urban / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

Urban Farm Unit - Aquaponics, Hydroponics, Pisciculture and Urban Farming
Food production

Growing food in urban cores with the Urban Farm Unit

...Urban Farm Units can be easily replicated, transported and, depending on the situation, adapted for specific need. For more information about growing food at home in small spaces see here, from the EcoHome Green Building Guides Shipping container greenhouse the Urban Farm Unit Urban Farming using the ...

Bike lanes in Downtown Vancouver
Choosing where to live

Urban living

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...

ProductiveHouse in Montreal
Choosing where to live

Green living in the city

...urban farming to installing renewable energy sources. 3. Eat local and get started in urban farming. Buying from food co-ops and shopping at farmers' markets promotes local food production, tastes better, and is better for you. The agricultural industry is a huge consumer of fossil fuels, not just transportation but th...

Cutting a 110 year old dying pine tree.
Recycled and Reclaimed Materials

The rise of urban logging

...Urban logging © Colleen Mahoney Where an old garage stood was soon to be the location of a studio / workshop, so rather than dispose of the wood from this tree and go buy more, Brian Blak and Colleen Mahoney had a portable mill come and turn the tree into usable materials for their future building project. Despite bei...

Green Home Design - What makes a city livable
Choosing where to live

What makes a green home livable to you?

...urban living. On the surface, Vancouver has been experiencing massive multi-family residential development, but we are also embarking on a cultural shift towards more efficient living. If we must live smarter and smaller in our changing urban environment, as an architect, I ask myself, how do we design spaces to suppor...

Indoor hydroponic vegetable garden
Food production

Growing food indoors

Introducing BioCity's indoor vertical veggie garden. This beautiful installation made with reclaimed wine bottles allows you to grow arugula, chard, strawberries, cherry tomatoes and more all year round in your very own home. Thanks to the craftsmanship and innovation of the folks at Montreal based company BioCity, gro...

Urban farming
Landscaping

Urban Farming turns beautiful gardens into a grocery store!

...Urban farming: Any food we produce at our homes is food that isn't part of the agricultural industry, which is a huge consumer of natural resources. If you have a bit of space, urban farming is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and your food costs. Not only that, it's often healthier and even tastes better. A...

Bike lanes in Vancouver
Lifestyle, location and commuting

Vancouver's goal of becoming the Greenest City by 2020

...urban density. It means easier access to the services you use, and it justifies improvements and expansions of public transportation. Vancouver SkyTrain  Efficient public transportation combined with the absence of a major automobile artery into the city centre has tipped the scale away from cars when it comes to con...

Electric scooter for commuting
Commuting

The Scrooser: Electric e-bike / scooter for urban commuting

Enter the Scrooser. The Scrooser is a German engineered electric scooter / e-bike with a top speed of 24 km (15 mph) and a range of 35.5 km (22 miles). It works with an Impulse Drive that is literally kickstarted by it's rider as the engine engages when the scooter reaches speeds over 3 km per hour.  The Scrooser no...

Vancouver's first laneway house
Tiny house

Vancouver 's laneway house movement is increasing urban density

...urban densification helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and urban sprawl. That translates directly into cleaner air, more green space, and a genuine step towards limiting the impact of urban centres on our severely troubled climate. The inherent space limitations of backyard construction in dense urban areas brings a...

The Elegant Farm hydroponic bottle garden
Landscaping

Hydroponic bottle gardener launches kickstarter campaign

...urban farming to counteract the heavy ecological footprint of industrial agriculture. However, there are very few options for the increasing number of people wishing to get involved but who don't necessarily have the time, the means, or the expertise for the more commonly practiced forms of urban farming.  To meet this...