INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business
INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business
INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business
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INNOVATOR<br />
PHOTO BY FRANK AYMAMI<br />
GreenStar Coatings and Recycling president and founder David Lamouranne has provided roof guards for several McDonald’s in the region.<br />
GreenStar Coatings and Recycling<br />
Key innovation: applying window films and roofs that<br />
provide energy efficiency and security<br />
Biggest client: McDonald’s<br />
Where they’re based: Harahan<br />
Top executive: David Lamouranne, president and<br />
founder<br />
Year introduced: 2006<br />
2007 sales: $78,000<br />
IT TOOK GREENSTAR two years to convince<br />
McDonald’s to try out its energy-efficient technology.<br />
They started with an owner-operator in Houma by<br />
coating the building’s asphalt roof with a wind-breaking,<br />
heat-reflecting, impervious seal, and they applied films to<br />
the windows as well.<br />
“The difference here is we’re cutting down substantially<br />
how much air conditioning they use,” said David<br />
Lamouranne, president and founder, estimating a 50 percent<br />
decrease in heat through the windows and a 40 percent<br />
decrease through the roof.<br />
They also painted the building inside and out with<br />
low-volatile organic compound paint, which doesn’t emit<br />
as many chemicals into the air.<br />
“It’s my basic three win-win-win strategy,”<br />
Lamouranne said. “It’s good for the environment, it’s<br />
good for the business owner and it’s good for GreenStar.<br />
We’re profitable at it.”<br />
Although GreenStar has worked on similar renovation<br />
projects, such as at Le Pavillion Hotel in the Central<br />
<strong>Business</strong> District, Lamouranne is most proud of the work<br />
on McDonald’s.<br />
“If you’re on the level of McDonald’s, I get to set the<br />
bar,” he said.<br />
The films and roof guards also offer protection from<br />
storms. Neither the Houma McDonald’s nor the<br />
McDonald’s in Luling, which GreenStar renovated for a<br />
corporate request, were harmed in Hurricane Gustav.<br />
The roof coating actually binds the shingles down and<br />
forms a solid, one-piece surface.<br />
“It basically shrink-wraps everything down, and it’s<br />
sealed,” he said.<br />
GreenStar uses Energy Star-approved products manufactured<br />
by 3M, a company that supplies various technology<br />
to homes and offices.<br />
“I don’t want to do something to say it’s green and not<br />
be green,” Lamouranne said. “Say I have a product that’s<br />
green, but the company that makes it is so wasteful that it<br />
negates it. So we make sure our products are efficient.”<br />
GreenStar’s trucks and cars also run off of a clean fuel<br />
system Lamouranne designed — an engine that runs off<br />
vegetable oil.<br />
Lamouranne has also been pushing for McDonald’s to<br />
adopt his idea for a generator that runs off waste from the<br />
restaurant, a concept he said can become a reality based<br />
on his vegetable oil-engine model.<br />
“I have an operator who’s interested. But if you can<br />
imagine it took me two years to get McDonald’s to go<br />
green on a roof, and we know that works, I’m just forecasting<br />
that it’s going to take me a bit longer to put together<br />
a plan like this.•<br />
— Katie Urbaszewski<br />
<strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong> <strong>City</strong><strong>Business</strong> 21A