For Immediate Release: May 30, 2007
Media Contacts: Emma Filar, Marketing & Communications Associate
Visit the Press Room
The Home Depot Foundation Grant: News Release
Museum and Foundation Annouce Multi-Year Sustainable Design and Education Initiatives
Washington, DC—The National Building Museum, a congressionally chartered institution that educates the public about the building arts and sciences, today announced that it has received a $600,000 grant from The Home Depot Foundation to further educational efforts toward a more sustainable built environment. Through this partnership, The Home Depot Foundation and the National Building Museum will focus on raising public awareness, sharing best practices in sustainability among design and building professionals and using technology to reach a larger audience.
One of the partnership's major initiatives will be a new program series titled, For the Greener Good: Conversations that Will Change the World. The series will feature the work and insights of major national and international designers, professionals, academics and policy-makers and will examine a range of energy, construction, economic and social implications that surround sustainable development. The grant will enable the Museum to produce the series with a live audience in the Museum's historic Great Hall and then further broadcast the series through a variety of multi-media outlets, including the Museum's Web site.
The Foundation is also directing grant monies toward "greening" the Museum's operational practices, including optimizing and increasing the use of sustainable materials used in its exhibitions. The Museum's acclaimed exhibition on sustainable residential design, The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design, sponsored by The Home Depot Foundation, is an example of the Museum's commitment to "greening" its galleries through the use of low VOC paints and bamboo flooring, among other renewable materials.
"The Home Depot Foundation grant will transform the National Building Museum," said Executive Director Chase Rynd. "It enables us to expand our commitment to sustainability and further our efforts to offer a healthier, responsibly built environment to our visitors."
"The Home Depot Foundation is proud to be the largest funding partner of the National Building Museum," said Kelly Caffarelli, executive director of The Home Depot Foundation. "By focusing our partnership on responsible building practices, we will help educate thousands of people about the impacts that buildings have on the health of people, our communities and the environment."
About The Home Depot Foundation
The Home Depot Foundation is dedicated to improving the health of local communities by supporting the development of affordable, healthy homes for working families and by planting and preserving trees in parks, in schoolyards and along city streets. Since its creation in 2002, The Home Depot Foundation has granted nearly $30 million to non-profit organizations, supported the development of more than 40,000 affordable, healthy homes and planted and preserved more than one million community trees. In 2007, The Home Depot Foundation committed to significantly increase its financial support in these two areas by awarding $100 million in grants over the next 10 years, which will result in the development of 100,000 affordable, healthy homes for working families and the planting and preservation of more than 3 million community trees. For more information, visit www.homedepotfoundation.org.
Contact
Marketing and Communications Department, 202.272.2448, ext. 3548
Mandy Hunsicker, Manning Selvage & Lee for The Home Depot Foundation, mandy.hunsicker@mslpr.com or 404.870.6815
The National Building Museum is America’s leading cultural institution dedicated to advancing the quality of the built environment by educating people about its impact on their lives. Through its exhibitions, educational programs, online content, and publications, the Museum has become a vital forum for the exchange of ideas and information about the world we build for ourselves. Public inquiries: 202.272.2448 or visit www.nbm.org. Connect with us on Twitter: @BuildingMuseum and Facebook.
