Although Dorothy and Toto won’t be around to see it, Kansas was just awarded $3 million in grant money from the Department of Energy (DOE) for its Resourceful Kansas program.

With sustainability and the environment in mind, Kansas was able to turn heads in the DOE offices for its continuous efforts at significantly reducing non-renewable and environmentally damaging practices. The $3 million, three year grant will be used to implement the Resourceful Kansas program that plans to take a multi-faceted approach to expanding their green economy. Combining solar, wind, and geo-thermal solutions to capture energy, Resourceful Kansas has the ambitious goal of reducing the state’s energy demand and air emissions while simultaneously increasing public awareness and education of green technology. Also, the project will be responsible for stimulating jobs in construction, repair, and maintenance of the new green installations.

“Resourceful Kansas is a very exciting program designed to reduce energy consumption, increase efficient energy practices, help Kansas harvest its abundant, nonpolluting wind and solar resources, and cultivate new economic opportunities throughout the state,” said GBA Project Manager Jennifer Gunby in a press release available on the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) website. “This innovative program will engage local governments and others in implementing projects that will save energy and demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of sustainable energy and economic development strategies for Kansas and surrounding states.”

The program will take shape over the period of the three year grant, and will be a multi-step process designed to add on to the currently existing Riley County Public Works (RCPW) facility, which is an award-winning model for sustainable design.

Although constructing more wind and solar installations is one of the main tasks, the primary focus of Resourceful Kansas will be one-day seminars offered to cities, counties, state agencies, colleges and universities, and agribusinesses across the state. The seminars, coordinated by K-State Engineering Extension, will be held at the RCPW facility, and will provide participants with an unprecedented opportunity to learn, first-hand, about sustainable technologies and practices to improve energy efficiency as well as the resources available for implementing them.