Re: [strawbale]US Symposium

[Catherine Wanek <blackrange@zianet...>]

Hello All,

Below is information about two upcoming Sustainable Building events
sponsored by the US Department of Energy (and various other orgs) that
would combine very nicely with the Builders without Borders Project
Facilitator Training in New Mexico, Oct. 1-10, 2001.  I have spoken
with the organizer Arun Vohra, who would love to have some attendance
from other countries -- he says that he could offer a limited number of
Symposium fee waivers/scholarships to Europeans or others from outside
the US to this professional-level symposium and/or the hands-on workshop
that precedes it.   And I personally would try to arrange
home-stays in the Santa Fe area, for those attending, to keep costs to a
minimum.  If you are interested contact Arun directly about the
Symposium and Workshop, and me about the BWB Training, and/or help with
ride-sharing and home-stays.  The complete Symposium information
will be posted on the National Institute of Building Science website by
next week: 
www.nibs.org
Best Regards,
Catherine Wanek

BETEC Symposium and Workshop on "Sustainable Buildings" Set for
Mid-October
2001
The Building Environment and Thermal Envelope Council (BETEC) will
host a two day-long symposium titled "Sustainable Buildings
III" on October
17 - 18, 2001 in Santa Fe, New Mexico in conjunction with a 4-day
workshop
on October 13 - 16 in El Rito, New Mexico (one hour drive from Santa
Fe.)
Presenters are being sought for both the Symposium and the 
Workshop.
The event is co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Oak
Ridge
National Laboratory, the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council, the U.
S.
Green Building Council (GBC), and the Partnership for Advancing
Technology
in Housing (PATH).
BETEC is a council of the National Institute of Building Sciences
(NIBS) that focuses on energy efficiency through better integration of
the
building envelope with the whole building, while recognizing the need for
a
healthy indoor environment.
Sustainability means reducing, recycling, and reusing currently
available resources to meet current needs without jeopardizing the
ability
of future generations to meet their needs. To be sustainable, a
building
must be affordable, durable, safe, healthy, energy efficient, and built
on
a foundation of respect for the environment. Sustainable buildings
are
designed, constructed, maintained, rehabilitated, and demolished with
an
emphasis throughout their life cycle on using natural resources
efficiently
while also protecting global ecosystems. Also called "green"
or
"environmentally friendly," a sustainable building
addresses:
? the issues of energy efficiency, 
? use of materials with lower environmental impact and embodied energy,
? durability, 
? minimal maintenance, and 
? reduced waste generation throughout the life cycle from design, 
through construction and rehabilitation, reuse, and final disposal.

Sustainability is supported by using natural, manufactured, waste,
byproduct or recycled materials to insulate new and existing walls
and
roofs. This results in high thermal performance and low material cost
for
building durable houses. However, even though virtually all
insulation
materials have positive environmental benefits by reducing building
energy
consumption, there are significant environmental differences among
available insulation materials and the building systems associated with
the
use of them.
This symposium will address the environmental characteristics of
available building envelope materials and examine a number of new
"green"
materials. Presenters will address performance characteristics and
properties of sustainable materials and emerging technologies. Also
addressed will be installation techniques, economic analysis, code
enforcement, and other subjects leading to environmentally sound 
and
affordable walls and roofs.
The symposium is a follow-up to ones held on the same subject in
1997
and June 2000, in which presentations were made on emerging
sustainable
building envelope materials. This symposium is of particular interest
to
manufacturers and contractors, academia, volunteers, non-profits,
public
and private organizations, and manufacturers of advanced
construction
materials.
For further information, contact Arun Vohra, U.S. Department of
Energy, EE-41, 1000 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20585-0121;
Phone
(202) 586-2193; Fax (202) 586-9811; E-mail: arun.vohra@hq....gov
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