THE DEMONSTRATION ECO-HOMES PROJECT PROPOSAL

Introduction

After an EF5 tornado destroyed the rural town of Greensburg, Kansas in May 2007, the community decided to rebuild sustainably, striving to become a model green town for the future.  Greensburg GreenTown, a local nonprofit corporation formed to help coordinate this Green Initiative, has been working closely with residents and businesses to realize this goal. A year has passed since Greensburg made this landmark commitment and several green building projects are currently underway, including LEED Platinum* designs for the John Deere dealership, the General Motors facility, the Sun Chips Business Incubator, Kiowa County Memorial Hospital, Greensburg School Facility, and the 5.4.7 Arts Studio.

Several residents are building exemplary state-of-the-art green homes. And while most residents’ homes will be much more energy efficient than what they had before the tornado, we at GreenTown know that there is work to be done to inspire people about what is possible as they rebuild and incorporate sustainability principles and environmentally-friendly features into these new homes. Some people hold onto the belief that few options exist when building green. Our role is to demonstrate that there are many ways to go green, some better known than others.

One of our signature projects is the Chain of Eco-Homes. This project seeks to build as many as a dozen model homes that will serve as “living laboratories” featuring all types of building techniques, energy efficiency features, and green living products.  Each home will be unique, and each will be available both as an informational center (we call it an “education station”) and as eco-lodging where people can experience green living first-hand. The homes will be scientifically monitored in order to demonstrate the actual energy savings realized. This will be the first such project in the nation, and will be a key to Greensburg’s successful comeback from the tornado’s devastation.

The Eco Homes

The Eco homes will feature the building of twelve state-of-the-art green homes to be located in the town of Greensburg, Kansas. Our vision is that these homes be built not only to showcase to residents what is possible for their own homes, but additionally to serve as lodging and eco-tourism destinations. The twelve homes will serve as demonstration sites for a variety of building construction technologies and green products and services. Each home would also serve as a testing site/laboratory with monitoring equipment that would give observers information on how each type of construction performs under real world conditions. The homes also would provide lodging to tourists that would give them experience in a particular type of home that interests them. So, in the short term, Greensburg residents will have the opportunity to view first-hand how the various buildings look and behave, and in the long-term, the homes will serve as a source of revenue for the community and GreenTown in their role as an eco-tourism destination.

Green Building Partnerships

Each home will have a team to develop, furnish, and built it. The teams will be comprised of some or all of the following groups and individuals:
    

• Trade associations -  can demonstrate their industry is essential in the green building industry.
• Universities and other learning institutions – providing valuable education to both students and local builders, while demonstrating their commitment to sustainable design.
• Corporations – those involved either directly or indirectly in the building industry can donate materials, products, services and funding to the home of their choice.
• Businesses – companies seeking to promote their products incorporated into a home will find this an excellent opportunity to showcase their technologies.
• Architects and Builders Associations - can provide designs and training to local builders in a variety of conventional and alternative building techniques.
• Magazines and Green Industry Media - will offer unique opportunities for publicity, editorial and sponsorship for The Chain of Homes.
• Volunteer Groups - can participate as part of the construction team and learn a great deal in the process.
• Local Residents – can volunteer so that they are prepared to share information about the building techniques with visitors.

Green Building Options

As a living laboratory for sustainability, Greensburg will demonstrate the diversity of products and materials one can choose from when building a green home. We are seeking teams to construct homes using the following types of materials, among others:

• Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs)
• Modular/off site built (team assembled)
• Rammed Earth
• Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) (team assembled)
• Straw Bale (team assembled)
• Concrete Cast Walls (team assembled)
• Conventional Stick Built with Advanced Framing
• Repurposed Shipping Containers
• Composite ICF
• Steel Construction
• Timber (locally harvested logs, possibly salvaged from Greensburg area trees)
• Cob (a mixture of sand, clay and straw)
• Adobe
• Ceramic Cement

Eco-Lodging

Following the completion of the homes, Greensburg GreenTown will operate and manage them as eco-lodging for visitors interested in experiencing different types of green building methods and technologies. When visiting Greensburg, visitors will be able to stay in the home of their choice, each of which will offer educational materials and displays illustrating details about construction materials and techniques, building partnerships, and products incorporated into the design. Each green building partner will be invited to participate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony which will open the homes publicly to visitors and Greensburg residents.

Marketing Benefits

As America’s model green community, people will look to Greensburg to answer the question: How green is it? Whether the question is related to materials and techniques, products, businesses and firms, or individuals, we endeavor to support the most environmentally sustainable and innovative ideas around. Greensburg GreenTown not only offers a Corporate Sponsorship Program (please see attachment), we also like to work closely with our sponsors and donors to develop a marketing strategy specifically tailored to meet their needs.  To achieve such a high level of visibility we create an on-going dialog with our partners. More specifically, we believe that participants will benefit through the strategic use of press releases and appearance in industry-specific and national media networks with which we have partnered. Furthermore, the homes themselves will provide marketing opportunities through plaques and other acknowledgments and the materials we distribute to tourists who will take a self-guided green walking tour will include the names of our sponsors.

Press Releases

At Greensburg GreenTown we have a diverse group of media partners with whom we will issue press releases. By working closely with sponsors and donors these press releases can be linked together with the unveiling of new products and tied in to each company’s own marketing strategy.

Industry-Specific Media Coverage

We are working to develop relationships with industry-specific media groups to provide coverage of each home. We envision that The Chain of Homes story will be a fascinating one to follow and will provide the opportunity for various media groups to track homes throughout the series of their progress. Media publications with whom we plan to work include Dwell, Treehugger.com, Inhabitat.com, Mother Earth News, Natural Home, and Green Builder, among others.

National and International Media Coverage

The green initiative in Greensburg has already received a substantial amount of national media coverage, including stories on Good Morning America, ABC News, The Discovery Channel, The Weather Channel, NPR, NBC, The Sundance Channel, and NBC as well as stories in various publications such as Time magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and the London Observer Newspaper. The Discovery Network’s new channel, Planet Green, is currently airing a 13-part series called “Greensburg” which is documenting the rebuilding process. The series has been picked up for a second, 6-episode run, so we anticipate that media exposure will remain high for some time to come. Furthermore, our contacts include members of the international press who have visited Greensburg, guaranteeing maximum exposure to our partners in our Chain of Homes Project. We believe that you can rest assured that Greensburg will continue to be in the news for the foreseeable future. There will be abundant opportunities for our partners to receive recognition and exposure for their role in the rebuilding of Greensburg as America’s Model Green Town. Greensburg GreenTown will actively publicize and promote The Chain of Homes from start to finish from a wide variety of angles.

* LEED Platinum signifies the highest level attainable for an environmentally responsible, healthy building.