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Over
the summer of 2007, Max Perelman, a charter
member of the Rotary club of Monterey
International, traveled to China to film a documentary on
the local green building movement. One project that particularly
struck him was a grassroots initiative to build environmentally
friendly, energy efficient housing in rural northeast China.
This project, led by the Adventist Development Relief Agency
(ADRA), is the largest initiative of its kind in the world.
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Since
introducing Strawbale construction in northern China in 1998, the
program has worked with local communities training local construction
teams, and building over 600 energy efficient, earthquake-resistant,
and culturally appropriate buildings using straw and other local
building materials. In this extremely cold environment, villagers
can take advantage of straw’s amazing insulative qualities
and homeowners burn up to 3 tons less coal per year to heat versus
the mainstream red brick alternative. Over its lifetime, the strawbale
version of a typical rural Chinese home will produce over 300 tons
less carbon dioxide.
When
Max arrived at one of the villages outside of Harbin, China, he
found numerous satisfied strawbale homeowners. Unfortunately, Max
also found a number of newly built brick homes. The village head
explained that they had to give their straw baling equipment away
to another village to use. Without a straw baler, the straw bales
used to produce the insulating external walls could not be produced.
Max quickly communicated the latest developments to ADRA’s
managing director, Linda Zhu, who was happy to hear of the project’s
success but concerned by the lack of straw baling equipment. In
the autumn of 2007, ADRA China put together a proposal for a new
straw building initiative that focuses on training local builders
and purchasing baling equipment. ADRA China needs our help to raise
funds for this new initiative.
ADRA
China is the kind of environmental operation you want to support
– they are locally managed and efficient. ADRA has a proven
track record and funds focus on training locals so their efforts
will last for years to come. This project will not only prevent
large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions but will also create numerous
“green collar” jobs and raise the environmental awareness
of thousands of rural Chinese. |
