Vice President of Convention Sales and Strategy, Cara Banasch, sat down for a quick interview with Kimberly Lewis with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

 

Question One: You share a passionate and personal message about what your organization and your team represents. What speaks to you most about what US Green Building Council does for our communities and our future?

"Every story about a green building is a story about people." The U.S. Green Building Council's  strategic plan opens with a poignant reminder that our built environment is much more than a collection of physical structures - it's the stage on which the story of our lives plays out. It is where we "raise our families, educate our children, labor, create, gather our communities, exalt our spirituality and care for our elders".

The narrative of this ethos is carried throughout everything we do, starting with the USGBC Guiding Principles which drives our strategy to "foster social equity" and to "be inclusive." In this plan, we commit to expand our mission beyond individual buildings to embrace the larger built environment and broader aspects of sustainability, including a more focused approach to social equity and human health. By cultivating sustainable cities and communities, we concurrently expand demand and delivery of healthy and regenerative places for ALL within this generation no matter socio or economic barriers.

 

Question Two: Your team made the commitment to bring your event to New Orleans in a very challenging time for our city. What was your experience in working with our partners leading up to and during your event here this year?

When we selected New Orleans as a destination for Greenbuild 2014, it was a commitment kept to highlight one of the historic cities of America that has such a major cultural and social impact on our society and their resilient efforts to restore not just the building infrastructure but the human spirit and all the history that we know and love as New Orleans. In quoting our former USGBC Board member Majora Carter,
"You shouldn't have to leave your community to live in a better place."
USGBC celebrates the work of New Orleans in not just rebuilding but thinking about sustainability within buildings, communities and humanity - bringing residents back HOME to a more resilient, healthier, affordable community such as Make it Right.

 

Question Three: Now into the very deep and important content!?....if you were a Po' Boy....the famous N'Awlins sandwich....what kind would you be?

Fried Oyster!!

 

Ok Kimberly, you are our Fried Oyster Po'Boy Hero! Next time you hit the ground in New Orleans, Donna and I will have a limo and before you drop your bags, we are Po'Boy Bound!