PITTSBURGH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Alcoa (NYSE:AA) and Alcoa Foundation have announced support for Brad Pitt’s “Make It Right” (MIR) project to build green affordable housing on a large scale to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana. An Alcoa Foundation grant of $150,000 was made to the Make It Right project today.
The MIR project – conceived by Pitt and a group of experts in New Orleans – is a large-scale redevelopment project for affordable housing that incorporates innovative design to be stronger, safer, and environmentally friendly. MIR’s goal is to construct 150 homes in the low-income neighborhood of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, the area hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina in which more than 80 percent of homes were completely destroyed by flood waters. The name comes from a former resident’s plea to help “make this right.” Groundbreaking is scheduled for January 8, 2008.
The MIR core team is a partnership between William McDonough + Partners, a world leader in environmental architecture; Cherokee Gives Back Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Cherokee, a firm that specializes in remediation and sustainable redevelopment of environmentally impaired properties; Graft, an international leading architecture firm that collaborates with Brad Pitt on projects around the world; and the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, a charitable institution established to aid humanitarian causes around the world.
A key aspect of the project is its ability to be replicated. MIR is developing a panelization system in which structural insulated panels (SIPs) common to all designs are constructed and stored off site. This standardized system will maximize efficiency and minimize cost, allowing the housing design to be replicated throughout the neighborhood as well as promoting a new universal paradigm of affordable, environmentally responsible home design.
Alcoa Foundation will also support a community-based artistic event in New Orleans designed to raise MIR project funding on a broad scale. The “Make It Right Art Installation Project”—held from December 2, 2007, through January 8, 2008, and symbolically located at the site of the Industrial Canal levee break—is intended to raise local, regional, and national awareness of the issue and maximize overall fundraising to help MIR extend homebuilding benefits beyond the initial goal of rebuilding 150 homes.
More details about MIR can be found at www.makeitrightnola.org
About Alcoa
Alcoa is the world’s leading producer and manager of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum and alumina facilities, and is active in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation and industrial markets, bringing design, engineering, production and other capabilities of Alcoa’s businesses to customers. In addition to aluminum products and components including flat-rolled products, hard alloy extrusions, and forgings, Alcoa also markets Alcoa® wheels, fastening systems, precision and investment castings, structures and building systems. The company has 116,000 employees in 44 countries and has been named one of the top most sustainable corporations in the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. More information can be found at www.alcoa.com.
About Alcoa Foundation
Alcoa Foundation is a separately constituted nonprofit U.S. corporate foundation with assets of approximately $534 million. The second largest asset-based corporate foundation in the United States, its mission is to actively invest in the quality of life in Alcoa communities worldwide. Throughout its history, the Foundation has been a source of positive community change and enhancement, with nearly $437 million invested since 1952.
The Foundation’s grants address global and local needs in over 30 countries by partnering with Alcoa communities around the world to make a difference. Global and local grantmaking is responsive to the needs and aspirations of Alcoa communities and marshals the combined expertise, energies, and values of Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation to provide a world-class standard of excellence in corporate citizenship.
In 2006, Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation invested a combined total of $42.3 million in community programs in 32 countries, focusing on four areas of excellence: conservation and sustainability, global education and workplace skills, business and community partnerships, and safe and healthy children and families.
In addition to grantmaking, Alcoa Foundation offers two employee programs to encourage volunteerism. Bravo! recognizes individual employees who spend a minimum of 50 hours per calendar year doing volunteer work for an approved nonprofit/non-governmental organization; in recognition of the employee’s effort, Alcoa contributes $250 to the nonprofit organization. ACTION (Alcoans Coming Together In Our Neighborhoods) recognizes the team efforts of at least five Alcoa employees who spend a minimum of four hours on a community service project for a local nonprofit/non-governmental organization; in recognition of the team’s effort, Alcoa contributes either $1,500 or $3,000 to the nonprofit organization, depending on the size of the team.
For more information, visit www.alcoa.com, under Community.