day.

• Keith Bergeron also volunteered his office space downtown for our meetings if

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 there ever is a conflict with the Latter & Blum location.

• The meeting adjourned at 1pm.