5 days of advanced topics in permaculture design. In this advanced series we will be honing your skills as a designer in order to jumpstart your career in Permaculture.  The techniques in this series are the foundation of small or large scale Permaculture Design. The course facilitated by Graham Calder Focuses on…

The Permaculture Design Certificate course is an internationally-recognized, seventy-two hour course resulting in a Permaculture Design Certificate. It provides an introduction to permaculture design as set forth by movement founder Bill Mollison. The course is taught by Graham Calder.The PDC serves as foundation…

Third annual permaculture design course is an intensive 72+ hour 13 day program combining theory and practical activities. Through lectures, discussions, slide shows, field trips and hands-on activities participants learn the basic permaculture design principles and develop the skills to design and implement systems…

This course will give an overview of various sustainable technologies including solar and wind energy electrical systems, solar domestic hot water, wood heating and geothermal systems. This course will help home or cottage owners decide what technologies make sense for them, considering their own motivations and…

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…

Don’t let a lack of direct sun exposure stop you from growing your own food, there area many vegetables that will grow well in the shade. If you're like me and you love to grow your own food but have limited access to all day sun, do not fret - a bountiful harvest is still well within your reach. Just like the…

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…

The Living Building Challenge is the most rigorous and comprehensive of all building rating systems, certified on merit alone after 12 months of occupancy. What is the Living Building Challenge? The Living Building Challenge is the most rigorous and comprehensive of all building rating systems. Performance…

Salvage companies are pulling up logs from the bottoms of rivers, where a century and a half of log drives has left behind a lot of great wood. As a kid growing up along the Gatineau River in Quebec, watching tugboats pulling log booms down the river was commonplace, and logs that got loose were a great source of…

The Archipod: Beautiful, Functional & Environmentally Sound. I'm sure we can all agree that as the cost and inconvenience of commuting to work continues to escalate, the advances in networking technology are making the possibility of working from home a viable alternative to schlepping ourselves to the office. When…

Discover Sustainable Healthy Living. The Living Green Expo is a new event in the National Capital, but one with a long history of success. This new initiative is the result of a collaboration of the organizers of two established Ottawa events: the Ottawa EcoFair and ECO EXPO, now working in partnership with the…

Sustainable building practices can reach the stage where cost effectiveness becomes questionable & when money should be used optimally. The "Damn Near" is a Passive House on a Budget to prove the point. What is a Passive House? The term 'passive house' refers to an extremely high performing energy efficient home…

A Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Conference. All around North America, cities are shifting from ‘grey to green’ approaches to developing and renewing their infrastructure. Green infrastructure involves the use of living systems such as green roofs and walls, urban forests, wetlands, porous paving systems and…

The North American Native Plant Society's Annual Sale. Expect wildflowers, ferns, grasses and sedges, as well as trees and shrubs. Hundreds of books on related topics will also be available. Chat with knowledgeable experts to help you make the right choices for your planting project. All plants come from ethical…

Alberta's premier green building event - 16 years strong. An annual event for building owners and operators, architects, engineers, planners, builders, green product suppliers, and planning and building policy makers. It's a one day opportunity to network with clients, gain insight into future trends and celebrate…

Far from the days of being a fringe element trend, the benefits and necessity of sustainable building practices are now sweeping across the globe. Courtesy of the USGBC , the following is a guest post by Harvey M. Bernstein, Vice President of Industry Insights & Alliances, McGraw-Hill Construction and John Mandyck…

Designer Damien Chivialle re-imagines how we feed our cities, one container at a time, combining aquaculture & hydroponics. So, urban agriculture. It's important, right? That’s certainly the conclusion I've come to when pondering the future of food production, our future on this planet, and sustainability in…

Imagine charging your phone with the heat from your morning coffee. With the Epiphany onE Puck you can. The idea behind the Epiphany onE Puck is simple: use a Stirling engine powered by heat disparities (a hot or cold drink, a candle, ice, etc.) to fully charge your cell phone. Invented in the early 1800s, Stirling…

Building Lasting Change Without staying informed, expanding traditional thinking, and adapting to new ideas – no real change is possible. Our industry is constantly pushing itself forward with new thinking that is changing the built environment in ways that will impact generations of Canadians. This is why in 2013…