carbon-monoxide / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Low Carbon Concrete - Lowering the Carbon Footprint of Eco Homes
Concrete and masonry

Low-carbon concrete by CarbonCure Canada - lowering the carbon footprint of buildings

Low-carbon concrete - "green" cement at last?  One of the most essential and commonly-used building materials in home construction, commercial buildings and city infrastructure is concrete, which has an extremely high carbon footprint, with cement production accounting for 7% of global carbon emission. This problem is...

The Third Space Commons building UBC
Zero Carbon Building

BC's Budding carbon zero building ambitions on track for success at UBC...

Officially billed as displaying the best of 'carbon minimalism', Third Quadrant Design's Third Space Commons building combines the best of sustainable design with intelligent recycling of materials, a portland cement / concrete-free build and extensive use of innovative green building materials like hemp and hempcrete ...

Zero Carbon Building
Off-grid and Net-Zero Housing

CaGBC's Zero Carbon Buildings Initiative explained

  SAB: What does the CaGBC hope to achieve with the Zero Carbon Buildings Initiative? Mark Hutchinson: The CaGBC launched the zero carbon building initiative in 2016 to champion the move to lower-carbon commercial, institutional and high-rise residential buildings in support of Canada’s efforts to mitigate the effects ...

Bike lanes in Downtown Vancouver
Choosing where to live

Urban living

Housing is an enormous source of carbon emissions, so it is also a place where we have tremendous room for improvement. This building guide will walk you through the steps than can help you minimize your personal emissions as much as possible, whether you are building, buying or renting. Keep in mind, this is not a sac...

Zero Carbon Homes - The S1600 Prefab Eco Home is affordably Close
Planning and Design

Zero Carbon Homes - The S1600 Prefab Eco Home gets affordably Close

The low carbon footprint of the S1600 kit house The Ecohabitation Eco-Habitat S1600 prefab kit home was designed by PARA-SOL Architecture & Development and built by Batiment Pre-Fab Inc. The experts of Ecohabitation recently calculated the total carbon footprint of this surprisingly affordable prefab eco home, whic...

Non-toxic building materials can improve home air quality
Healthy indoor air quality

Maintaining healthy indoor air quality

Mold in homes is a bad sign so how to get rid of it or prevent mold in drywall? Mold and mildew in homes develops in conditions of high humidity, most often in bathrooms, kitchens and basements, unless caused by roof leaks and other building envelope failures. Along with affecting the durability of your home, mold and ...

The EC3 Tool - Skanska - Calculating & Comparing Carbon Footprint of Buildings
Planning and Design

Calculating the Carbon Footprint of Buildings, Introducing The EC3 Calculator From Skanska

EC3 - Reducing the carbon footprint of buildings EC3 Tool – The background - The interest in the environmental impact of buildings is not new by any means: scientists and building experts have been studying the life cycle analysis of buildings for several decades, particularly for certain materials such as the impact o...

Reduced carbon concrete Patio blocks and CMU
Concrete and masonry

Reducing emissions with CO² cured-concrete

A new cement block manufacturing process developed by an American company named Solidia Technologies® produces 40% fewer emissions during manufacturing than conventional concrete, resulting in a dramatically lower environmental footprint. Solidia’s concrete is formulated with less lime and is cured at lower temperature...

World carbon emissions by country global overview
Lifestyle and environment

COP26 and world carbon emissions by country per capita - which countries top the charts?

With the recent COP26 Global Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, all the world's countries are talking carbon emissions amidst a certain amount of finger-pointing. In the closing minutes as the sustainable world watched the much applauded COP26 conference and a host of private jets were revving up their eng...

Carbon Offset Schemes - Whale Poop leads Nature's Own Way
Lifestyle and environment

Save the Whale's (Poop) - Save the Planet !! (And $2m per Whale)

What do whales listen to?      'Pod' casts...   Talking of which, I listened to a fascinating podcast recently explaining how the carbon capture potential of whales and supporting international efforts to restore whale populations around the world is one of the simplest ways to fight climate change. The podcast was hos...

Concrete, wood and steel structures compared - Timber Frame wins!
Materials and resources

How wood structures compare to steel and concrete for Carbon Footprint

Wood, steel and concrete each have specific structural advantages, each with their own characteristics. The following is a life-cycle comparison conducted by the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute (ASMI) of the materials only, and does not include any considerations of how they each affect thermal performance, vapo...