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IntroductionIn August 2007, Evergreen partnered with Banyan Tree, a grassroots organization with a mission toeducate youth on building sustainable communities. Together, we designed and raised funds for a pilotprogram that engaged Grade 8 students from Winchester Junior & Senior Public School in St. JamesTown, an inner-city Toronto neighbourhood, in a natural-building workshop: making rammed earth bricksand building a flower bed.Based on a flexible curriculum plan, a backgrounder on Rammed Earth (Appendix A) and a map to thesite (Appendix B), youth were invited to register for the course that would run over two consecutiveweekends. Beginning with a nature hike to Evergreen Brick Works at the heart of Toronto’s ravine system,eight committed students learned the history of rammed earth construction, its uses as a buildingtechnique, how to design their own project, how to make bricks themselves and finally how to buildthe structure they envisioned.The plan also provided an opportunity to hand over the project coordination reins to five 20-something,aspiring environmental educators. These resourceful and committed volunteers went far beyond the callof duty, investing months of preparation and planning time, making sure this educational workshop wasfun for all involved.The result was a messy, engaging workshop that entertained and inspired a terrific group of kids tore-evaluate what they were capable of and what is possible in their community. All participants agreethat it was a tremendous success, as reflected in the picture gallery and evaluation results.Designed for optimum replicability and accessibility, with low costs and minimal skill requirements,it also served as a useful case study for incorporating a versatile building technique into future schoolground and other community greening projects across Canada. Funded by The J.W. McConnell FamilyFoundation’s Green Street program, the initiative met their Benchmarks for Excellence in EnvironmentalLearning & Sustainability and Student Engagement, which were designed to initiate programmingthat actively engages youth in environmental stewardship. We are grateful to the foundation for itsgenerous support.2