zero-emissions / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

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...

A new cement block manufacturing process developed by an American company named Solidia Technologies® produces 40% fewer emissions during manufacturing than conventional concrete, resulting in a dramatically lower environmental footprint. Solidia’s concrete is formulated with less lime and is cured at lower temperature...

Net Zero Homes - the design & certification process In May of 2017, the Canadian Home Builders Association [CHBA] officially launched its Net Zero Home Labelling Program, following the successful completion of a 15-month pilot project to validate technical and administrative procedures for building net zero homes i...

With the recent COP26 Global Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, all the world's countries are talking carbon emissions amidst a certain amount of finger-pointing. In the closing minutes as the sustainable world watched the much applauded COP26 conference and a host of private jets were revving up their eng...

From the Natural Resources Canada website: Overview: The R-2000 Net Zero Energy pilot aims to recognize the builders and homes reaching net zero energy performance in Canada, and to pilot the next generation of NRCan’s R-2000 Standard and EnerGuide Rating System in net zero energy applications.  Drawing on NRCan’s nati...

This project, affectionately referred to as Belgravia Green, is a collaboration between home owners, local experts and Effect Home Builders. Together they are pushing the envelope to design and build Net Zero Energy homes that produce as much energy throughout the year as they consume. Net Zero Energy home © Eff...

  SAB: What does the CaGBC hope to achieve with the Zero Carbon Buildings Initiative? Mark Hutchinson: The CaGBC launched the zero carbon building initiative in 2016 to champion the move to lower-carbon commercial, institutional and high-rise residential buildings in support of Canada’s efforts to mitigate the effects ...

Landmark Homes Inc. In Calgary Alberta, In partnership with Brookfield Residential Properties, has just started construction on a community of 27 prefabricated net zero energy homes, the first of its kind in Alberta. A ‘Net Zero Energy’ home on an annual basis generates as much or more power than it consumes, and each ...

As owners of this net zero energy home construction project, we acted as both the designer and general contractor. The objective for the new home (to replace a 1950’s bungalow with all the imaginable problems that could come with it) was to design and build a home for a family of 4 that is fun, comfortable to live in, ...

Low-carbon concrete - "green" cement at last?  One of the most essential and commonly-used building materials in home construction, commercial buildings and city infrastructure is concrete, which has an extremely high carbon footprint, with cement production accounting for 7% of global carbon emission. This problem is...

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...