America's greenest town?

By | April 19, 2009, 3:30pm PDT

Summary: It’s hard to get past the coincidental. This town is named GREENSburg, Kansas. Is this fate set in motion more than a century ago? Serendipity? Some hidden screenwriter have a hand in all this? Greensburg was just another shrinking town surrounded by ever-larger, more depopulated farmlands through the past decades. Until [...]

It’s hard to get past the coincidental. This town is named GREENSburg, Kansas. Is this fate set in motion more than a century ago? Serendipity? Some hidden screenwriter have a hand in all this?

Greensburg was just another shrinking town surrounded by ever-larger, more depopulated farmlands through the past decades. Until it was nearly wiped from the map by a horrific tornado in 2007. And then, the transformation began. Greensburgers discovered their inner green. They not only vowed to rebuild, but most agreed to rebuild the town as a green, model city. Man if we could just find a way to start lover in L.A. and New York City. Thinking about Greensburg lets you realize the lost chance to really maker New Orleans a modern city after the Katrina disaster.

Kansas being Kansas, the town can’t just rebuild with energy efficiency in mind. The NEW Greensburg needs to be able to withstand that next tornado. To prove a point the new green housing in Greensburg is not just efficient, it’s tough. To prove that a private builder just dropped a car some sixty feet onto the roof of a new home. Do not try this at your house, or apartment building. The car didn’t fare well but the new silo-eco home is just fine. The silo-eco home is prepared to stand up in 200 MPH winds, the kind that tore up the town four years ago.

From Nowheresville, Greensburg has become a place getting lots of media attention. Public buildings in town are being constructed with the latest in green technology. So are many private homes and businesses. Many of town’s residents are serious about the Green in Greensburg. They have taken advantage of what was a lot of flat, empty land and twisted wreckage after the tornado. New Greensburg will not be a replica of the old.

Greensburg isn’t just pushing for efficient, new buildings, then pulling all its electricity off the grid. They intend to be entirely self-sustained for electricity, and all of it from renewable sources.

The town’s website motto: better, stronger, greener. The next big event in town: Sun Chips Business Incubator Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. That’ll be April 24, if you happen to be in the neighborhood. Greensburg wants to be a green center, attracting green tech business. The town’s website is rife with information on zero energy homes. Here’s a link to one Greensburg eco-home blog.
Yes, they’re getting federal aid for some of the rebuilding. Plus a nice donation from Leonardo DiCaprio. But the local Greensburgers are working this very hard themselves. And they aim to be ready next time there’s a tornado.
Next month Greensburg will observe the second anniversay of that killer storm. Here’s what the event website says about the May 2 event: “GreenTown will host supper Saturday, May 2 at 6:30 as part of the weekend of events observing the second anniversary of the tornado. Guests at our First Annual Green Initiative Awards banquet will be treated to a meal made possible by: Local Burger, a Lawrence, Kansas organic/sustainable/local foods eatery owned by Hilary Brown; Good Natured Family Farms, a consortium of over 100 family farms headed up by Diana Endicott; New Grass Bison Company, a sustainable food production and distribution company founded by Jeff Adair in 2001….”

Green and local, in Kansas…long way from Palo Alto or Princeton. How about that?

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Harry Fuller

http://blogs.zdnet.com/green/?page_id=2

Biography

Harry Fuller

Harry Fuller is a media veteran, having spent decades in TV news in the San Francisco Bay Area. As GeneralManager of KPIX-TV (CBS) he founded one of the nation's first TV station websites in early 1995. He was News Direcor at TechTV when it was founded in 1998. In 2001 he moved to London to become Executive Producer for CNBC Europe. Four years later he returned to San Francisco as Executive Editor for CNET's news.com.

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your morals are part of a larger Christian moral system
t0mmyt@... 23rd Apr 2009
But you knew that already
0 Votes
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Lies about climate and 'global warming'.....
Christian_<>< 19th Apr 2009
ENOUGH already, this is the biggest SCAM of the
century, it is NOT real it is about control
and taxing people.

All praise the Climate gods Al Gore & Oboma the
Kenya Usurper....
0 Votes
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Spoken like a Republican, that's for sure.
Grayson Peddie 19th Apr 2009
But I won't get involved in political discussions like you are.

Prepare for the political debate.
0 Votes
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re: this is political.... ding ding ding....
Christian_<>< 19th Apr 2009
This is political and it is affecting businesses
and it will impact how YOU live.


There is NO climate change from carbon this is
total BS and it is lead by Marxist who want to
control everything.

I do not trust either party to solve problems,
if this country would turn back to its
Christian morals and values we would see a
revival in economics and people providing for
themselves and not waiting for welfare and
foodstamps fromm big government......


People looking for big gov and Mr. Oboma to
help them will see in a few years, that
change will leave them in 'chains'....
0 Votes
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And are part of the problem. Frankly, I am an Atheist, and those 'Christian morals'.... you can stuff them up your butt, to be blunt!

I believe only in 4 morals: do not kill unless you absolutely have to in order to save your life or someone else's life, do not steal from someone else unless it is your last choice between you and death, do not physically attack someone else unless they attack you first, and do not force someone into sexual situations with threats of force or actual physical force.

Those are the ONLY 4 morals I adhere to.... and they work VERY well.

Secondly, most of the people on welfare and food stamps.... they don't want to take those things but have to because the minimum wage is so low and we don't have any price controls on necessary items and services.
If those two things would be put into place (high minimum wage, price controls on 'the basics').... then there would be no need for welfare.
But you knew that already
0 Votes
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I agree totally
Lerianis 19th Apr 2009
Once again: global warming is nothing but bunk, and for those people who are going to say "He's a Republican!"..... WRONG! I'm a registered independent who voted for Obama and is proud of that!

The fact is that global warming is bunk.

Energy efficiency IS something that the world has to move towards, but I am seriously getting tired of being 'feared' into moving towards that and being made to feel that it's my fault that the only things on the market are a bit wasteful when it comes to energy efficiency.

That isn't my fault! Get off the regular consumers case and ON the case of the makers of those items. I don't design the things, I don't market the things, etc.

The only things I do is buy them and use them. And most times, with my LIMITED income.... I don't have a choice in buying the most 'energy efficient' because it's too freaking expensive!
0 Votes
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That's very great!
Grayson Peddie 19th Apr 2009
Will it have solar panels for the buildings and houses? What are the good alternatives to solar panels in terms of renewable resources? I know there's that windmill that turns wind into electricity, but it's got to have good sustainable winds in order to produce electricity.
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RE: America's greenest town?
cb77305 21st Apr 2009
This isn't just you - it's most ZDNet bloggers. You all really need an editor or proof reader. To wit: "Man if we could just find a way to start lover in L.A. and New York City." "Lover"? You must mean "over." I'd also put a comma after the word "Man", but that's not critical.

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