green-building-trends / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

CaGBC, LEED green building trends
LEED Homes

New report shows Canadian green building market growing steadily with owners seeing strong benefits from building green.

OTTAWA, June 18, 2014 /CNW/ - The Canadian green building market is poised to see strong growth over the next three years, with surveyed Canadian firms expecting to grow their green practices from one third in 2014, to one half by 2017. These findings are part of a new report prepared by McGraw Hill Construction and co...

Habitat workers raise a wall at the the Red River Ex June 2011
LEED Homes

The Canada Green Building Council announces affordable green housing program

Working with charitable housing groups like Habitat for Humanity, the CaGBC will administer free registrations and certifications under the internationally-recognized Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification program, which addresses homes as well as a broad range of other buildi...

Suzlon's LEED Platinum wind power living laboratory in India
Lifestyle and environment

Green Building is accelerating around the world

Courtesy of the USGBC, the following is a guest post by Harvey M. Bernstein, Vice President of Industry Insights & Alliances, McGraw-Hill Construction and John Mandyck, Chief Sustainability Officer for United Technologies Climate, Controls & Security. There is no doubt that sustainability initiatives and envir...

The Top Twelve Green Building Trends for 2020
Planning and Design

Find out what's trending in 2020 for Green Home Construction

Top Sustainable Construction Trends for 2020 There are always new green building products coming out that lead to more efficient, more durable or more eco-friendly homes. But most of what grabbed our attention this past year, and the things that we will see through 2020, are perhaps best described as sustainable constr...

Lifestyle and environment

Resources and getting started

Choosing between buying, building or renting  1. Building a new home. Building a sustainable and energy efficient house is not necessarily more expensive than building a house simply to meet provincial building codes. Many new home starts have achieved far superior performance while still coming in the same or lower in...

Artistic rendition of the 2000 square foot sustainable home being buil
Living Building Challenge

Taking the Living Building Challenge

The Living Building challenge is one of the toughest green building certifications to complete, and has yet to be achieved in Canada. The Endeavour Centre, a not-for-profit trade school in Peterborough Ontario, is setting out to change that when they begin construction this spring on a 2,000 square foot three bedroom h...

Ontario’s first LEED certified hospital
LEED Homes

Ontario’s First LEED Certified Hospital

Bluewater Health announced today that it has been selected as one of the first Canadian hospitals – and the first acute care hospital in Ontario – to achieve LEED® certification. Bluewater Health’s construction of a 588,000-square-foot complex at the hospital’s Sarnia location consisted of a new addition attached to th...

Canada one of the top 10 countries building LEED homes
LEED Homes

The top 10 countries outside the U.S. certifying buildings with the LEED rating system

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has released its list of the top 10 countries for LEED® outside of the United States, on which Canada ranked No. 1. The list demonstrates the global reach of the movement that is transforming the built environment into healthy, high-performing structures that benefit the planet a...

Net Zero Energy Homes Pilot Canada
Green building certifications

Net zero energy homes Canadian pilot results

Net Zero Energy Homes pilot program goals The goal of the R-2000 Net Zero Energy homes pilot program in Canada was to improve the performance standards of homes, and to raise awareness of energy-efficient green home building techniques among builders. Through participating in this pilot project, every builder became li...

Green building certifications

Powerhouse: the new standard for positive energy design

Powerhouse Paris Proof is a relatively new building standard that originated in Norway that is based on the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°Celsius  target. The standard lists maximum and total CO2 emissions per square metre, which includes the construction phase, energy in operation, material use and disposal. The standard spec...

Net Zero Homes - Canada's first certified Net Zero House in BC
Green building certifications

The first Net Zero-labelled homes in Canada

Net Zero Homes - the design & certification process In May of 2017, the Canadian Home Builders Association [CHBA] officially launched its Net Zero Home Labelling Program, following the successful completion of a 15-month pilot project to validate technical and administrative procedures for building net zero homes i...