Between New Orleans and Baton Rouge lies a small community called Ponchatoula, a growing refuge for post Hurricane Katrina families seeking a new start. But this small community has some big things happening, things that can change the way people live in their community and all across the Gulf Region. Ponchutula is host to a model house being built by Southern Homes and the Agricultural Center of Louisiana State University. You may be wondering like most people, When did LSU start building model houses?

Professor Claudette Reichel provides the explanation. She and a team of researchers are trying to change the face of Louisiana, one home at a time. As Extension Housing Specialists, Claudette and her team are making strides toward sustainable housing. Their mission is to put research into action, that is to say, developing educational tools to illustrate strategies for building high performance homes. For the last 10 years Claudette and her team have been integrating strategies based on five core criteria for sustainable housing: Resource Efficiency (Green Initiatives), Durability (Wind/Hurricane Resistance), Health (Healthy Homes Strategies like Air Quality), Convenience and Practicality.

Claudette’s department received grants from the Department of Energy’s Build America Program and the Department of Natural Resources to develop outreach initiatives to make these high performance housing strategies accessible to consumers and producers. But they needed to find reputable builders to collaborate with that had the vision to see the importance of this effort.

One of Claudette’s colleagues immediately thought of a professional builder she enjoyed working with in the past, Southern Homes. Claudette invited Southern Homes’ construction managers and supervisors to a seminar about the initiative and the high performance strategies they wanted to demonstrate in a model home. As an industry leader in Green Building, Southern Homes was eager to acquire the newest research to take their quality homes to new heights of energy performance.

Claudette’s team was excited to work with Southern Homes because of their reputation as a professional company and the fact that they are a large builder in the community. Because of their pervasive influence in the community Claudette was confident Southern Homes would be able to lead the way in making these strategies the new industry standard for future homes.

Southern Home’s first collaboration model currently being built under this initiative will be wind/hurricane resistant, a Bronze level Certified Green Home, energy efficient and feature a moisture-controlled air tight design with mechanical fresh air supply to create well balanced healthy air quality. Not only that, the model is being built as an average middle American starter house, demonstrating that a builder can achieve high performance levels at a price point comparable to the area. Claudette explained, “this proves you can raise the bar on home building without raising the price. We are really pleased with how conscientious Southern Homes has been with this effort. They have been a pleasure to work with every step of the way”.

Claudette went on to say, “This type of collaboration will help stimulate the demand for high performance homes by educating consumers, and demonstrating to them that this type of home is possible, valuable and worth buying. It is our hope that high performance homes will one day be like granite countertops. 10 years ago it was unheard of for an average consumer to ask for this feature in a home and less likely for a builder to have it in a model. But now it is the norm, expected by both consumers and producers. Hopefully, in the near future, everyone will feel the same about high performance homes.”

The next collaboration with Southern Homes will be in Covington, LA. This time Southern Homes and the LSU Agricultural Center will be building a home with even higher performance features in a metropolitan area of Greater New Orleans. Claudette is excited about the new endeavor and shared, “Our team has a motto we operate by to remind us why we do what we do: As we shape our homes, we shape a new future for our community. By putting these building practices in place we can avoid the damage and effects of catastrophes that have devastated our region’s communities in the past ”.

Southern Homes is ready to make a difference. They are taking a stand for the future today and leading the way for a healthier, safer tomorrow for their communities.

Learn more about this initiative at www.louisianahouse.org

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