INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business

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