GREEN HOMES – PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE HOUSING IN NEPAL
“This three year (2013-1015) project funded by the European Union aims at promoting sustainable housing technologies and services to contribute towards mitigating climate change and reducing poverty through creation of green jobs and moving towards a green economy. Green Homes or Sustainable Housing is an approach that includes household systems that reduce pressure on natural
resources and carbon emissions, thus resulting in human wellbeing, social equity, and green economy. Besides energy efficient buildings, it also includes ecofriendly practices for water and waste management systems such as rainwater harvesting, and waste/ wastewater recycling.”
UN Habitat
Thanks to Jennifer for this tip. She’s one of several people who have been my eyes and ears in Nepal.
Note how earthbag building addresses multiple concerns on the UN Habitat list: risk reduction, green building, green jobs, housing and slum upgrading, poverty reduction, millennium goals, social inequality, etc.
I’ve talked about this stuff for years and so far it hasn’t done much good at the upper level of the UN and big NGOs. Maybe this disaster will highlight the advantages of earthbag and bring about more rapid change. This could very well happen if say 25-50 NGOs build earthbag projects. This would shine a light on the whole situation and show this is what people want.
“This could very well happen if say 25-50 NGOs build earthbag projects.
we are doing it and a few others are doing it too. it will gain momentum sooner had there been an alternative to manual tapping of the earthbags. we tried making a few but couldnt maintain the uniformity. so back to hand tamping.
it would be helpful if there were more free books on EB.
may be now something might actually happen in the upper level of the Un for poeple are actually liking it. in fact they seem to be blending the traditional way with the EB techniques. so more accurate information regarding EB is needed here.
in fact workshops and seminars are being held here regarding EB.
thank you for it was your books that i followed while helping build EB homes…
Hello Anup,
I am in Nepal trying to organize with locals and put together training materials for them to familiarize themselves with the process and most durable designs so that come September when Owen arrives for his training, there is a strongly concerted effort. If there is anyway to launch a big organized effort before them that would be amazing. I have been networking some on Facebook and Meetup and would love to connect with your group as well and find out which other groups you know of whom I may also contact. I am in the process of contacting distributors in hopes they may make material donations such as polyprop bags. I am not sure how to obtain materials otherwise. I have heard that NGOs sometimes hand them out to locals but have not been able to find a list of NGOs specifically engaged in these efforts. Any help with contacts and connections will be much appreciated and Because I have made some wonderful connections among the locals I can help with finding labor and that would help to start getting people trained for bigger efforts and quicker building!~ :)
Best,
Mariah Rieb