Awesomely Great News!!!! Thanks to everyone for all your spirited work!<div><br></div><div>John<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 10:13 PM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:strawnet@aol.com">strawnet@aol.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><font color="black" size="2" face="arial"><font color="black" face="arial" size="2">
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<font><font color="black" face="arial" size="2"><span style="font-size:12pt"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">Hello al</font>l,</span></font></font><br>
<br>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">I want share some great news.
Earlier today, here in Chicago, Martin Hammer's "comment"/proposal to
include the strawbale code he’s been working on over the past few years in
California into the new International Green Construction Code (IgCC) was
approved by a committee vote of 8 to 6! The IgCC is the new US code for
commercial (and high-rise residential) buildings that will become part of the
family of 2012 International Codes (I-codes). It will go through a full code
development cycIe with the rest of the 2012 I-codes next year and there is work
that will need to be done still to make sure it doesn’t get rejected in that
process, but getting it into the second public draft of the code now is a very
big step forward. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">I served on the drafting
committee for this code from last summer through the spring of this year. For
more information about the IgCC and to download the whole IgCC first public
draft and the comments – including Martin’s proposals for strawbale and earthen
building and the EcoNest comment in support of straw clay go here:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.iccsafe.org/cs/IGCC/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.iccsafe.org/cs/IGCC/Pages/default.aspx</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.iccsafe.org/CS/IGCC/Pages/Comments0810.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.iccsafe.org/CS/IGCC/Pages/Comments0810.aspx</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">You’ll find these listed as
comments 5-134, 5-135 and 5-136.<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">I was the only proponent
speaking in favor of it here, and there were others who spoke in opposition. The
initial motion was to disapprove but it failed 5 votes to 9 after considerable
and very mixed discussion – which surprised me because of the nature of some of
the comments – that it was still not ready and needed some technical fixes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">The failure of the motion to
disapprove required a new motion and Chris Mathis, an old building science
friend from North Carolina, offered a motion for approval. That was followed by
more discussion, with more concerns expressed that it wasn't ready. Then, just
before the second vote, Chris pressed the committee to push the envelope. He
said they should approve it and get it in, and rather than just having the few
people who are very knowledgeable about it work on improving the things that
still need to be done, “Let thousands of people look at it and help improve it through
the next round of the code development process!” He said it was time to start
pushing these things through. Then they voted - and it passed 8 to 6! I was amazed
and delighted! So it is going into the second public draft! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">There were two other similar proposals
(they’re called “comments”) that were heard right before the strawbale comment.
The first, from Paula Baker Laport and Robert Laport proposed including the
straw clay guidelines from New Mexico. Next was the other submitted by Martin,
that one in support of earthen construction based on the new ASTM standard for
earthen wall systems that I had initiated almost 10 years ago and Bruce King
has spearheaded over the past few years. I spoke in support of both, but they
were disapproved, though both received encouraging suggestions to bring them
forward again after addressing non-mandatory/permissive language and other
issues. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Because they were heard one
after the other, and I was the only proponent for them, I got to speak first
for each one and so I had a total of 6 minutes (2 minutes each) to frame them
all in terms of the big issues I’ve been speaking to for all these years,
including the coming challenges of ever-more limited and expensive energy, the
low-impact, low-tech, climate beneficial, local/regional benefits, the
industrial/proprietary bias and difficulty in funding research, testing and
development for public domain, non-proprietary materials and systems. I started
off by talking about the fact that I had been in buildings in Europe built with
materials like straw clay and earth that are twice as old as this country! And
to say that these are durable and safe ways of building when done properly. And
when talking about the ASTM earthen standard, I said that if they looked at it
they might think that it was too low tech to be reasonable compared to the
standards that they’re used to for concrete and other industrial materials.
But, I said, It was intentionally low tech. That I was involved in initiating
that standard almost ten years ago and it was both to enable the use of those
materials here and to reverse the outlawing of earthen building in developing
countries through the adoption of modern industrial codes. That it was designed
to enable people to build safe, durable, healthy, and affordable buildings anywhere
in the world—including the in United States. I mentioned that the committee
that developed that standard included the leading experts on earthen building
and engineering from around the world and was based on reviewing and
incorporating the best from international codes and standards for earthen building.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">After the first two went
down, I was quite convinced because of the comments that the sb proposal would
share the same fate and, thankfully, I was wrong!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">So hats off to Martin, Bruce,
Matts, and many others who have worked so long and hard to develop these codes
and to Chris Mathis for his leadership and visionary action on the committee. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">Onward!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt">David Eisenberg</span></div>
</div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><font face="'trebuchet ms', sans-serif"><span style="font-size:x-small"><font color="#666666">John Swearingen<br>Skillful Means Design & Construction<br>2550 9th Street Suite 209A<br>
Berkeley, CA 94710<br>510.849.1800 phone<br>510.849.1900 fax<br><br>Web Site: <a href="http://www.skillful-means.com" target="_blank">http://www.skillful-means.com</a><br>Blog: <a href="https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com" target="_blank">https://skillfulmeansdesign.wordpress.com</a></font></span></font><br>
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