Planning & Designing Sustainable Green Homes

Passive solar home design

The principal designer of the house that inspired the global Passivhaus movement reflects on the project that started it all.

Harold Orr introduced us to some of the most essential components of durable and energy efficient homes. Here is a look back at the passive solar heated house he designed that revolutionized the housing industry. While developing pages on passive heating and cooling and writing about Passive House, we were in…

Passive solar home design

Saskatchewan: The birthplace of Passive House and passive solar home design

The Conservation House in Saskatchewan was built in 1977, and was a revolutionary building design that introduced passive heating and cooling to modern Passive House home building. Passive House design, how does it work? If you've ever sat in a car with black leather seats in the summer, particularly when wearing…

LEED Homes

Quebec carpentry students to build LEED house for Habitat for Humanity

The New Frontiers School Board (NFSB) in Ormstown, Quebec wants to give their graduating students a leg up in the world of green home construction, by building a LEED house that they plan to donate to Habitat for Humanity. After completing a design workshop for high performance wall systems, teachers at the New…

Lifestyle, location and commuting

Sustainable building practices create prosperous communities

An Australian report finds sustainable building is helping to create stronger and more prosperous communities. Sustainable building practices are doing more than just helping the environment - they are also helping to create stronger and more prosperous communities. This is according to the Green Building Council of…

Passive solar home design

Passive house and passive solar - free heat for homes

The basics on passive heating and cooling homes, as when building a green high performance & healthy home, free heat is a good start. What is passive solar heating & cooling? Passive heating and cooling of homes is not new . The above image is of Mesa Verde National Park, the Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings in…

Efficient home design

The Kenogami House: designed to ENDURE

Developed by Alex Wilson, ENDURE is an acronym for a design concept that defines the essence of sustainable and efficient construction, and the foundation of our building philosophy for the Kenogami project. Alex Wilson is the founder of the journal Environmental Building News, Green Building, GreenSpec and recently…

Commuting

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

Looking for a cool renewable energy commute to work that isn't an electric car? check out the Scrooser e-bike, known as the "Harley Davidson for sidewalks". 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…

Wood and organic materials

All about wood

The sight of a tree falling can easily trigger something even in the most unlikely environmentalist. Ignoring that visual, wood can be a much greener material choice than many others if you put some thought into selection. Finding sustainable wood: We live in a country with over 400 million hectares of forest, so…

Wood and organic materials

Wood frame construction

Undeniably the most ecological framing material, wood is both a renewable resource and one that serves to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when used in place of other materials. The environmental advantages of wood frame construction: As a renewable building material, wood has many advantages over other materials…

LEED Homes

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

After certifying 1000 LEED buildings nationwide, the CaGBC takes a look at exactly what's saved when we build to LEED standard rather than to code. The results speak for themselves. After certifying its first LEED project in 2005, the CaGBC collected data over the next eight years, measuring the direct impact LEED…

LEED Homes

The Canada Green Building Council announces affordable green housing program

Canada's premier sustainable building organization offers free green building registration and certification to charitable building projects. Working with charitable housing groups like Habitat for Humanity, the CaGBC will administer free registrations and certifications under the internationally-recognized…