Some workshops that are offered in other parts of the world focus on building using the lowest possible cost, most environmentally friendly materials. These other workshops often build potting sheds, organic studios, and garden walls that won't help you to learn what you need to know to build a straw bale house well. Unfortunately, for many people, this method of construction is not realistic because they are often phenomenally labour intensive, take far too long to complete, or are not accepted by local building officials (let alone our life partners, friends, and families.)

At Organic Environments we teach realistic, attainable, real world methods using readily available materials in the hopes that our workshops will benefit the widest possible audience. We use materials that are readily available from your local red, orange, or blue building center (if you're in Canada you'll know who I'm talking about and if you're from somewhere else substitute the colour of your local building center) and methods and materials that are easily accessible to just about everyone. The building we will build at our workshop from Intro to Straw Bale up will be built using the same methods and materials that we use to build straw bale homes. The shed we built at our first workshop now has a bamboo floor and a small electric heater and our daughter Melissa and her boyfriend Aaron slept in it in the early winter when they were home from university. We're not going to teach you to build a straw bale garden bench. We're going to guide you through the process of building a very small straw bale house.

We are interested in saving the environment but we're also realistic enough to realize that the simple fact that you're building with straw bales and are interested enough in doing it right to take one of our workshops means that you're going to build a building with a lower environmental footprint than your conventionally built neighbors. We'll point out ways to improve the energy efficiency of your building and to reduce its embodied energy but we're not going to beat you over the head with rabid environmentalism. Our methods can be adapted from the smallest, most efficient building to the largest most lavish home. We'll give you the skills and the tools and let you make your own decisions about what you want to build.