The U.S. Green Building Council's Project Haiti announced at the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting that it will build a brand new orphanage and children's center in Haiti as its Commitment to Action.

Project Haiti is an Orphanage and Children's Center to provide for the immediate health and emotional needs of orphaned children in Haiti and offer a pathway to adoption. Together with dedicated partners including design partner HOK, Lendlease, Adaptive Building Solutions and Fondation Enfant Jesus, USGBC is committed to catalyzing the unrivaled passion, expertise and generosity of the green building movement to construct a new facility and provide the people of Haiti with both a powerful symbol of hope and a model of sustainable building practices for rebuilding their country.

"Project Haiti is our commitment to the children of Haiti to not only provide a safe shelter, but to provide a model of sustainable construction that can be replicated throughout the country," said Rick Fedrizzi, president, CEO and founding chair, USGBC. "It comes out of our ongoing resiliency agenda to help devastated communities rebuild in ways that provide safer, more durable buildings that also save resources made more precious by the aftereffects of natural disasters. Our commitment at CGI gives us the opportunity to help keep the spotlight on the massive needs of this community and provide a small measure of relief to children who are so desperately in need."

The USGBC commitment is addressing a multitude of issues currently facing Haiti, including access to pediatric healthcare, orphan security, adoption and placement, as well as a retraining of Haitian workers in sustainable building practices. Through the design and construction of this orphanage, which will be LEED certified, USGBC will provide a global, replicable model of high performance green building practices.

"We're grateful that the USGBC community has stepped up to not only help us raise the funds for this effort, but provide leadership in so many arenas. Notably, HOK, one of the world's leading architectural design firms stepped up to provide their services pro bono, allowing us to stretch the dollars raised to their highest use. We are grateful for their support," said Fedrizzi.

"We are proud to be the USGBC's design partner for Project Haiti," said HOK director of sustainable design Mary Ann Lazarus, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C. "This challenge - to design, build and operate a showcase sustainable project in Haiti - is a unique opportunity for our design team. We are getting much more than we are giving."