Energy efficiency has been part of the American lexicon since 1978 when the Energy Policy Act was first enacted. Since then, energy efficient homes and increased use of renewable energy resources have become the norm in states like New York and California. Policies and programs have supported these statewide efforts while $847 million in federal funding has recently been allocated to help homeowners across America build better homes. Still, some parts of the country continued to use outmoded housing codes and practices even when it was no longer considered sustainable. The Gulf Coast region of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama was such a place. There is no way to know how many of the homes in the Gulf Coast region were inefficient prior to the hurricane. However, the gap between best practice and actual practice was revealed as Hurricane Katrina came ashore along the Gulf Coast and many Americans glimpsed the sub-standard housing that been the status quo in the region for years.

Yet in this disaster, there is an opportunity synchronous with recent changes in building policies. For example, in September 2005, the new Energy Policy Act was passed by Congress into law. The International Code Council (the ICC, an agency setting the standards for U.S. buildings) likewise upgraded its IECC 2006 codes for new homes . And the government-sponsored ENERGY STAR program of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) amended its guidelines for new homes in October 2005 . Luckily, the policies for a