A recent New York Times article, entitled “After a Tornado, a Kansas Town Rebuilds Green,” highlights a community that had an unusual opportunity to rebuild from the ground up. The community’s journey provides an amazing glimpse into what happens as a community makes the decision to go green and acts on their plan.

Greensburg’s Story

In May 2007, an intense tornado basically flattened the town of Greensburg, Kansas (http://www.greensburgks.org) in a matter of minutes. It was a direct hit. The tornado damaged 90 percent of the buildings in the town. After the dust settled, the community came together and decided they wanted to rebuild their community. Rather than rebuild what they had, they created a vision for the future of their town that will make it the greenest town in the United States. (At the end of this article you’ll find links to a number of the documents they created during this phase of their project).

Greensburg’s accomplishments give us an unusual inside look at what happens as a community wrestles with how to become green. If you have the opportunity to watch the cable show, Greensburg, (http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/greensburg/) that’s chronicling their progress, you can see the kinds of conversations, decisions, challenges, and successes they have.

Results of Greensburg’s Rebuilding

In a little over two years, Greensburg has made an amazing amount of progress. As you read the following list of projects that have been completed or are in process, notice the results they are expecting over time. The companies and residents investing in green buildings are saving money, using far less energy, reducing their carbon emissions, and creating jobs within the town.

– The first LEED platinum building in the state of Kansas was the 1,670 sq foot Greensburg Arts Center building, designed by graduate students at the University of Kansas. It is powered by wind, solar and geothermal energy and has architectural features that reduce the normal amount of power consumption.

– A rebuilt 28,500 sq foot, million John Deere tractor and equipment store has also been built to LEED platinum standards, including skylights, plumbing systems that save nearly 40,000 gallons a year, and two wind turbines generating a portion of the electricity used in the building. The buildings owners estimate they will save between ,000 and ,000 in costs compared to their old building.

– A 10,000 sq. ft., .4 million dollar business “incubator” has been built using a combination of funds from the USDA and the private sector including Frito-Lay Sun Chips, and the actor, Leonardo DiCaprio. This building will provide low rent and temporary housing for local small businesses such as a styling salon and a furniture store.

– Greensburg passed an ordinance stating that all municipal buildings over 4,000 sq. ft. be built to LEED platinum standards. The 4,700 sq ft. City Hall is about to open after being built to this standard.

– The city is using LED street lights that focus the light on the street and allows the residents to see the stars as well as saving 70% in energy and maintenance costs over the old sodium vapor lamps.

– The 1914 Kiowa County Courthouse survived the tornado and is being renovated to gold LEED standards at a cost of million. The building is being reconstructed with highly insulated walls, geothermal wells for heating and cooling, and energy efficient lighting.

– A large new county hospital is being constructed to LEED platinum standards. It will have a wind turbine to generate power, insulating glass windows, a system to process water from the laundry, showers and lavatories, and a way to capture rainwater and use it to flush the toilets plus other features that save energy resulting in a large cost savings.

– A 32 unit LEED certified town-home complex is under construction. Many of the 200 homes already rebuilt in Greensburg have been rebuilt green.

– Eventually all of the electricity needed to power Greensburg will come from wind turbines. Plans are under way to build a 12.5 megawatt, 10 turbine wind farm that will be capable of powering up to 4,000 homes.

– Ribbon cutting occurred this month at the new recycling center in Greensburg.

Green Career Opportunities

In addition to gaining a new appreciation of what it takes to bring a green element into a city’s plan, you can also uncover a number of career possibilities.

– Green building – This is the most obvious sector with green careers in this situation. Clearly lots of people have been working to reconstruct individual buildings and the infrastructure of the town, from the roads and parks to the power infrastructure.

– Green design – All that’s been built had to be designed by architects and designers. Again, the scale of this work varies from the individual residences to the large scale projects, from company locations to city buildings and the hospital.

– City planning – Consultants and local government employees assessed the current assets of the town and then created the new green, sustainable vision for the town.

