The Aftermath: Congressional Briefing about Strawbale Construction

This is the second post about strawbale building today. The other is Building Science for Strawbale Buildings.

Regular readers may recall that post back in June about the straw-bale construction briefing organized by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) that was held in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington DC. The presenters included Laura Bartels (president of GreenWeaver Inc. and member of the Builders Without Borders Building Team), Sandy Wiggins (former chairman of the board of the USGBC), Bob Gough (secretary of the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy), and David Eisenberg (director of the Development Center for Appropriate Technology and chair of the USGBC's Codes Committee).

Since then, the information from that briefing has become EESI's most-visited archive. In passing along this news, Laura Bartels noted, "If you look at the breadth of topics they cover, the amount of briefings and the kinds of speakers they host, it makes this really astounding."

She went on:

The influence that the briefing has had has reached to federal agencies, national organizations and non-profits, and many individuals. One immediate impact was that the Department of Interior subsequently funded a Straw Bale Housing Symposium in South Dakota along with the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy. There is now interest from USDA to repeat the symposium for a wider audience in the same region. That is just one example, and there are more brewing and in process.

Beyond working with codes which is such a necessary effort, this experience opened my eyes to the need to work on awareness and support at the policy level and continue to encourage federal support for research and housing programs.

From the EESI website:

* Laura Bartels — President of GreenWeaver Inc., Builders Without Borders Building Team, is a builder and educator who consults on residential, commercial, industrial and institutional straw bale structures. Presentation (pdf)

* Bob Gough — Secretary of Intertribal Council On Utility Policy, is seeking affordable and healthy housing solutions and the creation of new jobs for reservations through the use of indigenous building materials. Presentation (pdf)

* Sandy Wiggins, LEED AP — Principal, Consilience LLC and Immediate Past Chair, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is a "green" architect and developer. Presentation (pdf)

* David Eisenberg — Director, Development Center for Appropriate Technology, is chair of the U.S. Green Building Council's Codes Committee and has authored numerous articles about straw-bale building issues. Presentation (pdf)

Audio Recording of the Briefing and Q&A (mp3)

Straw-Bale Construction Frequently Asked Questions (pdf)