In May 2007, Greensburg, Kansas was leveled by one of the largest tornados in U.S. history. Very few structures remained in the aftermath of the deadly EF5 tornado, and the town lost everything. Inspired by the desire of the townspeople to rebuild ‘green,’ Planet Green, along with executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio, is chronicling the rebuilding of Greensburg into an environment-conscious town. The epic docu-series is a mixture of compelling human stories and amazing feats of green building and engineering that will give the people of Greensburg a new home and a new town built for the future. GREENSBURG will premiere on Planet Green on Sunday, June 15 at 9:00 PM ET/PT and will air every Sunday for 12 additional weeks.

Watch a preview of Greensburg Goes Green here on Planet Green’s website.

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The U.S. Gov’t might do well to take a clue from this model, especially as it succeeds through trial and error.

NEW ORLEANS — In the rush to rebuild, this hurricane-smashed city is dumping its debris into the swamps by the truckload — and throwing away an opportunity to turn America’s costliest natural disaster into the nation’s greatest recycling effort, environmentalists say.

With large-scale home demolitions now beginning, there are no comprehensive, citywide plans to salvage and recycle building materials — things such as cypress and cedar boards, bricks, cinderblocks and roof tiles.

–Read on here.

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But it’s not our government that’s making good in the Environmental Age, which we are certainly in for the sake of our children and grandchildren, like it or not. Instead, celebrities are using their weight to get things moving. Leonardo DiCaprio’s website has evidenced his efforts for years now, instead of focusing on promoting his acting career. He has thrown his weight behind the Eco-Town of Greensburg above.

And Brad Pitt is trying to get things to go greener in New Orleans three years later:

Brad Pitt doesn’t pretend that the 18 apartments and five homes rising in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward are anything more than a start toward the massive job of rebuilding from the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Katrina. But the Hollywood star believes the project he’s putting his time and celebrity behind is an important step toward shaping what the area could become.

“It doesn’t feel like much of a victory when you look at the overall problem here,” he told TODAY’s Ann Curry during a tour of the construction site one week before the second anniversary of the killer storm. “Katrina was a manmade disaster. The misconception is that it was nature. But this is manmade — decades and decades of erroneous engineering moves and really, really bad, bad irresponsible moves that I believe government has a responsibility to make right.”

–Read on here.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) — Expanding on a promise he made nearly two months ago, actor Brad Pitt said Monday he expects to have families in 150 newly created homes in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward by the end of next summer — but he asked for help to make the dream a reality.

“To build those 150 homes, we need the help of the American people,” he said in a news conference Monday. “We need to all join together to do this. There is no reason why we can’t do a thousand homes.”

Pitt announced in September that he was partnering with film producer Steve Bing to build “affordable and sustainable homes” in the Lower 9th Ward, an area of the city that Hurricane Katrina devastated in 2005. Pitt and Bing have also each pledged $5 million to the rebuilding project.

The 150 eco-friendly homes mark the first initiative of Pitt’s “Make it Right” project, aimed at redeveloping the Lower 9th Ward. Watch Pitt campaign for improvements »

–Read on here.

A Few Tips To Save Money and Live Green

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