– Building supplies and materials – Designing and manufacturing the materials used to build the structures in Greensburg is essential. Along with the manufacturing comes marketing, sales, and distribution of the materials.

– Power generation – Several power generation methods have been integrated into the town of Greensburg. Think solar, wind, and geothermal if you’d like to be involved in this part of greening the town.

Dive into the Details

If you’d like to work in any of the fields above, take some time to explore how Greensburg has transformed their city. By reading these documents you’ll get a feeling for the process they went through, which may help you gain a better understanding of the part you’d like to play in the green world.

– Read the full NY Times article about Greensburg. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/realestate/commercial/23kansas.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=greensburg&st=cse – Explore the Greensburg Vision created in December, 2007. http://www.greensburgks.org/recovery-planning/071212-VisionDocument-compressed.pdf -

Review the maps included in the Greensburg Atlas. http://www.greensburgks.org/recovery-planning/071213-Draft%20Atlas-Compressed.pdf

– Take a look at Greensburg’s Sustainable Master Plan, adopted in May 2008. http://www.greensburgks.org/recovery-planning/Greensburg%20Comprehensive%20Master%20Plan%2001-16-08%20DRAFT.pdf

After several years of being a passenger while terms like green living and carbon neutral were commonly uttered but rarely promoted, we decided that enough was enough. Everyone should be on a mission to communicate the message to every home and business that they can make a difference in reversing the negative effects of carbon emissions and otherwise destructive behavior. We feel that the talk was right, but the vehicle did not exist to any great degree thats where we come in. An accessible, non-intimidating way to make a difference where it matters most.

Trouble with the Trees
The environment and humans are on a dangerous collision course. Our population grows, we produce more, we displace species and develop over existing and often fragile ecosystems to accommodate our growth, we consume resources without adequately replacing them then we manage to spit what we dont need back out in the form of harmful emissions.
We are already reading about the lack of global vegetation to adequately absorb the carbon emissions we are producing and our collective response it to further reduce the vegetation to accommodate our own needs. If we can reduce carbon emissions and bring back more vegetation, we can begin to achieve harmony between the earth and its inhabitants.
Living in the Limelight
Environmental concerns have finally made their way into the realm of social and, in turn, political relevance over the last decade. The environment is indeed in the limelight of social and political discussion. While those in government try to figure out how to write and enforce laws to balance both supporting the economy and achieving environmental sustainability, the private sector is free to start without them.
There has never been a time where the environment is more pertinent to everyday discussion. To not capitalize on this opportunity and attempt to change the daily behavior of those willing to listen would be an opportunity squandered by those who understand the need to fix what is increasingly becoming the greatest societal crisis in the history of mankind.
A wise man once said, If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
It is your decision, your choice to make a difference or not.

General Standards:

Global Carbon Care seeks out carbon emission reduction or sequestration programs that provide an additional and sustainable benefit to the battle against the negative effects of carbon emissions. We focus on projects that meet Gold Standard or equivalent standards to ensure that the projects you help fund provide the greatest impact in the battle to reduce the presence of carbon emissions.

We at Global Carbon Care have faith in the general goodness and want of mankind to care for and respect the planet we all share. We are also not nave to the fact that a voluntary carbon offset is not high on the list of priorities for those without the means to do so. We focus on projects that meet Gold Standard or equivalent standards to ensure that the projects you help fund provide the greatest impact in the battle to reduce the presence of carbon emissions.
Visit our website where you can buy some CARBON OFFSETS to our future and take a step to make our Planet a CARBON NEUTRAL PLANET.

Hemp, Tomorrow’s Building Blocks?

Today, hemp bricks are being used to build eco homes in the Province of Granada, Spain. Hemp as an industrial product has been around for thousands of years. After a period of decline it is now beginning to show a re-emergence in this eco-age as a sustainable building product.

Hemp comes from the Anglo Saxon word haemp’ and is the popular name for plants of the cannabis genus. Hemp usually refers to the strains of the plant cultivated exclusively for industrial use as opposed to cannabis which is associated with pot and similar drugs.

