living-city-campus / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

The BRE Innovation Park (Building Research Establishment) that lies 15km north of Toronto will soon build a new series of houses in which emerging building products and technologies can be researched and enhanced. The Sustainable Technologies Evaluation Program (STEP) is run out of The Living City Campus at Kortright, ...

Air Source Heat Pumps, and are Ground Source Heat Pumps "Geothermal?" Let's clear up some confusion on terminology regarding heat pumps - search Google for Geothermal Heating Systems and you will find hundreds maybe thousands of companies using the word "Geothermal" to describe ground source heat pumps, two systems tha...

Housing is an enormous source of carbon emissions, so it is also a place where we have tremendous room for improvement. This building guide will walk you through the steps than can help you minimize your personal emissions as much as possible, whether you are building, buying or renting. Keep in mind, this is not a sac...

1. Life without a car. One of the nice things about living in the city is public transportation and proximity to services, which makes it possible to live without a car. Or at the very least, it can reduce the amount of driving you have to do. When choosing a place to live, check the walking distances from buses or sub...

First published in SAB magazine. Kim Barnsley Is a senior architect at the Vancouver office of Perkins+Will. The way we live is changing. As both an architect and a resident of Vancouver, I am regularly confronted with how our cities are changing through urban densification and shifting demographics, to accessibility a...

  For those that aren't made for the bustling lifestlyle of cities, small towns can be a dream come true. The nature of small towns is one of community and accessible downtown cores. Essential services like grocery stores, banks and post offices are usually grouped closely together, as are schools, so children can ofte...

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...

It is well-documented that indoor air is filled with contaminants, mostly due to cooking (specifically burning) and improperly vented combustion appliances (woodstoves, gas water heaters, gas ranges, etc.). Following that would be formaldehyde, VOCs and other chemicals in building materials and furnishings. All these f...

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...

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...

The ecological impact of suburban living: U.S. studies regarding the energy impact of population by location shows 55% of the energy consumed by a family living in a house in a suburban area is from travel. The figure drops to 26% for the same family living in the same house located in a neighborhood where work and key...