Health & Fitness
Greensburg GreenTown, GreenTown Joplin and Earthships
In March, the Green Speaker Series hosted talks on how the GreenTown organization is helping tornado-ravaged towns rebuild, and earthships, "the most...sustainable green building design in the world."
If you weren't at in Town & Country on the night of Thursday, March 15, you missed a couple of wonderful talks.
When Greensburg, Kansas, was destroyed by a tornado in 2007, Daniel Wallach, the first speaker, created Greensburg GreenTown, and the town hasn't been the same.
It is being rebuilt clean and green. Energy usage is down, energy efficiency is up, and the same force that destroyed the town, the wind, is now being harnessed to power it.
Find out what's happening in Town And Country-Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
A tornado damaged Joplin, Missouri in 2011, and GreenTown Joplin was formed to perform the same service for that town.
If you're looking for a worthy green cause to support, please consider either of these GreenTowns.
Find out what's happening in Town And Country-Manchesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
One of GreenTown Joplin's projects is the construction of an earthship, a type of passive solar house made from natural and recycled materials.
Cindy Safronoff, an earthship enthusiast and the second speaker, gave a brief overview of earthships, their design, construction and benefits. They have so many green features -- low energy needs, rainwater collection, water recycling, thermal mass, super insulation, and others -- that they are usually not connected to the electrical grid, minimizing their use of fossil fuels.
For more information on earthships, go to Earthship Biotecture or Wikipedia.
The event was videotaped, and I hope to have the video available online soon.