[GSBN] Congressional briefing most popular download

[Laura Bartels]

Dear GSBN community,

This week I received some very good news from Carol Werner, the  
executive director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute  
which was the sponsor of the Congressional Briefing in June. She wrote  
to say that "it turns out that we have had more than 1500 unique  
visits to our strawbale briefing information since it was posted --  
making it the most popular briefing for pulling down information after  
a briefing." 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.

In light of this, I want to encourage those in other countries to  
consider a similar effort with your federal governments if you haven't  
already considered it. With the impacts of the economy and awareness  
and efforts around climate change, it's no news to any of you that  
placing information about solutions into the right hands now is  
critical.

The influence that the briefing has had has reached to federal  
agencies, national organizations and non-profits among, obviously,  
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 that  
several of us presented at. 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.

Please know that the link has been changed and share it with those who  
may benefit. The direct link for the briefing summary and downloads is  
now
http://www.eesi.org/062008_Straw-Bale_Construction

I wish you all many blessings for 2009.

Laura



Laura Bartels
P.O. Box 912, Carbondale, CO 81623
Ph 970-379-6779, Fax 970-963-0905
laura at greenweaverinc.com
www.greenweaverinc.com




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