Green Light New Orleans

Environmental ServicesUnited States2-10 Employees

Green Light New Orleans (GLNO) is a grassroots nonprofit started in 2007 as an initiative to  replace incandescent light bulbs with energy-efficient CFLs and LEDs in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. By 2018, GLNO replaced over 600,000 bulbs in 27,000 homes, reducing the city’s CO₂ output by 266 million lbs of CO₂. In 2012, GLNO expanded programming to combat food insecurity by teaching households about urban farming and installing backyard vegetable gardens. In 2015, GLNO identified subsidence as a key issue and developed the Rain Barrel Program in effort to alleviate the burden on the stormwater management system. Expansion to these programs defined GLNO’s three pillars: Energy, Food, and Water. Using the same methodology that transformed the light bulb program into a massive community movement, Engagement is largely attributed to participants referral, demonstrating the capability of GLNO programs to create meaningful environmental change through collective community action.

Rain Barrel Program:
New Orleans is sinking at an average rate of .5 inch annually, with overwhelming evidence of subsidence on every block. Subsidence results from inadequate permeable surfaces, coupled with intense rainfall, and overactive stormwater pumps that dry out the spongy soil under the city. This phenomenon is most severe in historically marginalized communities, where flooding and subsidence are most acute. In 2015, Green Light devised a program utilizing uniquely painted rain barrels to educate community members and capture stormwater before reaching the drains to slowly release into the ground through gardening. Rain barrels prevent polluted city water from being pumped into Lake Pontchartrain, and reduce the resident dependency on purchased drinking water for watering plants. The threat of saltwater intrusion in the Mississippi River adds another dimension to the Rain Barrel Program equipping residents with fresh* water or the foreseeable future.  *not potable

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