Matt Petersen of Global Green, and a handful of other organizations, are working to make sure it happens.

Photo credit: AP.

With over a million left homeless and its capital city all but destroyed, Haiti is about to become the focus of an enormous rebuilding effort. Internationally, many have been calling for a full-fledged “Marshall Plan” to rebuild the country, lasting at least a decade and costing billions of dollars. Moves this weekend to forgive Haiti’s debts, while funding rebuilding efforts with grants (instead of debt-creating loans) are a positive step in this direction.

But what of sustainability? How can the island nation, which has for so long existed on the edge of disaster, be put back together in a way that is at once socially, environmentally and economically sustainable?

Fortunately, several organizations are hard at work looking for answers to this very question. One of them is Global Green USA, an environmental nonprofit that has taken a leading role in the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. This week I asked Global Green President and CEO Matt Petersen about the chances for a sustainably rebuilt Haiti. Here’s what he told me…

JF: Can you give us a window into the thinking going on right now at Global Green regarding Haiti?

MP: We are in an assessment mode, talking to fellow NGOs, offices of US Senators, UN staff, and others to determine our best course of action. The challenge is that temporary settlements – much like in any post-disaster – are likely to become permanent.

What kind of rebuilding plans are being drawn up right now for Haiti, and how does Global Green intend to integrate its perspective into these?

I think the consensus is that building codes and standards are critical. Officially, people are being told that if they rebuild now before standards are provided, their home will be torn down. A more likely scenario, sadly, is that the threat of bribes or graft will thwart efforts to rebuild disaster-resistant homes.

For Global Green, our goals, still formative, are fourfold at this point:

• To inform the codes and system for enforcing codes for rebuilding.
• Identifying school(s) and partner groups to help ensure disaster-resistant, energy efficient/sufficient, and healthy construction.
• Identifying partners to do the same with homes (we’re talking to Habitat about this).
• Working with others to identify and support re-forestation, ideally via a network that supports women to lead the charge and supports job creation.

From my reading of the situation, there are three groups forming around reconstruction: one composed of the Haitian government, various states and international institutions, one composed of non-Haitian NGOs, and one composed of Haitian building professionals. Is this an accurate reading of what’s going on? What sort of interaction is shaping up between these groups, which presumably have differing agendas and ideas?

We have conversations daily with different types of groups from different places, but I think this is an accurate read. In our experience, no group can come in and dictate how to rebuild – it needs to involve, if not be led by, the local professionals and practitioners in the building industry, informed by the best expertise from other places.

With so much money at stake, how can Haiti avoid a situation in which reconstruction is seen as a vacuum to be filled by corporate interests?

I think this is a real and serious concern. We just pulled out of an emerging dialogue around reconstructing facilities because it was not clear the roles – and remuneration – some of the partners, who are known to be government contractors, would play.

In New Orleans, we’ve seen billions spent via government contractors, but with little long-term job creation or value added provided to the job base. We suggested to the office of a US Senator that one of the things they could do is to ensure that the State Department and AID provide some of the funding to women-run groups to help with reforestation or other critical needs of Haiti, not just to big contractors.

It sounds risky to bureaucrats, but in the end those dollars will be spent more effectively than what we have seen in places like Iraq or New Orleans.

Speaking of New Orleans, what lessons has Global Green learned from its work there after Hurricane Katrina?

Well, Haiti is a very different place, of course, from New Orleans. There are some parallels of course, but the biggest difference we see is that New Orleans was sparsely populated for a long time after the hurricane – the diaspora was more extensive.

We will wait and see how many Haitians stay in rural areas. If many do, it may be better if they can return to an agrarian economy (and the US government stops perpetuating policies that provide unhealthy, subsidized foods for sale in Haiti on behalf of US corporations), which may be a better life for many if it can be combined with reforestation.

Our key lesson learned – there are several we can share – was not coming in and telling them how to build, but how building differently can improve their lives, their nation, and their economy.

In a place like Haiti, where urban settlements tend to happen spontaneously, can a long, centrally-planned reconstruction process really work – or will people simply rebuild their houses by themselves, without long-term planning and building codes?

I think we will see a bit of both – there will be lots of homes rebuilt ‘unofficially,’ while many developments – those funded by outside groups for example – will need to wait for long-term planning and codes. Again, the question of the “temporary” settlements remains a huge challenge, or opportunity, depending on how you look at it.

Originally published at TreeHugger.com on February 7, 2010.

That’s right – that familiar goofy face is back from oblivion, calling for aid for Haiti alongside Bill Clinton.

Just when you were beginning to forget about him – Bush is back! But not as the President-inept. This time around, he’s been cast as the benevolent former President, back to help out and use his “status” for the benefit of humanity.

Kind of like Clinton’s makeover: once the champion of globalization, now he’s fighting the good fight against climate change and for humanitarian causes.

For Bush, the makeover might not be so easy. Perhaps that’s why Clinton is on hand, to make it more believable. The two former presidents are working together to bring relief to Haiti. It’s called the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Apparently, it was Obama’s idea.

The unlikely pair showed up on five different talk shows yesterday to call for donations.

My heart goes out to the people of Haiti. I can’t help but be moved by the destruction and misery they’ve experienced, before and after the earthquake.

But someone has to say it: Is W. really the right man for the job? Really? The guy who presided over the total collapse and subsequent corporate looting of Iraq, as well as the destruction in Afghanistan? The guy whose total obstructionism on climate change may soon result in several Pacific islands ceasing to exist. And have we already forgotten about Bush’s handling of that other Caribbean natural disaster – Hurricane Katrina?

Bush also, by the way, decided to cut off desperately needed aid to Haiti after taking office in 2001, and presided over the coup that removed democratically-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power in 2004. Bush the father backed the first coup that removed Aristide from power in 1991.

(Clinton’s record on Haiti is not much better. Although he restored Aristide to power in 1994, during his term in office Haiti was crippled by IMF structural adjustment policies. It was in part because of these policies, which undermined the market for domestic agricultural products, that so many rural Haitians were forced to move to slums in cities like Port-au-Prince. There, they built the precarious shacks that were no match for last week’s earthquake.)

Amidst the rubble, stench and desperation, Haitians can still be seen waving pictures of Aristide on CNN. “These two leaders send an unmistakable message to the people of Haiti and the world,” says Obama. Just what sort of message are Haitians, reduced to desperation yet still fiercely independent, supposed to get?

During the height of his frightening rule, a friend of mine remarked that Bush would eventually be reincarnated as a good guy after he left office. Perhaps as an environmentalist, he speculated.

Well, Bush is back, and it’s indeed for a good cause. Let’s just hope he has really returned to help.