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When I recently had the opportunity to interview Greensburg mother Sharon Schmidt she sounded tired but resolute. Much like you’d expect a mom who has been through a lot in the recent past, putting her own life back together while ensuring her son has the best possible experience as a high school junior despite the fact that their entire town has been rebuilding from a tornado that took it off the map.

Her words give life to what it means to be a mom from Greensburg, and I suspect you’ll enjoy reading what she has to say this Mother’s Day as much as I did listening to her speak a short time ago.

TreeHugger: What’s this school year been like while Greensburg is being rebuilt?

Sharon Schmidt: It’s started out just kind of surreal and at the very first of the school year in late summer and very early fall there were still some very bad storms and we were living in Femaville, and they didn’t have their storm shelters yet so it was just very trying.

I guess when they would hit we would have gotten notice, but they were fast moving storms so it was unsettling I guess… But they do have shelters now (at school) so as a mother I feel better about it.

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It’s not just any old organization that can set a goal like this: protect 10% of every ecosystem type on Earth by 2015, effectively doubling the headway of the conservation movement over the last century. But The Nature Conservancy can. Acting president and CEO Stephanie Meeks chats with TreeHugger Radio about this and other mind-boggling commitments. It's no wonder they own the URL "nature.org." ::TreeHugger Radio

Listen to the podcast of this interview via iTunes, or just click here to listen, right-click to download. Click here for part one of our interview.

(Full text below.)

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It’s true, Gertrude—“A rose is a rose is a rose”—but are all roses created equal? This is the question I posed to John Nevado, president of Nevado Roses, a Fair Trade and ecologically sensitive rose farm situated in Ecuador.

With Mother’s Day right around the corner, and flowers making it to our top picks of gifts for mom, I wanted to learn how we could become the most conscious consumers of a trade that’s otherwise negligent of the environment and human rights. With over forty years of experience in the rose industry under his belt, and having successfully established one of the most eco-friendly and socially responsible farming operations in the world, Nevado seemed the perfect expert to turn to.

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A few years ago, I wouldn’t have known who Jeffrey Sachs was had I not walked into my university bookstore and beelined my way towards a book jacket announcing a special foreword by Bono. Always a fan of Bono’s music and philanthropic work, and intrigued by the mystery author's ambitious title—The End of Poverty—I picked up the book on a whim. Later, I’d learn that the mystery author, Jeffrey Sachs, was a world-renowned economist, special advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General, and Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. If I had known ahead of time about Sachs' economic whiz-kid reputation, I would’ve timidly bypassed reading his book. (I had always barely scraped by in math and sweet-talked my way out of the one calculus requirement I had in college.) Astonishingly, though, Sachs’ The End of Poverty was easy to understand and inspiring—even for someone as math-challenged as myself.

His latest book, Common Wealth: Economics For A Crowded Planet, focuses on sustainable development and it's just as impressively digestible. In less than four hundred pages, Sachs has created a comprehensible, economic blueprint for potentially solving our world’s environmental degradation and increasing population growth. We were fortunate enough to grab a few minutes of the economist’s time to ask him a few questions about his position in the energy debate and the rise in global food prices and human consumption:

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Kate Fletcher is a highly respected pioneer in the eco-fashion industry. She has worked on developing sustainability in fashion and textiles for over 15 years and has advised many of our favourite eco labels. As well as devoting time to her own research projects, 5 Ways, Demi, and The Perfect T-shirt, she has worked as a consultant to brands such as Marks & Spencer, People Tree and The Salvation Army. Most recently Kate has published her first book 'Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys', which we reviewed here. The book grapples with the importance and complexity of eco-fashion and takes our understanding of this subject to new levels. Kate Fletcher's work has served as an inspiration to many people and not least to myself, as I was lucky enough to have her as one of my tutors at Goldsmiths College. It's all credit to Kate that I have spent the last three years writing for TreeHugger! In this interview I asked what motivated her to write a book now, what developments she has seen over the years and what the future holds.

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He’s a high school student from the town of Greensburg Kansas, and his enthusiasm for the green movement and the amazing things it’s doing for his town after the devastation caused by the tornado that leveled it are an inspiring look at the future of green in America.

After spending close to an hour speaking with him by phone I realized precisely why the rebuilding of Greensburg can become an uplifting model for us all. I trust you’ll enjoy his insight and enthusiasm as much as I did.

TreeHugger: What do you believe made the people of Greensburg decide to rebuild the town in a green fashion?

Taylor Schmidt: Well after at least 96% of the town was destroyed there has obviously been a massive need for rebuilding, and the town has come together as a big family, really, and it’s been one joint effort to rebuild the town better than it was and more sustainable and green than it was. So we’ve really been learning a lot about what we need to do to keep our town from dying again. And we’ve been learning about building and going green and implementing a lot of green into our rebuilding efforts.

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Silicon Valley Business Journal

Back in the days, when you wanted a wall you put up wood or metal lath, hired very skilled labour and took a long time to plaster a wall. Then plasterboard lath came along and eliminated the base coat, and soon drywall replaced that, giving us the crappy half-inch thick soundboard that is made of gypsum and embodied energy and passes for a wall today.

Kevin Surace is the CEO of Serious Materials, the maker of serious soundproofing technologies and the soon-to-be-launched EcoRock low-carbon drywall. We spoke to him about his modest ambitions.

Kevin Surace: Our mission is to reduce CO2 output by a billion tons per year, three percent of all the CO2 produced by mankind. We can do it because the built environment is the play. 52% of all CO2 comes from building: 40% for heating and cooling buildings, and 12% for construction. Nobody wants to do anything about it; I was at the Fortune Brainstorm Green Conference and all anyone wanted to talk about is cars and fuel, when the biggies are cement, metal, glass and drywall.

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The challenge is a rather simple one: set up a life that is local and low-carbon without sacrificing the beloved creature comforts. The kicker is not getting electrocuted, shot, burned, crushed, bitten, or driven insane. Doug Fine has assumed this challenge and actually seems to be doing a bang-up job. He spoke to us from the Funky Butte Ranch, his own low-carbon Neverland. ::TreeHugger Radio

Listen to the podcast of this interview via iTunes, or just click here to listen, right-click to download.

Special thanks to Calabash Music for the soundtrack.

Full text after the jump.