leed-building / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

LEED Platinum home certification FAQ
LEED Homes

LEED Certification for Homes - frequently asked questions

How do I find LEED certified building materials? There are no LEED certified materials, only buildings can be certified. There are certain products that can help earn LEED points by having passed other certifications e.g: FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) wood or  EnergyStar windows.  When can I advertise my LEED home? ...

Prefab LEED Passive House Kit Homes the Future of House Building?
Passive House

Prefab Passive House & LEED ready kit homes - the future of home building?

Prefab home kits are ideal for Passive House or LEED certified homes Écohabitation the French language Quebec affiliates of Ecohome, in conjunction with experienced architects and kit home manufacturers, have launched a series of Canadian manufactured stylish and affordable, prefabricated sustainable green kit homes th...

Off-grid LEED Gold house in Low, Quebec
LEED Homes

Canada Ranks as the top country for LEED green building for second year in a row

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...

Building a Passive House that's LEED Certified too - an Owner's Tale
Passive House

An owner/builder's account of building a Passive House

Building a Passive House that's also LEED certified This is an owner blog Ecohome posted following the personal experience of Sarah Cobb and William Murray of Rocket Construction Inc. as they built a home in Abercorn, Montérégie, Quebec. Setting the bar about as high as you can, they targeted both LEED certification an...

Water efficient Boulevard FloWise toilet from American Standard
Bathrooms

Efficient toilets for LEED homes

Toilets usually account for about a third of the indoor water use in a home, so toilets that carry the EPA WaterSense® label are a great place to start looking. Then comes the choice of either single flush or dual flush- it's a bit of a toss up but in the end we chose to go with single flush models, because when human ...

The LEED Platinum Beachaus II in Vancouver, BC
LEED Homes

The Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) measures the environmental benefit of the LEED for Homes program.

After certifying its first LEED project in 2005, the CaGBC collected data over the next eight years, measuring the direct impact LEED Canada made on various aspects of the environment, including greenhouse gas emissions, national energy and water consumption and waste diversion. The results were compelling: A 312,006 C...

Cutaway of a modern energy efficient electrified home
Concept and design

Building science for LEED v4 wall design made easy - video

LEED Platinum V4 wall design: building Science  The wall we designed for the Edelweiss house, Canada's first LEED Platinum V4 Home is best categorized as a 'REMOTE' wall, a high performance building envelope developed by the Cold Climate Housing Research Centre in Alaska. REMOTE stands for 'Residential Exterior Membr...

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...

Beautiful LEED home in Mulmur, Ontario.
LEED Homes

A beautiful lakeside LEED Platinum home

LEED Platinum home in Ontario  As described by the Architects: Designed for a client with environmental sensitivities, +HOUSE is a manifestation of a sustainable and healthy approach to building that does not sacrifice design. Sited facing the bank of a stream-fed pond, this four-season house is nestled into a natural ...

Yukon's first LEED certified home
LEED Homes

The Yukon's First LEED Certified Home

The Yukon's first LEED certified home was born of new city policies designed to develop people-friendly neighbourhoods. Unused city land between large lots was re-zoned to allow for new housing that promoted community engagement. New zoning regulations for these more modestly sized lots included maximum setbacks to kee...

Why build LEED?
LEED Homes

Why build LEED?

Are there LEED Certified builders? There are no LEED certified builders, only LEED certified buildings. To build a home to LEED certification is something that is accessible to anyone, no accreditation is required to undertake the process. It is simply a matter of registering your project and successfully completing th...