LITTLE ROCK — On a recent clear night, Greensburg, Kan., Mayor Bob Dixson bent his 6-foot-7-inch frame in an airborne plane to marvel at what he considered surplus streetlights shining below.
"If a third of the streetlights in the United States were converted to LED, what impact would that have on our [energy] consumption?" Dixson recalled wondering during his keynote address Saturday at Little Rock's Sustainability Summit.
His town is the nation's first to convert all its streetlights - more than 300 of them - to use energy-saving light-emitting diode bulbs, he said at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
Among the roughly 80 people in the audience was Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, who created the city's Sustainability Commission, the summit's sponsor, in 2008. The two-day conference that ended Saturday featured exhibits on energy efficiency, environmental groups and businesses, and forums on various environmental issues.
Dixson has helped lead an eco-renaissance in Greensburg, a southwest Kansas town of 1,400 that lost 11 residents and 95 percent of its buildings to a nearly 2-mile wide tornado in May 2007.
Yet in the wake of such devastation, city, state and federal officials saw an opportunity to rebuild the town using energy-efficient features that will in the long haul save money while helping the environment, Dixson said.
The City Council passed a resolution that all municipal buildings would be rebuilt to achieve a platinum rating, the highest possible, among Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified facilities. Per-capita worldwide, Greensburg now has the most such facilities and the highest concentration of geothermal wells, Dixson said after his speech.
The LED streetlights save the city 40 percent on energy bills and 70 percent when energy and maintenance costs are factored in, Dixson said. "And there is no light pollution. It's all on the ground, and there are no sodium vapors," which can be seen from miles away.
Sustainability is no buzzword, he said. "My ancestors lived in a sod home on the plains of Kansas," said the 57-year-old former Greensburg postmaster who became mayor in May 2008.
Americans can learn to "be the new pioneers of the 21st century. It's not about settling vast wastelands," Dixson said. "It's about implementing those resources and concepts that our ancestors have taught us."
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 09/28/2009