Greensburg was destroyed by an EF5 tornado on May 4, 2007. Instead of abandoning the Kansas town, the community quickly embraced the task of rebuilding it from the ground up, maximizing the use of renewable energy sources and energy efficient building techniques. Rebuilding continues, but the future of Greensburg has never been stronger.
BEFORE. Courtesy: Federal Emergency Management Agency
AFTER. Courtesy: Greensburg GreenTown
In 2007, a massive tornado touched down in the south-central Kansas town of Greensburg, destroying 95% of the town and killing 11 people. It could easily have been the end of the 1,400-resident rural farming town that was already in decline, but instead, the disaster brought the town together in an effort to make Greenburg’s future a green one.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) provided technical assistance to the community while dozens of other agencies and entities at all levels contributed many additional forms of support. As a result, the city of Greensburg and its many partners are rebuilding the town from top to bottom using the latest energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. In addition to installing several ground source heat pump systems and small photovoltaic systems, the town is constructing a wind farm that will supply enough wind energy to power every house, business, and municipal and county building.
Too Tough to Die
Within days after the tornado, experts from the DOE, NREL, and other agencies came together with state and local officials and residents to help answer the big question: What will become of Greensburg? While the town was evacuated for three months, residents scattered and businesses evaluated their losses. No one was sure how many would return to rebuild.
"The planning process that grew out of that first tent meeting just snowballed," said Daniel Wallach, executive director and founder of Greensburg GreenTown, a grassroots community-based nonprofit formed after the tornado hit. "Community, family, prosperity, environment, affordability, growth, renewal, water, health, energy, wind in the built environment — these were all values that were identified that would construct a framework in which to move forward for Greensburg."
As the residents of Greensburg focused their energies on rebuilding, they kept these values in mind, and their vision took shape. The City Council passed a resolution requiring all new city buildings larger than 4,000 square feet to meet U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design (LEED) Platinum certification and reduce energy consumption by 42% as compared to standard buildings. They set a goal of using 100% renewable energy for their new town. And they included brand-new technologies, such as light-emitting diode (LED) streetlamps, to reduce energy use.
Greensburg is becoming a net-zero-energy community with regard to its electricity — an energy efficient community that generates as much electricity from renewable energy as it uses. It sets a new standard, not just for its own citizens, but for other rural and urban communities as well (Figure 1).
1. Plan for the future. A Greensburg master development plan was developed to guide the city’s recovery and growth over the next 20 years. Source: City of Greensburg, Kansas
First in Green Lighting
One of the town’s first completed green projects illuminates the downtown sidewalks and streets every night. Greensburg is the first city in the U.S. to use LED lamps for 100% of its street lighting.
By replacing the existing 303 sodium vapor lights with LED fixtures, Greensburg improved outdoor lighting energy efficiency by 40% and reduced the cost of related energy and maintenance by an estimated 70%.
As an added bonus, the new lamps reduce nighttime light pollution by focusing light where it is needed — on the ground rather than in the night sky.
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