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Strawbuilding
in China
One Chinese project
deeply touched Max on the team – this was the Adventist Development
& Relief Agency’s (ADRA) straw
bale construction initiative in Northeast China. Max first
learned about this incredible initiative from the California
Straw Building Association’s international project registry.
Kelly Lerner, of One
World Design, had teamed up with ADRA a few years back
and the program has now completed over 600 straw bale buildings.
After filming an interview with Linda Zhu, the managing director
for ADRA China, I wanted to see the result first-hand
and traveled to a small village outside the city of Harbin,about
a 700-mile train ride northeast of Beijing. |
From the outside, straw buildings look
identical to plastered red brick
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There I found a number of straw bale homes that had been
built under the ADRA program, an impressive feat given that
villagers, who often times are upgrading from mud and straw,
generally perceive brick as “modern” and straw bale as a step
backwards. Straw bale, however, is a superior building
material because of its lower embodied energy, better insulative
properties, and earthquake resilience. Back in 2004, ADRA
partnered with the local government to arrange a training
and subsidy regime in order for straw bale to compete with
the popular brick construction.
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Max Perelman with the village head |
Education and straw baler
equipment was supplied while home costs were shared equally
between ADRA, the local government, and the new building’s
owner. Among vast crop fields, I found a single dustymain
dragand, along either side of the road, a long stretch
of nearly identical 600 ft2 homes. “Are these all
straw bale?” I wondered as the village head took me through
a gate into one of the walled compounds. Inside
was a “1 LDK” building surrounded by a courtyard and large
garden. I asked the owner what he thought of his
straw bale home. |
He said it was working out quite well since his home was much
cooler in the summer (most people don’t have air conditioning
in this region) and heating costs were about 60% lower (1 ton
of coal per year versus 3-4 tons for the equivalent brick home). I
walked on and interviewed another homeowner who has similarly
glowing remarks. Impressed, I asked the village head whether
all of these buildings were straw bale. “Oh no, all those
recent ones there are regular brick,” he replied, pointed to
six shiny white homes. Though seemingly identical, I thought
of the nearly 3-foot thick walls…all brick, and my heart sank.
The village head went on to defend the ADRA project, though,
saying it had been extremely successful since villagers loved
their straw bale homes and word had spread. People now
saw straw bale’s benefits and would choose to build with it
even without a subsidy…but they had no bales! It turned
out that baler equipment was very rare and the equipment had
moved on to a nearby town. Without a baler, villagers
reverted back to their regular brick methods. The village
head said that, in addition to the six new brick homes, another
ten were planned. On the trip back south I did the CO2 math
and was shocked and frustrated by the results. Over its
lifetime, the straw bale version of a typical rural Chinese
home will produce about 300 tons less CO2. A $3,000
straw baler could have prevented 18,000 tons of CO2 emissions!
ADRA China has now put together a new $78,000 project
proposal for a second straw building initiative and Rotary International has put together their own fundraising plan to help.
This new project plans to subsidize the purchase of five straw
balers and train 200 new straw building professionals in the
region. Over the course of the project ending in late
2009, at least 250 straw bale homes will be built. This
equates to a CO2 reduction of 75,000 tons.
Even assuming the 200 newly trained professionals never use
their skills on future projects, this breaks down
to about $1 per ton of CO2 reduction.
ADRA China is the kind of environmental operation you want
to support – they are locally managed and efficient.
ADRA funds focus on training locals so their efforts will
last for years to come. This project will not only prevent
CO2 emissions at $1 per ton, but also will create 200 “green
collar” jobs and raise the environmental awareness of thousands
of rural Chinese.
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Feel free to contact
me with questions or if you would like to collaborate.
You may donate personally in one of two ways:
- Online
Pay online at: http://www.adrachina.org/donate.php
Simply fill out the form and specify at the bottom
that your donation be for “Straw Bale Houses”.
- Check
Write a check made payable to “ADRA Limited”.
Write “Straw Bale Houses” in the note area, and then
send it to me:
Max Perelman
3108 Golden Oaks Lane
Monterey, CA 93940
I am sending checks in bulk to the ADRA Hong Kong
regional headquarters to save on mailing charges –
if this makes you feel uncomfortable, though, you
can send
it yourself.
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"We estimate that our annual construction
of [energy-efficient] peasant homes [in Heilongjiang] will reach
100,000 per year, an area of 8 million square meters. This is
the goal of the next phase of our work."
- Wu Yongxue, Government of
Harbin, Heilongjiang
1/3
of all peasant homes in Heilangjiang
are traditional mud-and-straw structures and only slightly more
than 1% are equipped with energy efficiency measures.
-
Wu Yongxue, Government
of Harbin, Heilongjiang
The average peasant household burns 3-4
tons of coal to heat their home each winter.
- Wu Yongxue, Government
of Harbin, Heilongjiang
Red brick walls are almost 2.5ft thick
but have little insulative value
Without straw baling equipment,
villagers were forced to revert back
to building with red brick
This man initially had doubts but has been pleased with his straw bale home
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