Hemp has a huge variety of uses but continues to be overshadowed by the cannabis connotation of illegal drugs, with which it is often confused. However hemp can legally be grown, under licence, in many countries, including the European Union countries and Canada.

Cannabis sativa L. is the variety primarily grown for industrial purposes, it is a fast growing plant and has been cultivated for many thousand of years being used to make rope, clothing, paper, hemp oil and medicines. Growing hemp improves the condition of the ground and reduces ambient contamination. It is a robust plant that requires neither herbicides nor pesticides during its cultivation.

Industrial hemp has a long history, the first known use of hemp is as a cloth fabric, found in China and dating back to 8000B.C. Circa 4000B.C. hemp started to be used, again in China, to make ropes and as food. 2000 years later, the Chinese hemp oils and medicine were in use. By 1000B.C. its use had spread to India and Greece where the first instances of hemp paper were found.

By the 6th century hemp was being used in Europe in some amazing ways, in France a hemp reinforced bridge was built and it is still in use today. It was also being used to make sails, caulking and fishing nets and lines. In later years hemp was used to make a variety of foodstuffs including butter and beer. By the 15th century Renaissance painters were using hemp canvases.

Today industrial hemp is used to make a staggering variety of products ranging from medicines, body care products, building and insulating materials, clothing, textiles, food, fuel, livestock food and bedding, plastics and paper.

In the building industry hemp bricks, because of their sustainability and excellent insulation properties, are being used to construct external and internal walls of ecological homes. In this area of Spain the external walls of an eco house will consist of a eco-bricks, manufactured in Guadix with the proprietary name of Cannabric.

Cannabric derives its properties from industrial hemp fibres (camo). The hemp bricks are made up of industrial hemp fibres, slaked lime and a mixture of innert mineral materials. The bricks combine the functions of a load bearing wall that is fire-resistant and does not require the addition of thermal or acoustic insulation.

The most important component of the eco-brick is industrial hemp which has a very low thermal conductivity (0.048W/mk) producing a brick with vastly superior insulation properties against both cold and heat. The mineral component of the bricks gives them their mechanical strength. Being a solid brick, with a high specific heat, it has the optimal thermal properties to protect against heat.

These characteristics make hemp bricks the ideal choice in areas of southern Europe where there are extremes in temperature through summer and winter.

The mechanical strength of the block starts with formation of insoluble hydrates. The strength increases over time with the carbonation of the free lime, (a constituent of slaked lime) by moisture and carbon dioxide present in the air. Another important factor in the progressive curing of the eco-bricks is the gradual petrifaction of the industrial hemp by the lime and minerals present in the bricks.

Due to its unique composition the hemp bricks allow the transpiration and diffusion of water vapour between the inside and outside of the building equalising humidity within the building thus avoiding humid and cold areas and minimising condensation on the inside wall surfaces.

Slaked lime acts as the binder, basically holding the brick together, but it has other uses. The slaked lime acts as a filler protecting the brick against water entry via the external surfaces exposed to rain and snow. On the other hand it provides a protection for the industrial hemp fibres against fungal and parasite attack.

The hemp bricks when laid endwise are used for the construction of external walls thirty centimeters thick. The internal walls built with hemp bricks are thinner being half the thickness. The delightful, popular cave homes of this area of Andalusia are naturally ecological in that they are re-developed from ancient derelict cave houses. Where ever possible the construction materials used are salvaged from derelict properties that have been demolished. This recycling minimises the environmental impact.

It is ironic that this area of Spain, the Altiplano, until the late nineteen sixties, was renown as an industrial hemp growing area. The hemp growing era came to an end with the introduction of nylon, farm mechanisation and the growing freedom of movement coinciding with the end of the Franco regime. The combination of these factors threw large numbers of agricultural workers out of work. As a result the village populations sufferred a catastrophic decline with those leaving migrationg to the Costas and principal cities in search of employment.

As a result of these traumatic changes in demographic the remaining population was mainly aged, the villages incomes dropped to near poverty level and many empty houses fell into disrepair.

Most of the land workers who moved away lived in cave houses which are now being revitalised by the growing demand for eco-properties.