{"id":3767,"date":"2008-10-23T09:50:44","date_gmt":"2008-10-23T15:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=3767"},"modified":"2008-10-23T09:50:44","modified_gmt":"2008-10-23T15:50:44","slug":"building-bridges-what-red-communities-are-going-green-from-the-grassroots-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/building-bridges-what-red-communities-are-going-green-from-the-grassroots-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Bridges: What Red Communities are Going Green&#8230; from the Grassroots Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/files\/2008\/10\/bridge2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3769\" src=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/files\/2008\/10\/bridge2.jpg\" alt=\"An artist is captured under the bridge in the Japanese garden at Huntington Gardens, San Marino, California. \" width=\"250\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a>I wrote my first <a href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/2008\/10\/08\/building-bridges-a-bull-market-in-green-guilt-isnt-sustainable\/\">&#8220;Building Bridges&#8221; post<\/a> on a lark: the article I referenced on carbon offsets tied in nicely with ideas about bridging the divide between the environmental community and &#8220;Red America&#8221; (which tends to distrust, at the very least, environmentalists). Since then, I&#8217;ve been digging into existing success stories&#8230; and I&#8217;d love your input.<\/h3>\n<p>For the next round of posts, I&#8217;d like to feature &#8220;case studies&#8221; of &#8220;red&#8221; communities (and I hate that designation, but it conveys the rights characterization) that are implementing &#8220;green&#8221; practices. I&#8217;m particularly interested in &#8220;homegrown&#8221; initiatives put forth by local residents, as I think ideas that come from within will get a better reception &#8212; we&#8217;re all a bit more open-minded about ideas that come from people we know and trust. So far, I know about the following communities:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Rock Port, Missouri:<\/strong> This town of 1300 residents is the <a href=\"http:\/\/cleantechnica.com\/2008\/05\/05\/first-wind-powered-city\/\">first 100% wind-powered community in the United States<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reynolds, Indiana:<\/strong> Designated &#8220;Biotown USA,&#8221; Reynolds has set <a href=\"http:\/\/ecolocalizer.com\/2008\/06\/19\/biotown-usa-is-total-energy-self-sufficency-possible\/\">the goal of total energy self-sufficiency<\/a> (as part of a larger state program).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Greensburg, Kansas:<\/strong> Greensburg has received a ton of attention for its decision <a href=\"http:\/\/greenbuildingelements.com\/2008\/01\/28\/greensburg-ks-to-rebuild-as-leed-platinum-city\/\">to rebuild to LEED Platinum standards<\/a> after 95% of the town was destroyed after a tornado.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nI&#8217;m very interested in learning more about these communities, and the roles residents played in launching these initiatives (and am already reaching out). If you&#8217;re a resident of one of these towns, please get in touch: I&#8217;d love to talk to you!<\/p>\n<p>Also, I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;m just scratching the surface here. Do you know of small communities involved in significant green efforts? Again, I&#8217;m particularly interested in places that lean rightward for the most part &#8212; I think we&#8217;ve got a lot to learn from these people. I want to find more about their motivations and values &#8212; how does &#8220;green&#8221; fit into their larger worldview? How do the goals they set align with other values? Do they view these efforts as &#8220;green,&#8221; or are they primarily interested in other outcomes? I&#8217;d be grateful for any information and\/or contacts you can pass my way.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start building those bridges&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Image credit:<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/randysonofrobert\/456250017\/\">Randy Son of Robert at Flickr<\/a> under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/deed.en\">Creative Commons license<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wrote my first &#8220;Building Bridges&#8221; post on a lark: the article I referenced on carbon offsets tied in nicely with ideas about bridging the divide between the environmental community&nbsp;[ &hellip; ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":3769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[1970,1804,1333,1971,1018,82,1972,1973,1974],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Building Bridges: What Red Communities are Going Green... from the Grassroots Up? &#8226; Sustainablog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/building-bridges-what-red-communities-are-going-green-from-the-grassroots-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building Bridges: What Red Communities are Going Green... from the Grassroots Up? &#8226; Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I wrote my first &#8220;Building Bridges&#8221; post on a lark: the article I referenced on carbon offsets tied in nicely with ideas about bridging the divide between the environmental community&nbsp;[ &hellip; ]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/building-bridges-what-red-communities-are-going-green-from-the-grassroots-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-23T15:50:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/building-bridges-what-red-communities-are-going-green-from-the-grassroots-up\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/building-bridges-what-red-communities-are-going-green-from-the-grassroots-up\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30\"},\"headline\":\"Building Bridges: What Red Communities are Going Green&#8230; from the Grassroots Up?\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-10-23T15:50:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-10-23T15:50:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/building-bridges-what-red-communities-are-going-green-from-the-grassroots-up\/\"},\"wordCount\":375,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"biotown usa\",\"building bridges\",\"Greensburg\",\"indiana\",\"Kansas\",\"missouri\",\"red states\",\"reynolds\",\"rock port\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\",\"Sustainability\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/building-bridges-what-red-communities-are-going-green-from-the-grassroots-up\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/building-bridges-what-red-communities-are-going-green-from-the-grassroots-up\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/building-bridges-what-red-communities-are-going-green-from-the-grassroots-up\/\",\"name\":\"Building Bridges: What Red Communities are Going Green... from the Grassroots Up? 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