In 2007, a devastating tornado flattened and almost completely destroyed the small town of Greensburg, Kansas. And when the town’s leaders began thinking about how to rebuild, they decided that it was time to build back better – sustainably. For them, It was common sense that harkened back to the town’s past.

“The original green people are our ancestors,” says Bob Dixson, the retired postmaster who served as mayor of Greensburg, Kansas, during most of the time it rebuilt itself as the greenest US town after the tornado. “We’re conservation value farmers.”