SHIBUSA SYSTEMS HONORED WITH LIFE CITY’S ENERGY AWARD FOR SUSTAINABLE HOUSING SOLUTION.

Katy Reynolds, Shibusa Systems Co-Founder and CEO, accepts the Love Your City Energy Award on behalf of the team. Shibusa was honored for its impact making residential construction more sustainable, affordable, and healthy.

Katy Reynolds, Shibusa Systems Co-Founder and CEO, accepts the Love Your City Energy Award on behalf of the team. Shibusa was honored for its impact making residential construction more sustainable, affordable, and healthy.

 

LIFE CITY’S “LOVE YOUR CITY” AWARDS

NEW ORLEANS – On Jan. 28, LifeCity and the Regional Sustainability Committee recognized local businesses and organizations for their environment and social impact achievements at the ninth annual Love Your City Awards Gala. Sponsored by Batture, the program featured remarks by Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Councilmember Kristen Palmer with a closing performance by Tank and the Bangas.

“We’re overwhelmed by how the New Orleans community has come together in such a beautiful way, in the middle of a pandemic, to help those in need,” said LifeCity Founder and CEO Liz Shephard.

LifeCity recognized local organizations for their leadership in 10 impact categories: health, food access, transportation, local culture, energy, water management, housing and built environment, equity, pollution prevention and education. This year’s award recipients are as follows:

The event promoted our City’s culture and brought together nearly 400 viewers to celebrate New Orleans’ most impactful leaders. The event also served to address some of our community’s most pressing needs, especially those that have magnified through the pandemic.

The Love Your City Awards is a part of the Love Your City Initiative, led by LifeCity, that supports the development of the impact economy and growth of for-benefit organizations in Louisiana.

INTERVIEW WITH KATY REYNOLDS:

Katy, how do you feel about winning this Love Your City award?

We are very excited to win this award as it is our first since starting up in 2019; and we are grateful for being recognized for our innovations in energy conservation.

Shibusa won for Sustainable Energy, can you talk a bit about how sustainability factors into Shibusa’s design process?

Shibusa designed its housing to optimize thermal comfort using minimal energy. We use low carbon materials and have eliminated natural gas from our buildings so that we are 100% electric. A Shibusa home can easily be a net-zero energy home with the addition of a small PV installation.

How does housing play a part in the climate change movement?

Buildings and their construction together account for 36 percent of global energy use and 39 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to the United Nations Environment Program. In the United States, residential and commercial buildings account for 40 percent of energy consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Consequently, buildings have the largest impact on climate change. At Shibusa, we have strived to make our use of materials like heavy timber which sequesters carbon, our construction process, and our finished homes as energy efficient as possible in order to reduce carbon emissions for greater positive impact environmentally.

What are some other environmentally- or socially-conscious NOLA-based organizations you admire?

We are a big supporter of LifeCity, Friends of the Lafitte Greenway, lowernine.org, and Green Coast Enterprises among others.