New hospital in Greensburg, KS (www.greensburgks.org)

By Jan Barry

Creating a green community put Greensburg, Kansas back on the map. Destroyed by a tornado in 2007 that killed 13 people and razed most of the homes and businesses, the prairie town of 750-some battered survivors transformed itself into a deliberately planned center of environmental and energy sustainability.

“Six years after the tornado, Greensburg is the world’s leading community in LEED-certified buildings per capita, “ USA Today reported in April 2013. “The town is home to a half-dozen LEED-platinum certified buildings, including the new City Hall and the new 48,500-square-foot Kiowa County Memorial Hospital. Renewable energy powers the entire community, and the streetlights are all LED. … Today the wind that nearly destroyed Greensburg is what keeps the town’s lights on. Turbines can be seen catching the wind throughout residential neighborhoods and the business community. The energy needs of the larger Greensburg community are met by a wind farm just south of town.”

One of the biggest businesses in town, a John Deere tractor dealership, rebuilt to LEED-platinum standards and expanded to provide “small wind” turbines to provide renewable energy for area farms and homes.

Greensburg’s Sustainable Comprehensive Master Plan won awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Kansas Chapter of the American Planning Association. It’s also a prime exhibit in a new handbook, How Green Is My Town? 50 Ways Local Communities Can Lead the Way on Climate Change, Sustainability and Environmental Health, available on https://www.howgreenismytown.org/

How Green Is My Town illustration

“The adoption of a comprehensive environmental policy is the first step in creating a truly green town,” notes the summary of the ‘How Green Is My Town’ handbook, created by Grassroots Environmental Education, a nonprofit organization based in Port Washington, NY. “An effective policy announces the town’s commitment to action, and sets out its goals and implementation strategies, as well as providing a focus for the efforts of employees and departments, community groups, business organizations and individual activists.

“A model policy,” it continues, “recognizes that issues of climate change, sustainability, environmental health and economic well-being are inextricably linked, and promotes the concept that success in addressing these issues depends on the cooperative efforts of all sectors of the community.”

A check list of 50 actions is included, ranging from doing an energy audit of municipal buildings to including the business community in environmental and energy sustainability planning.