Speaker Archive

Laura Bartels

Bartels, founder and owner of GreenWeaver Inc., is a powerful advocate and educator for appropriate building technologies using high performance, low impact, and local materials. She works to empower people and communities to effectively address energy efficiency, energy security, affordable housing, indoor air quality, green jobs, and restoration of local economies.

Bartels is an experienced builder with over 15 years experience in the sustainable and natural building field. She designed and built the first code approved straw bale home in Western Colorado and went on to serve as project manager for efforts like the Waldorf School on the Roaring Fork, a renowned campus of over 22,000 using passive solar straw bale structures.

 She now serves as a consultant to architects, contractors, and owners, offering services in feasibility, design, construction, and project management issues for residential, school, institutional and commercial projects. She has consulted on award-winning straw bale projects nationally. With the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, she helped develop the Straw Bale SAFE Homes Initiative (Safe, AFfordable and Efficient Homes) to address critical housing needs within tribal communities.

Presentations for national and international conferences as well as for architectural firms, schools and the public, including the first U.S. Congressional Briefing on straw bale construction, have helped to introduce high performance natural building in a larger context. Collaborative efforts such as with Builders Without Borders to construct a Straw Bale Ecohouse for the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, DC have brought increased awareness to the general public.

As a curriculum designer and instructor of appropriate natural building technologies, Laura teaches for the University of Colorado, Solar Energy International, and the Straw Bale Building Program at Sinte Gleska University on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Bartels also brings technical expertise to the field with her work in building science and the moisture properties of straw bale walls. GreenWeaver Inc. has developed and sells StrawSense moisture monitoring systems for straw bale walls. The systems have been installed in residential, school, and commercial projects throughout the US.

Bartels serves on the Board of the Colorado Straw Bale Association and on the Advisory Boards of the Development Center for Appropriate Technology, Solar Energy International, Natural Building Network and Straw and Timber Craftsmen.

Presentation Title

Building Community Solutions for Native Nations

Event Description

Many tribal communities face sky-rocketing energy prices, inadequate and insufficient housing, and high unemployment. High-performance natural building is emerging as a solution to this set of problems for native communities. Straw bale construction is a high-performance, low technology solution being used in all 50 states and in more than 40 countries. Find out how building sustainable economies through sustainable housing can be a model for communities anywhere.