OSBBC Board Members - from left to right, Tina Therrien, Ingrid Cryns, Deirdre McGahern, Adam Krop, Frank Tettemer, David Elfstrom (and Jup Bhasin - absent)
www.osbbc.ca
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I am currently a board member fo the OSBBC and have truly enjoyed working with the dedicated team of volunteers who are passionate about supporting and encouraging the growth of Natural Building, including Strawbale biofibre building. Here is some detailed info. from the website – PLEASE SPEND SOME TIME VISITING THE SITE – YOU WILL LEARN A LOT!!!
The Ontario Straw Bale Building Coalition (OSBBC) was formed to serve several purposes:
- To provide information for people with an interest in building and/or owning a straw bale home. These services include general information, facilitating training courses, and providing testing data for building designers and building inspectors.
- To initiate and support efforts to further the base of knowledge about straw bale building, including studies and tests leading to the building code acceptance of straw bale building techniques.
- To foster a community of builders and owners involved in straw bale building to promote the exchange of ideas, resources, and social opportunities.
The Goals of the OSBBC
The OSBBC believes in the need for a movement towards a more environmentally responsible built environment. By using materials with the lowest possible embodied energy and toxicity and employing them in buildings designed to maximize the potential for renewable energies and minimizing the use of fossil fuels, we can make a substantial positive change in our impact on the environment. For the same costs as typical homes and buildings it is possible right now to create similar spaces from environmentally sound materials and to lower energy consumption dramatically. We hope to promote these strategies by assisting builders and owners to adopt them and to help to introduce them into the mainstream building world.
There is fantastic comprehensive listing on the website of sound technical documents that have been culled from various sources, mostly elsewhere on the web and on email lists.
Click this LINK FOR STRAWBALE TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS
Membership in the Ontario Straw Bale Building Coalition has many benefits:
- free admission to the Annual Tour of Straw Bale Homes and Buildings
- reduced rates for selected OSBBC workshops
- reduced rate for The Building Official’s Info-Package
- inclusion in a volunteer on-call list
- financial support for testing and code-acceptance of bale building
- helps the organization promote straw bale building to building officials, the general public, and children through displays, speaking engagements, the web, and a toll-free number for inquiries
www.osbbc.ca
