Birch Cabin: Teaching Youth How Buildings Can Help Heal the Planet
By Jacob Rodenburg
At Camp Kawartha, much of our learning begins outside. We know that when children spend time in nature, they form a lifelong sense of care and responsibility for the Earth. Birch Cabin, our newest sustainable sleeping cabin, builds on this mission in a direct and practical way. It shows young people what regenerative living can look like today, not just in the future.
Completed with major support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Birch Cabin demonstrates how buildings can contribute to a healthier planet. Too often, construction depends heavily on materials that release carbon, deplete resources, or release pollutants that harm ecosystems. We wanted to show a different approach. Instead of focusing solely on reducing damage, Birch Cabin highlights how buildings can give back to the environment.
Straw bale walls are a perfect example. Straw is a renewable agricultural by-product. When bundled into walls, it becomes a high-performing insulation that locks carbon away for decades. The cabin stays comfortable through all seasons, while its walls actively reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. This simple shift in material choice transforms a common necessity—insulation—into a climate-positive solution.
The roof also plays an important role. One small section supports a demonstration living roof planted with native species. These plants help manage stormwater, moderate indoor temperatures, and provide habitat for pollinators. It is a small system, but a powerful teaching tool. Students see that rooftops do not have to be wasted space. They can support biodiversity and climate resilience.
Instead of a typical concrete foundation, the cabin sits on a rubble trench base combined with Nexcem blocks made from repurposed wood fibres. This significantly reduces the carbon associated with conventional concrete foundations. Beneath the floor, Glavel—an insulating material made entirely from recycled glass—replaces petroleum-based foam. Small innovations add up quickly. Every choice models a healthier future for construction.
Inside the cabin, natural cork flooring and non-toxic finishes show how indoor environments can support health rather than compromise it. Everything young people touch, breathe, and experience reinforces a message: sustainable buildings can be healthy buildings.
We introduce these features during summer camp tours, school programs, and workshops. Youth are curious. They want to participate in solutions. Many have heard about climate change, but aren’t sure how to respond. Birch Cabin gives them a real example of what progress looks like. It helps them see that we can design differently and build differently.
Our Sustainable Living Program for high school students uses the cabin as a hands-on classroom. Students explore concepts like embodied carbon, material sourcing, habitat restoration, and passive design. They examine how choices in planning and building ripple into soil, water, air, and community health. These conversations naturally lead to discussions about emerging green careers—from natural building to renewable energy to ecological landscaping.
The area surrounding the cabin continues to evolve into a living learning space. We are planting native trees, shrubs, and pollinator gardens that complement the building’s regenerative intent. This supports local biodiversity and provides a visible link between the built environment and the natural systems that support it.
Early feedback from campers and teachers has been enthusiastic. Many are surprised to discover how ordinary materials—like straw and glass—can be used in such innovative ways.
We estimate that over the next five years, more than 8,000 children, youth, educators, and community members will learn from this project. Each visitor gains practical insight into how regenerative buildings work and why they matter. Most importantly, they see a positive pathway forward. Climate action becomes something tangible and achievable.
This cabin strengthens our core mission: to foster stewardship and inspire positive change. It demonstrates that sustainability is not just an idea to talk about, but a practice that can be embedded into everything we do. When young people sleep in Birch Cabin, they are surrounded by solutions. They wake up inside a different kind of future.
The success of Birch Cabin reflects the power of community partnership. Thanks to the Ontario Trillium Foundation who funded the majority of this project as well as Straworks who designed and built this unique sustainable cabin. Our thanks also go out to The Echo Foundation, and the Peterborough Foundation who joined us in creating a building that leads by example. Together, we are showing that construction can move from harmful to helpful, from extractive to regenerative.
As we continue to refine programming around the cabin, the broader lesson remains clear. Birch Cabin joins a host of sustainable structures that Camp Kawartha has added over the years; from our Environment Centre, our negative carbon Health Centre, our strawbale greenhouse to Rotary Hall, our first strawbale building. These buildings help shape the way we live, learn, and interact with the world. If we teach children that buildings can restore ecosystems, support biodiversity, store carbon, and protect human health, we set new expectations for what is possible.
Birch Cabin is one structure on a single site, yet its impact stretches much further. It cultivates knowledge, confidence, and agency for the next generation.
Children who visit Birch cabin often ask: “What if all buildings worked like this?” That question matters. It points toward a future where the structures we rely on every day actively support a healthier planet.
Answering it is part of solving the environmental challenges we face. Through firsthand experiences with Birch Cabin, young people discover that that one day, they can help build homes, schools, and communities that give back to the Earth rather than take from it.
