NO PLACE LIKE HOME

When Greensburg decided to go green, its leaders hoped to capitalize on the green message to lure new business to the area. Mayor Bob Dixson was quoted in a brochure produced by NREL: “We’d like to see Greensburg become the ecotourism capital of the world…. We want to be a living laboratory.”

Unfortunately, the town’s green building project was just getting underway when the 2008 financial crisis hit and made businesses wary about making new investments. So far, only one new company has settled in Greensburg: the Canadian-based BTI Wind Energy, a manufacturer of wind turbines for the United States.

But town leaders haven’t given up hope. They believe more companies will eventually flock to Greensburg. And they are happy and proud of what they have been able to build already: a community that has a future.

City Administrator Hewitt frames the discussion of sustainability in terms of parenting. As citizens and community members, he says, we have the same obligation that we do as parents: to recognize that the choices we make today have consequences, and to make decisions that are going to be good for the long term (INFOGRAPHIC 24.11).

Hewitt says his 4-year-old son, Gunner, was often on his mind while he was working to transform Greensburg into a sustainable city. “By doing it for Gunner,” he says, “I’m taking care of a lot of people.”