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

LEED for Homes for Homes Rating System.
LEED Homes

What is LEED?

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...

BREEAM Rating System - how does it compare to LEED, Net Zero and Passive house?
Green building certifications

What is the BREEAM System?

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...

The LEED® Rating System - Certifying LEED® Homes
LEED Homes

The LEED for homes V4 + v4.1 rating systems explained and compared

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...

Passive House certification plaque
Green building certifications

All about green home certification programs and rating systems for USA & Canada

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 Silver mid-rise in Gatineau, QC.
Lifestyle, location and commuting

Sustainable building practices create prosperous communities

  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 ...

MIBOP energy modeling software from Mindscape Innovations
Concept and design

Free online energy modeling from Mindscape Innovations for home optimization

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...

LEED Homes

Find a LEED Evaluation Provider

LEED Canada for Homes Providers: Atlantic Canada: Quebec: ThermalWise ThermalWise is Atlantic Canada’s leading building performance consulting company. We support building owners, developers, designers, contractors, property managers and communities to be more sustainable, and energy-efficient while also c...

LEED Homes

The 19 LEED for Homes prerequisites

This is designed to offer only an overview of the 19 LEED for homes prerequisites that must be met for certification. Not all categories have prerequisites, and some have more than one. Please refer to the rating system for more details. Innovation & Design Process (ID)  1.1 Preliminary rating:   Conduct a prelimin...

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...

Choosing a building envelope
Wall assemblies - new construction

Choosing a building envelope - starting with the perfect wall

What is the best wall system for a home?  We're frequently asked which is the perfect wall system for high-performance LEED, Passive House or Zero Energy Homes, Well, a perfect Answer to that Is, first Ask the Right Questions! - After all, what is the best way to get from one place to another?  You have to choose betwe...

Hawaii Preparatory Academy Energy Laboratory
Living Building Challenge

What is the Living Building Challenge?

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...