Cor-Pro partners with other private sectors to teach students eco-friendly home-construction methods.
In a partnership between New Caney Independent School District and Piney Woods United States Green Building Council (USGBC), Cor-Pro Systems helped students learn about the importance of sustainable practices in construction and woodworking.
Officially called The Green Pathways Project, the students of New Caney High School will help in converting old shipping containers to into habitable structures. Along the way, they will acquire skills such as the use of “green” methods in construction that use low-impact techniques with low to zero carbon emission.
Aside from enhancing the students’ construction skills that will come in handy in the future, they will also help in raising awareness in creating sustainable homes that are “off the grid” or not connected to all public utilities.
They will also help in the installation of solar panels and rainwater recapture system that will totally turn the home into a zero-carbon structure.
Eddie Mann, the owner of Cor-Pro Systems, provided the shipping containers used in the said project. According to him, the Green Pathways Project is in line with his company’s goal in creating more innovations that will benefit all industries and striving for a better future.
“It was easy for me to give because I saw the passion that Michael Martin (treasurer and founding member of USGBC Piney Woods Branch) had for this project,” he said.
“This project is 100 percent volunteers and 100 percent sponsors,” said Grado. “I invite the public to come and see the excitement and see how they can help. We really want to develop good stewards for the environment and this new generation cares about protecting it.”
Texas Gulf Coast USGBC chairman Sergio Grado said that the idea of constructing sustainable homes using shipping containers was inspired by photos of self-sustaining housing projects on the internet.
According to Grado, the project is “the perfect blend of technology, innovation and uniqueness, so we decided to run with it.”
Stuart Stanley from the New Caney ISD is optimistic that this project will provide participants with an edge over other students once they become a part of the workforce.
By having a background in sustainable construction techniques, he said that the students will change the ways of construction industry and steer it towards eco-friendlier practices.
“This is really the future of the industry and they’ve already built one,” he said.