[GSBN] Fwd: Congressional Briefing on Straw Bale Construction...

Sat Jun 21 11:19:34 UTC 2008

Hi all,

 I sent this last night to the old GSBN address and it bounced, so I'm resending it this morning...

David

-----Original Message-----

From: David Eisenberg <strawnet at aol.com>

To: GSBN at lists.greenbuilder.com

Sent: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:33 pm

Subject: Congressional Briefing on Straw Bale Construction...

Hi all,

This morning in Washington DC, at the Russel Senate Office Building (just a couple of doors down and across the hall from Senator Hillary Clinton's office) we held the first ever Congressional Briefing on Straw Bale Construction. Organized by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), it was reasonably well attended and seemingly enthusiastically received. 

GSBN member Laura Bartels led off with a great overview of the history, basic technique, benefits and examples, followed by Sandy Wiggins, who is the immediate past Chairman of the Board of the US Green Building Council talking about the Aerzen project and the benefits and a few of the challenges for SB construction. Bob Gough, Secretary of the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy (ICOUP) then spoke about a spectrum of issues and opportunities for Native American affordable, energy efficient housing, job creation, economic development and more in a highly informative and entertaining presentation. And I wrapped up the panel presentations with an overview of the challenges we're facing for straw bale and similar technologies and a set of public policy recommendation from the very large to the very specific. It was a great day for straw bale and natural building!

You can go to the EESI website and download our presentations and listen to the audio of the briefing at:

http://www.eesi.org/

http://www.eesi.org/briefings/2008/062008_strawbale/062008_strawbale_notice.html

This is only the first step in a process of developing the support and resources needed to overcome the challenges we've all been facing. Many great conversations and expressions of interest followed the briefing. After lunch, there was also an open house and another presentation at the Eco-House that was constructed last month by Builders Without Borders outside the US Botanic Garden, right across the street from the Capitol building.? http://www.builderswithoutborders.org?; 

Laura Bartels will be leading three 1-1/2 hour workshops across the street from the Botanic Garden in the park tomorrow morning and afternoon. I'll be there helping her for at least part of the time, and anyone who is in the area and wants to come lend a hand or just come by and have some fun, please do.

Finally, one more item that might be of interest to some is the interview I did yesterday on Caroline Casey's Visionary Activist radio show...you can listen or download the program at http://www.visionaryactivism.com ...it was FUN.

Time for some sleep at the end of a very long and productive day...ahead of another long, and hopefully equally productive day.

David (trying to naturally and nationally Capitolize on all opportunities) Eisenberg 

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