Visitors to GreenTown's Silo Eco-Home are now able to take a tour of a uniquely designed (and "green") tornado shelter. Situated in our garage, the New Day Tornado Shelter is on loan from Dirk DeRose of Tulsa. Dirk has a background in commercial aviation structures, and has designed safe shelters for thousands of military and civilian families. The model found in the Silo Home is for smaller households, and there are both indoor and outdoor types available. They are designed to withstand EF-5 force wind, which is the level of tornado that hit Greensburg in 2007.

High School Students from Shawnee Mission North High School

In Greensburg we continue to be awed and gratified by the groups of folks who come to town to help. Here we are, over two-and-a-half years post-tornado, and we still regularly get inquiries from people all over the country who are eager to spend a weekend (or even a week) in our community doing whatever needs to be done. Anyone who has lived through a disaster or has visited a devastated area knows that it takes many years to rebuild, and we are fortunate to have so many people who recognize that we still can use the help! Greensburg's identity as a model green community interests people from all over the globe, and we enjoy sharing information about our plethora of sustainable projects with volunteers and tourists alike. When volunteer groups come to town, GreenTown staff members make it a point to share information about the Green Initiative and our progress in realizing our vision.

Kiowa County Memorial Hospital is hosting their Grand Opening on March 12. They have built to LEED Platinum standards, with their wind turbine already providing as much as 30% of their electricity needs. It was wonderful to pull into their parking lot and see the special reserved places for energy-efficient cars.

Folks have started moving into the Kiowa County United (KCU) facility on Main Street, which will house 9 businesses, including a furniture showroom, gift shop, florist, hairdresser, massage therapist, and framing store. This building is an example of "affordable green", constructed from ICF block (insulating concrete forms). KCU is a nonprofit concern built with money donated by County residents.

Centera Bank is located in the first block of Main Street, across the street from their original location. Building is nearing completion, and they are aiming for LEED certification.

The Scout building is being constructed from energy efficient ICF blocks, as is the Fleener Funeral Home. The Youth for Christ Teen Center is another example of affordable green.

The school system is undergoing consolidation and the new preschool through 12th campus will be called Kiowa County School. They are on track to open as a LEED Platinum facility next fall.

As these projects are completed, we will feature them on the Sustainable Building Database we maintain on this website in cooperation with the folks from National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy. Enjoy your mini-tour of Greensburg!

photo credits: Catherine Hart

The Green Club students, most of whom will graduate from high school this spring, are actively working to leave their legacy in Greensburg. They are energized by the notion of significantly reducing the use of disposable shopping bags in town. They have done a lot of research about this issue and are working to inspire people in the community to join them in this initiative.

Many readers are familiar with the shocking statistics on plastic shopping bags: It's estimated that in the United States alone, we consume over 84 BILLION bags every year; worldwide the figure is calculated to be as many as a TRILLION annually. On average a bag is used for less than half an hour before being discarded, with fewer than 2% of them recycled. According to the Wall Street Journal, it takes 12 million barrels of oil to make the bags we use here in the U.S. each year. The plastic is said to take more than 1,000 years to degrade in the landfill. But many bags do not even make it to the landfill, and instead become a hazard for wildlife and marine animals, killing thousands of them every year when they ingest the plastic.

We tend to use this space to write in-depth articles about various building projects and other Green Initiative news coming from Greensburg. Today we thought we’d give readers an overview of a “normal” week of life in America’s Model Green Community.

Recently, GreenTown represented the community at Wichita’s second annual Regional Energy & Sustainability Conference. We were invited to have a booth at the event which ran January 22-23 at Wichita State University. Our booth, staffed by Andrew Ryan and Catherine Hart, featured brochures and display boards from several Greensburg projects, and we ran a Power Point presentation about the community’s history and rebuilding throughout weekend. Mike Estes, manager of the local John Deere dealership, spoke about BTI Wind Energy on the Corporate Sustainability Panel Friday morning. GreenTown Director Daniel Wallach was asked to speak at a break-out session on Friday, and joined Simran Sethi as keynote speaker at Saturday’s luncheon. (Simran is an award-wining journalist and associate professor of journalism at the University of Kansas. She has reported on sustainability issues for numerous media outlets and on a host of shows, including CNBC, Oprah, the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Sundance Channel, The Today Show, to name a few. We are fortunate to have her friendship and her heartfelt support of the Green Initiative.)

As part of the stimulus package passed by Congress, there are training opportunities for people who aim to work as Energy Auditors in the State of Kansas. The State Energy Office has approved only 3 training facilities in the state which can certify Energy Auditors to perform the “before and after” tests that are required for homeowners who participate in the new Efficiency Kansas weatherization programs.

