TD&CS hosts a two-day training: Developing Sustainable Tribal Housing

Horseshoe Falls
Rainbow over Horseshoe Falls

Our design team is honored to serve again this year as trainers on behalf of the National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC). NAIHC hosts a variety of tuition-free trainings all across the country, and if you haven’t checked them out yet, we highly recommend you do. The available courses can be found here.

Our topic, Developing Sustainable Tribal Housing, is one that we always enjoy talking about, and to have two full days set aside to really dive into green building materials and practices is pretty fun.

At the training, we had attendees from all over the U.S.: Alaska, Arizona, New York, California and Oklahoma. We always start by asking attendees what they are looking to get out of the class, and the topic on the mind of most participants was tribal planning and development.

We had grant writers and staff from the planning department of several tribes in addition to housing authority folks. Everyone is thinking about how to develop sustainably and looking for ways to set parameters for future projects.

We covered a wide range of topics in the realm of sustainable housing, from planning and financing to green building materials and practices. A full course description and agenda are available here.

The recent training was held in Buffalo, N.Y., and we were even able to sneak in a visit to Niagara Falls. It was wonderful to get outside and enjoy temperatures under 100 degrees, since Kansas City has been suffering record highs this summer — not to mention the falls themselves, which are breathtaking. The photo above is a view of a rainbow over Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side.

We’ll be giving a second training this year on Sept. 26-27 in Seattle. Please consider joining us!

In the meantime keep in touch, we always interested to talk about green design. We’d be happy to help with questions you have. The best part about each training is hearing success stories from our attendees who are eager to share their projects with us. Shoot us an email or give us a call and let us know what you are up to!