<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffff99" text="#000000">
<table class="moz-email-headers-table" border="0" cellpadding="0"
cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE"><br>
</th>
<td><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE"><br>
</th>
<td><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE"><br>
</th>
<td><br>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE"><br>
</th>
<td><br>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<br>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
<font face="Arial">Hello strawbalers in Europe!<br>
<br>
here some exciting news to share, coming of our special guest of
ESBG 2009, David Eisenberg.<br>
(see below) <br>
_____________________<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Hello David and all involved in this Big News!<br>
<br>
also our greatest congratulations and our deepest respect for your
work and vision<br>
<br>
on behalf of <br>
<br>
- Casa Calida and strawbalers in Belgium<br>
<br>
- the strawbale networkers all over Europe, who certainly will be
inspired by your news<br>
<br>
- the partners France, Spain, England, Germany, Slovakia and
Belgium, united in a EU funded project Leonardo, in which we are
working for a best building practice for SBBuilding and evaluation
method on the different SB techniques, just to make a good base to
go for a European strawbale code in the future! We will be extra
motivated to go on with this work, knowing that you are doing
these important steps in the US, that will have his effect on SB
elsewhere!<br>
<br>
Big hug<br>
Gigi<br>
Belgium<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
_________________________________ <br>
<br>
<br>
</font><br>
Op 17/08/2010 7:13, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:strawnet@aol...">strawnet@aol...</a>
schreef:
<blockquote
cite="mid:8CD0BE20105A752-58C-8647@webmail-d001....aol.com"
type="cite">
<meta http-equiv="Context-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<div> <span> Hello al l,</span> <br>
<br>
<div><span>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><span> </span></div>
<div><span>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><span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.iccsafe.org/cs/IGCC/Pages/default.aspx">http://www.iccsafe.org/cs/IGCC/Pages/default.aspx</a>
</span></div>
<div><span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.iccsafe.org/CS/IGCC/Pages/Comments0810.aspx">http://www.iccsafe.org/CS/IGCC/Pages/Comments0810.aspx</a>
</span></div>
<div><span>You’ll find these listed as comments 5-134, 5-135 and
5-136.<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div><span>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><span> </span></div>
<div><span>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><span> </span></div>
<div><span>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><span> </span></div>
<div><span>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><span> </span></div>
<div><span>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><span> </span></div>
<div><span>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><span> </span></div>
<div><span>Onward! </span></div>
<div><span> </span></div>
<div><span>David Eisenberg </span></div>
</div>
<span> </span>
<pre wrap=""><fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
_______________________________________________
GSBN mailing list
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:GSBN@greenbuilder...">GSBN@greenbuilder...</a>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN">http://greenbuilder.com/mailman/listinfo/GSBN</a>
</pre>
<pre wrap=""><fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - <a moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.avg.com">www.avg.com</a>
Version: 8.5.441 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3083 - Release Date: 08/20/10 06:35:00
</pre>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>