city / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

...city greener with these ideas. 1. Tips for city living without a car One of the nice things about living in the city is public transportation and proximity to services, which makes it possible to live without a car. Or at the very least, it can reduce the amount of driving you have to do. When choosing a place to live,...

...city with easy public transportation? The city of Vancouver continues to go to great lengths to make it a liveable city with a dense urban core and excellent public transportation. In an effort to increase affordable housing and  reduce urban sprawl, the city is offering incentives to add rental living space. See here...

First published in SAB magazine.  The way we live is changing. As both an architect and a resident of Vancouver, I am regularly confronted with how our cities are changing through urban densification and shifting demographics, to accessibility and affordable housing. I think about the smaller units we are building as a...

...city staff The city has hired Passive House Canada (PHC) to train more than a hundred City of Vancouver staff (plan checkers, rezoning planners, development planners, inspectors, etc). There are also two city building inspectors who are Passive House Certified tradespersons and will work with all new Passive House proj...

The BRE Innovation Park (Building Research Establishment) that lies 15km north of Toronto will soon build a new series of houses in which emerging building products and technologies can be researched and enhanced. The Sustainable Technologies Evaluation Program (STEP) is run out of The Living City Campus at Kortright, ...

...City of Vancouver's official website is the best source for detailed regulations. Design & Planning: Work with a designer or builder to create plans that meet your needs and comply with city bylaws. Permit Application: Submit your completed plans and all required documents to the City of Vancouver for review and ap...

...city because of the impacts of transportation but also because of the heavy burden on the land. Transportation fuel makes up a much greater part of our carbon emissions than a lot of people might think, consequently home location is one one of the biggest variables in your personal carbon footprint.  The average Canadi...

...city to pump heat energy from the place it isn't wanted to where it doesn't matter. Run it backwards and it pumps heat, more efficiently than using the electricity directly using a multiplying factor that is generally expressed as the COP rating (coefficient of performance). So, what we are looking into here is definit...

...City of Vancouver Step Code is well underway with the Greenest City 2020 initiative. BC Energy Step Code builder guide Message to BC general contractors about the new Step Code requirements, don’t panic! It’s not that crazy, and before you scratch a hole in your head reading the BC Step Code PDF cover to cover, we’ve c...

...city street lights.  The  city of Portland, Oregon is hoping that the generation of power within the water system will alleviate some of the growing costs the city has seen in its delivery of water to residents.This pilot project is slated for completion in June of 2013, and will generate enough power to run 150 homes....