Greensburg GreenTown is partnering with the Metropolitan Energy Center and the Energy and Environmental Training Center of Kansas City to bring this qualifying training to Greensburg February 8-12 for a hands-on learning session. 

The location of this training is a great opportunity for people in the building trades in central and western Kansas to gain the skills necessary to perform home energy audits – which is a booming profession. Under the Efficiency Kansas program, homeowners and small businesses can apply for loans to make improvements to their residences and buildings that will save them significant amounts of money on their energy bills. Energy Auditors carefully measure a building’s current energy usage (the “before” audit), offer detailed remedies, and once the efficiency measures are implemented, return for a second measurement (“after”).

Students who come to town for this training will attend classes at the John Deere Wind Energy facility on the BTI-Greensburg campus, and will apply their new skills on an existing local home. This training program is yet another example of how Greensburg has positioned itself as a hub where people can come to learn about energy efficiency and all aspects of sustainability.

For more information about the Energy Auditor training program, contact Shery.EnergyTrainingCenter (at) gmail.com or 816-377-3738. Please see the attached flyer for more detail.

photo credit: edge-gogreen.com

The bottom line is that we're all here to learn from each other. In Greensburg we tell visitors that we are happy to share with them ideas about what to do - and what not to do. We have been accumulating lots of experience in this 32-month experiment in rebuilding as America's Model Green Community, and contained within our many successes have been lots of challenges and learning opportunities as well. We hope that other rural towns can find inspiration from what is happening in Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin and all throughout the country. As the years unfold, we look forward to reading about how other folks are implementing their visions for their hometowns.

On February 5 at 1 p.m. (Central time) the Pollution Prevention Institute of Kansas State University will host a free Green Roofs Webinar. This one-hour presentation will highlight examples of completed green roof projects with a focus on modular installations. The course promises to teach practical ways to get a green roof project off the ground (so to speak). Pre-registration is required - click on the link above to go to the registration page.  To sign up by phone, call 1-800-578-8898 or 785-532-6501.

Several green roofs can be found in Greensburg - at the GreenTown Silo Eco-Home, the 5.4.7 Arts Center, and coming soon to City Hall. Because our roof at the Silo Home is solid concrete, we are able to have soil deep enough to grow root vegetables. Not only are green roofs beautiful, they offer many benefits to the home or business owner. The vegetation insulates the roof, thereby reducing energy costs and lowering outside noise; extends the life of the roof (by as much as two or three times the normal lifespan); provides a wild bird habitat; filters pollutants; and offers stormwater management. In urban areas, green roofs can significantly lower air temperatures in the summer, combating the "heat island" effect.

Attend the webinar and learn how to get started on your own green roof.

The image above showcases the green roof atop Chicago's City Hall.

Steve, Dayle & Kevin Heft

Heft & Sons, a local Greensburg business with a long history in Kiowa County, made a significant year-end contribution to GreenTown's Silo Eco-Home project. Their donation is pivotal in helping us get the house completed; soon we will be open to receive overnight guests.

Dayle Heft went to work for his father-in-law over 50 years ago, when the business was called Seacat & Heft. Under his management, what started out as a gravel plant has expanded over the years into ready-mix concrete and asphalt for highway projects and farm and ranch needs. The Hefts currently employ 45 people, and Dayle's sons Steve and Kevin, and nephew Jim carry on the family tradition, and they are joined in the office by several other members of the family. Heft is involved in projects throughout the state of Kansas.

The family was impacted by the tornado in a major way, as was everyone else in the area. But given the tremendous amount of concrete work and road building that was called for in the wake of the storm's damage, the business stepped up immediately to meet local needs and provide essential services. They have recycled 30,000 tons of concrete since the storm, crushing it for re-use and keeping it out of the landfill. They have switched to warm-mix asphalt in their Greensburg street paving project, which is cited as a strategy to greatly reduce fuel consumption and lower emissions compared to the traditional hot-mix technique. They are also recycling asphalt (used as a base for road construction), which is mixed in with new asphalt.

The Heft family continues to explore ways to make their business even more sustainable. They built their office and shop back after the tornado incorporating a variety of resource-saving technologies, including floors heated by hot water, soy-based insulation, and a parking lot containing fly-ash (a by-product of the coal industry).

The gift from Heft & Sons represents sponsorship of the lovely second-story deck at the Silo Eco-Home, with one of the best views in town. A plaque bearing their name which will be on display at the home, as will be the case with our other generous benefactors. Says Dayle of their gift: "We're all for progress. We wanted to sponsor GreenTown, as we have with Kiowa County United, the Arts Center, and the school. We're hometown people and want to see Greensburg thrive and come back."

We are grateful to all of our magnanimous donors. It is particularly special when support comes from the local community.