Footprint Project’s Gulf Regional Hub 2025
2025 Impact Map by Steady Hand Maps.
Headquartered in Metairie, Louisiana, Footprint Project deeply engages with the vibrant communities of the Greater New Orleans area. From this base, we also serve the entire Gulf Coast region and support our team and partners throughout the U.S. and Caribbean. In 2025, we strengthened and expanded our partnerships, focusing on:
Beehive Microgrids™ and Transfer Switches
STEM Education + Community Engagement
Serving as Footprint Project’s headquarters to support all of our other regions and programs
Communities Building Resilience
One of our unique Gulf programs facilitates a partnership between students at New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School (SciHigh) and local community organizations. The students spend a semester learning about renewable energy and assembling a solar generator. Afterward, they choose an organization to receive the solar generator as a resource for disaster response and resilience.
Early in the 2025, we worked with students from New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School to build a mobile solar generator paired with two donated Onyx Renewables solar panels. This system is helping Deep Down Roots community garden power their community fridge, which provides free, fresh food to neighbors in need.
This partnership reflects what we believe at Footprint Project: clean energy belongs in the hands of communities. It especially belongs to those growing food, building resilience, and creating spaces of joy and justice from the ground up.
Mobile Energy in Times of Need
In Louisiana, we know outages are not hypothetical. Hurricanes, heat waves, and grid failures are very real factors that impact the stability of the main grid. One way we are supporting community resilience hubs is by installing transfer switches that enable them to plug into mobile renewable tech when the grid goes down.
Descendants Project
After connecting with Co-Founder of Descendants Project, Joy Banner, we knew this community hub would be a good candidate for a Beehive Microgrid “Bee.” Descendants has an established rural community nearby that looks to the hub house as a resource and distribution center in case of disaster. This new, 10kWh power hub now gives the community a place to charge phones, cool down and receive resources and information. More than just an isolated system, we installed a transfer switch on the building’s larger circuit breaker to provide back-up power to various circuits in the building.
Gethsemane Lutheran Church
Partnering with Direct Relief and Community Power South, we also cut the ribbon on a new “Power Bee” for the Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Arabi, Louisiana. With this new Power Bee, Gethsemane and its surrounding community have a clean, quiet, and mobile solution for their energy needs. This Power Bee trailer is part of the broader Beehive Microgrid we’re building out from New Orleans to support the Gulf during climate emergencies.
Other 2025 Highlights in the Gulf
MAY: Built a solar trailer for the Mississippi People's Movement for Gulf Region resilience
JUNE & JULY: A solar-powered container previously sent in 2024 as part of our long-term efforts was activated during the Texas floods and we sent an additional 5 portable solar generators to 10,000 Fearless First Responders assisting in flood recovery.
JUNE: Spoke on a panel with Gulf Coast climate orgs at Southeast Climate and Energy Network Convening in Miami, FL
AUGUST: Provided solar power for multiple event tents at the Katrina 20th Anniversary in New Orleans
Impact in the Gulf Coast
Our 2025 Impact in Appalachia, by the numbers:
75 Projects
Rentals: 45
Free store + microgrid development: 30
13,000 People Impacted
Outgoing donations: 1,500 direct, 4,600 indirect
Rentals: 1,300 direct, 5,600 indirect
$367k value provided
Outgoing in-kind donations value: $145k donated
Regional personnel (staff + contractors): $95k
Regional fleet asset value acquired in 2025 (receipts + in-kind): $127k