home-rating / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

What is LEED for Homes about? LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized rating system for commercial buildings and homes administered by the CaGBC (Canada Green Building Council)  to encourage sustainable building practices. While the commercial program has been in effect for...

Why pay for a green home certification? As more people pursue high efficiency green home rating certifications, they become increasingly well known and trusted. Consequently, more people seek them out. Developers build smarter homes when consumers demand them, and the existence of certification programs raises the bar ...

LEED® for Homes: A Guide to the v4.1 version of this Green Building Certification For homeowners in Canada and the United States, the LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Homes rating system is the premier benchmark for designing and constructing healthy, sustainable, and highly efficient homes. De...

Energy modeling is a process for determining the approximate energy a building will consume during operation. Data regarding location and climate, building design, materials, mechanical systems and appliances is entered into a software program to determine what the overall consumption of a building will be, and to atta...

What is the BREEAM rating system and should I get my home certified? The BREEAM rating system (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the world's longest-established method for assessing, rating, and certifying the sustainability of buildings. Launched in 1990 in the UK, it has become a glo...

SEER v HSPF v COP (& SCOP) - understanding heat pump ratings Many people are considering making the switch to a heat pump, for a variety of different reasons, including the heat pump grants available in Canada and the USA to offset the cost and the potential cost savings of buying and installing a single unit that ...

Washington, D.C. and Ottawa, ON — (July 22, 2015) — Today, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced that Canada ranks first on USGBC's second annual ranking of the Top 10 Countries for LEED, the world's most widely used and recognized green building rating system. The Top 10 list highlights countries outside o...

What is the Living Building Challenge? The Living Building Challenge is the most rigorous and comprehensive of all building rating systems. Performance requirements include net zero energy, water and waste, measured after a full year of operation only. LBC is broken down into 7 performance areas,  which are then subdiv...

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...

Acoustic panels in homes: do they help make homes less noisy?  Unwanted noise transmission and echoes in homes can be frustrating. There are easy ways to sound proof new homes under construction, but that does little for older homes. While many people turn to acoustic panels to improve the acoustic wellness in homes, t...

  Sustainable building practices are doing more than just helping the environment - they are also helping to create stronger and more prosperous communities. This is according to the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), with its chief executive Romilly Madew explaining that such constructions are "simply better ...