We're excited to share several pieces of good news regarding Louisiana's building codes. Louisiana was recently named "Most Improved" by The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) after jumping to 5th place on its Rating the States report. Rating the States evaluates building code adoption, enforcement, and contractor licensing in the 18 states along the coast from Texas to Maine. The report ranks each state on a 100-point scale by analyzing specific factors in the current code environment that influence windstorm resilience. In 2014, Louisiana scored a 74, and this year we earned a 91.
Additionally, Louisiana scored a 98.4% (Higher Resistance) on FEMA’s 2024 Building Codes Adoption Tracking Reports (BCAT). The BCAT Reports show an annual percentage of communities adopting natural hazard-resistant building codes in high-risk flood, damaging wind, hurricane wind, tornado, and seismic areas. FEMA based its evaluation on the edition adopted and the impact of amendments on hazard resistance. Read the overview and check out Louisiana's report.
And another big building codes win focuses on the newly adopted energy codes for federally supported homes across the country. Read more about how the updated energy efficiency rules for new U.S.-backed homes will reduce housing costs, default risks to lenders, and greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution.
STAFF SPOTLIGHT:
Director of Real Estate, Gina LaMacchia
Gina is a board member for Commercial Real Estate New Orleans (CREW New Orleans) and oversees the programming for the group. She has coordinated such events as a tour of the Dew Drop Inn, Hotel Henrietta, luncheons featuring Deputy Insurance Commissioner, and light-hearted events like head band making for the holiday party. She attended her first leadership conference in Charlotte last month, acting as one of the delegates.
In addition to volunteering with CREW, Gina is participating in the 6th cohort of the Women's Leadership Academy at Loyola. She enjoys taking one day out of the month to focus on important topics like effective communication, being assertive versus aggressive, and executive presence. This program emphasizes everyone accepting their true authentic selves and pushing their internal boundaries to be a stronger leader within their community. Gina says she finds the women this program are truly exceptional and is inspired to be a part of their network!
EARTH DAY CELEBRATIONS
Green Coast celebrated Earth Day 2024 by participating in a number of activities on the day, aimed at observing multiple facets of our individual and collective carbon footprint. We asked members of the team to record their home's kWh usage over a 24hr period by observing their Entergy Meter, in order to bring awareness to household energy consumption. Also, more than half of our team members participated in Alternative Transportation Day by walking, biking or taking public transportation to work, in acknowledgement of the carbon impact of a personal vehicular commute. And because the industrial meat industry has one of the largest climate impacts of all, our team came together to raise awareness with a delicious vegan potluck. Highlight dishes included vegan chili, grilled tofu & zucchini salad, and roasted cauliflower with vegan harissa butter & green goddess tahini.
And even before Earth Day itself, our team celebrated with a Friday group bike ride from the office down the Lafitte Greenway to French Quarter Fest. We also participated in a tree planting volunteer event with Nola Tree Project, Claritin's DiversiTree Project, and Edward Hynes Charter School. We planted close to 50 female Savannah Hollies! Read more about this volunteer event.
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