Straw-Bale Construction Certification

The Global Straw-Bale Construction Certification Program provides the highest quality strawbale training available anywhere in the world. This unique program combines hands-on experiences with research and assignments using the leading books, videos, journals, and Internet and other electronic resources.

The Global Straw-Bale Construction Certification Program is a distance learning program for those within reach of the Internet and with an adequate knowledge of English. Students can begin the program at any time and work at their own pace through independent guided study. Advisors at the Geiger Research Institute provide guidance and critical analysis throughout the training process.

This strawbale certification program takes approximately one year to complete, although students with construction or architecture backgrounds may be able to complete the training more rapidly. The program consists of 14 modules that cover each major step of construction, as well as other relevant topics that form the essential knowledge for practitioners in the field.

For more information, go to: Straw-Bale Construction Certification

Straw-Bale Construction Training

Building with bales is growing by leaps and bounds because of its broad appeal to owner-builders and its extraordinary energy-efficiency. In just a few weeks you will learn the basic principles needed to build your own strawbale house.

With this Straw Bale Training course you get a combination of theoretical book knowledge and applied hands-on learning – which is a great way to learn. In addition, an Advisor at the Geiger Research Institute will provide individual guidance and critical analysis throughout the training process via email.

You will be using the best resource materials throughout the course. More Straw Bale Building, by Chris Magwood, Peter Mack and Tina Therrien, is one of the best books ever written on straw-bale construction. The Last Straw Journal CD-Rom puts 40 issues at your finger tips, enabling you to search through all the best ideas. And, selected Internet links to the best online resources are an integral part of the straw bale training course.

Online training offers tremendous flexibility. You can start the course at any time and proceed at your own pace. There is no need to travel to some distant school or workshop. And again, when you need help your Advisor will be available to answer your questions.

For more information, go to: Straw Bale Training

Sustainable Building Electronic Directory

Are you spending lots of time searching for information on sustainable building? Two new search tools at www.grisb.org/directory/index.htm make the job a lot easier:

• Browsing: The Sustainable Building Electronic (SBE) Directory provides about 200 links in 28 categories that point directly to online articles, thereby saving time and effort searching through entire websites. Each site in the SBE Directory has been carefully chosen for its quality information.
• Searching: You can search the text of these articles using the built-in search engine. A targeted search such as this saves searching through thousands of sites, often of dubious quality. Compare the results to any major search engine and see for yourself.

Many of the links in the SBE Directory point to the largest sustainable building websites. This means thousands of articles are available for browsing and searching.

Topics in the Sustainable Building Electronic Directory include: adobe, appropriate technology, bamboo, cob, cordwood, earth, earthbag, pressed earth block, rice hulls, soil cement, solar, straw bale, straw clay, sustainable development, traditional houses and about 13 other categories.