lbc / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

UBC's Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability
LEED Homes

UBC Lab Exceeds LEED Platinum becoming one of North America's greenest buildings

The University of British Columbia has opened the most sustainable building in North America, a $37 million 'living laboratory' that will help to regenerate the environment and advance research and innovation on global sustainability challenges. The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) is one of onl...

BC Energy Step Code - Builder Design Guide &  Requirements explained
Building codes

The new BC energy step code: builder design guide & requirements explained - Vancouver

The new BC Energy Step Code - The details The BC Energy Step Code is a new provincial standard intended to provide an incremental approach to achieving more energy-efficient buildings that will help the province meet its goal of having all new buildings be Net Zero Energy ready by the year 2032. The City of Vancouver S...

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 ...

Bike lanes in Vancouver
Lifestyle, location and commuting

Vancouver's goal of becoming the Greenest City by 2020

In our previous article we discussed the building trend in Vancouver known as Laneway Housing, where new homes are being created in backyards, accessed by lanes in the centre of city blocks. More densely populated neighbourhoods means more efficient use of city services, and a more vibrant and active local business com...

Blower Door Tests - What's the Cost & Who Does Them?
Air and vapour barriers

What is a blower door test? What's the cost? How do you find a company to do one?

What is a blower door test? Blower door tests are becoming part of many State and Provincial mandatory building codes - the new BC Energy Step Code in British Columbia, Canada is one example.  A blower door test is often an essential part of a home audit, we don’t know for sure just yet if it will be part of the free h...

First Passive House in BC Whistler

B.C.’s First Passive House was built in Whistler in 2012.

The Rainbow Duplex in Whistler is the first Passive House in BC The passive solar design and orientation of homes is anything but new. Solar heat collection is a technique that has been used in home construction for thousands of years. What is relatively new is the rating system developed to certify them. The Passive H...

Multi Unit Passive House design Vancouver Island BC
Passive House

The North Park Passive House on Vancouver Island, BC

Passive House construction on Vancouver Island Building the first certified Passive House on Vancouver Island, a duplex shared with our son Mark’s family, convinced us that the market in Victoria was ready for Passive House market condominiums. To follow through, we built the North Park Passive house, a six-unit urban ...

LEED Homes

Find a LEED Provider

LEED Canada for Homes Providers: Atlantic Canada: Quebec: ThermalWise Jordan MacDonald [email protected] T: (902) 407-9276 Toll Free:1 (877) 771-9276 Mailing address: P.O. Box 31236 Halifax, NS B3K 5Y1 Office: 2459 Agricola Street Halifax www.thermalwise.ca   Évaluations Écohabitat...

The Hemloft, Joel Allen's secret treehouse near Whistler, BC
Tiny house

This Cool treehouse near Whistler, BC became a global sensation because it used recycled materials off Craigslist!

Definitely one of the coolest pioneers of the Tiny House Movement in BC Canada, the Hemloft Treehouse is made entirely from free and recycled materials. After 2 months of filling his home with thousands of dollars worth of recycled materials donated through Craigslist, Joel Allen finally had all he would need to build ...