r-2000 / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Midori Uchi
Efficient home design

A new contender for the title of Canada's Greenest Home

...R-2000 standards for energy efficiency, indoor air tightness quality, and environmental responsibility in home construction. The Midori Uchi will be a show home for showcasing green home design for approximately one year. Some notable design features of the Midori Uchi: Rammed earth walls (first time in a single famil...

Leed platinum plaque
Green building certifications

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

...R-2000 is a government run program that encourages energy efficient building techniques, with an energy performance of 50% better than code. Certified homes can only be built by licensed R-2000 builders. Like many of the earlier programs, R-2000 focused solely on the building envelope and performance until very recentl...

R values and insulation performance
Efficient home design

Understanding thermal performance

First published in ecoHouse Canada The thermal performance of wall assemblies and insulation products has long been characterized using R-value, a metric which describes thermal resistance. While R-value is useful, it doesn’t tell the whole story about heat flow through building enclosures such as walls and roofs. Rece...

Thermal image showing where home heat loss is occurring.
Insulation and soundproofing

How insulation works

Insulation slows the rate of heat transfer, helping keep homes warmer in winter and cooler in summer. How well-insulated your home is will determine how comfortable it is and how much you will spend on energy for heating and cooling, and in some respects, how durable it will be. The transfer of heat (or heat loss) occu...

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...

The Top Twelve Green Building Trends for 2020
Planning and Design

Find out what's trending in 2020 for Green Home Construction

Top Sustainable Construction Trends for 2020 There are always new green building products coming out that lead to more efficient, more durable or more eco-friendly homes. But most of what grabbed our attention this past year, and the things that we will see through 2020, are perhaps best described as sustainable constr...

Passive House design Vancouver
Passive House

The city of Vancouver is actively promoting Passive House construction

Vancouver has set a goal of being the greenest city in the world by the year 2020. Some of the policies included in that plan are expanded public transportation, bike lanes, encouraging laneway houses for urban density and requiring all new civic buildings to be zero emissions. The city has also imposed upon itself a m...

Earth day celebrations for 50th Anniversary
Lifestyle and environment

50th anniversary Earth day 2020 taking place online

How & why we celebrate Earth Day, April 22nd Earth Day is one of the few globally celebrated days of observance in the world, with more than a billion people joining together in past years to show their support for environmental protection. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day (learn the history here) ...

Prefab & Modular Construction is Booming for Sustainable Homes
Planning and Design

Prefab & Modular Construction poised for dramatic growth in 2020

Following on from our predictions for green construction in 2020, Dodge Data & Analytics just released the findings of a landmark study on prefab and modular construction. The Prefabrication and Modular Construction 2020 SmartMarket Report (download below) was published with the support of Bradley Corp., the Modula...

The LEED Platinum Beachaus II in Vancouver, BC
LEED Homes

The Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC) Measures the Environmental Benefit of the LEED Certification 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...

Tesla Solar Roof Tiles installation just got easier
Solar photovoltaic

Tesla solar roof gains ground with target of 1000 solar roofs / week

The Telsa solar roof tiles are in the news again. They now have solar panel shingle installations going in 8 states so far - with what's becoming competitive pricing. If news of these PV roof shingles is also news to you, check out our Tesla solar roof review from when it was first announced in 2016. What was missing b...