Green Building Canada

Green Building Canada features the latest in green building practices, technologies and news, guides to green building, a searchable business directory and job board.

[greenbuildingcanada]

The Scoop on Paint Options: Limiting Your Environmental Impact

Paint can be the finishing touch on your building or renovation project, the feature that puts a personal stamp on your home, the difference between a room that looks elegant and a room that looks fondly back to the 1970s. Aesthetically, a can of paint goes a long way. A can of paint also goes a long way in terms of its impact on your health and the health of the environment. Fortunately, this is one area where your household choices can make a big difference. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

The Green Garden: 5 Eco-Friendly Tools of the Trade

Most people probably think that gardening is a “green” or eco-friendly activity. However, there are certain choices gardeners make that can be harmful, as well as choices that can be extra-beneficial to the environment. As a guide to action, read on to find out about the wide variety of beneficial choices you can make in regard to five different aspects of gardening. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

Off-Grid Power Systems: 7 Main Types and the Safety Components You'll Need

Living off the grid, also known as homesteading, means being disconnected from the power grid and sometimes other public utilities (such as water and sewage) as well. This seems like a daunting task, but if you’ve ever spent time camping or at a cottage, it may not be so farfetched for you. Living off the grid doesn’t necessarily mean living without electricity—many folks find other power sources to help them maintain the comforts of modern living while bypassing municipal services. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

7 Essential Aspects of Sustainable Architecture Worldwide

The design of a building plays a key role in how efficiently and sustainably it can function. While architects normally view each building's design and functionality from a wholistic perspective, sustainable architects specifically aim to design a building that will support the local ecosystem, be energy efficient and protect valued resources. Their goal is to assess what’s already there and design and build the structure such a way that effectively utilizes the resources available. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

4 Areas of Design to Consider When Mapping Out a Green Building

Home construction, renovation and demolition are all sources of waste and runoff that can negatively impact the environment. Thankfully, there are things you can do when building and designing homes that can minimize the environmental footprint of the construction process and the home itself. If you’re designing a home and want to make some eco-friendly adjustments to your design plans, here are four areas of design that you should consider. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

A Guide to Green Roofs: The Lowdown on Types, Components and Advantages

A green roof, also known as a living roof or an eco-roof, is essentially a rooftop garden or park.  However, green roofs often involve more complex infrastructure than more contained or simplified rooftop gardens. They require irrigation systems, proper waterproofing to prevent leaks, a root barrier, a growing medium that’s lighter than traditional soil and appropriate drainage, just to name a few essentials. While they can cost a bit more upfront than a more traditional roof, the benefits are huge and the potential long-term savings could pay dividends—especially for the environment! Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

Reduce That Carbon Footprint: The Rise of Eco Homes

Green initiatives are rapidly gaining traction, as it becomes increasingly evident that we need to change the way we do things in order to prevent a massive environmental fallout. Home construction and demolition is an enormous source of waste, and the building of housing developments often leads to the clearing of trees and important green space at the cost of displacing and harming wildlife. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

5 Types of Renewable Energy All Homeowners Should Investigate

Perhaps you want to live off the grid, decrease your carbon footprint or limit your dependency on those utility companies that ask for so much money every month. While we’ve previously covered some of the ways you can decrease your energy use, it’s also possible to use renewable energy sources to virtually eliminate your utility bills. If you’re installing renewable energy sources, it’s important to obey your local building codes, as set by your municipality. You may be required to keep your home connected to “the power grid,” but it’s possible that you’ll be able to rely on your chosen source of renewable energy instead. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

The Albertan Forest: A Renewable Resource with Many Uses [video]

Did you know that 60 percent of Alberta is covered in forest? Forestry is one of the largest industries in Alberta. employing over 19,000 Albertans. The forest provides us with a renewable resource that we use in many ways. And because it's renewable, we're able to manage it sustainably, to make sure that we always have healthy forests and that we have access to products indefinitely. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

BioLEC: A way to power the world with plants and industrial waste

In June , the U.S. Department of Energy made an announcement that seemed fairly banal—it set aside $100 million this year to fund 22 new Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) and renew several others. One of them, a new lab at Princeton University, is slated to receive almost $11 million over four years. But just past the surface, that announcement marked the start of a project that could prove to be revolutionary. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

Architect Ron Bakker Talks About Sustainable Building [video]

I'm Ron Bakker, and I designed this building, and I did not do that by myself. I did it with lots of colleagues, and the team grew and grew and grew, and there are millions of conversations that made this building. And actually, communication is what sets us, as people, apart from the animal kingdom. We are the ones that can talk to each other, and through history, we've made places, special places for people to communicate. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

The Quest for Energy Efficient Municipal Buildings: 3 Experts Weigh In

The majority of the energy used by buildings is wasted, resulting in increased energy costs and air pollution. Among C40 cities, this translates to between 50 percent and 75 percent of citywide carbon emissions. Therefore, due to the sheer amount of energy consumed by buildings, urban decision-makers have an opportunity to make an outsized impact by targeting municipal building efficiency. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

Convert 2 Recycled Pallets Into a Chair in 5 Steps [infographic]

From Visually. Screen reader version: 

1. You Will Need...

1 x wooden pallet with 14mm thick planks 1 x wooden pallet with wing nuts (6 x 50mm) 58 x woodscrews (4 x 30mm) 8 x woodscrews (5 x 60mm) 1 x tube of wood glue 1 x wood saw 1 x crowbar Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

What Is the LEED Dynamic Plaque and Why Is It Useful? [video]

Tom Mills (host of GreenShortz): I'm with Gretchen Sweeney, and she is part of the USGBC LEED Team, LEED of course being a building certification program, certify buildings' performance, but a certification is only as good as that performance, right?  Gretchen: That's correct. The LEED rating system for buildings has been around for about 15 years, and it's been certifying by asking people to take action in a building, strategies to improve that building. But what we haven't been doing is measuring how the buildings actually perform once all of these strategies are in place, whether it's a policy or something that's implemented when the building is designed and constructed. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

Solar Panels: A Feasible Diesel Replacement in Northern Canada

The sun being a resource worth tapping into is now globally accepted, but how to do it in the most efficient way is still an ongoing conversation. The obvious choice is to put solar panels in regions with lots of sun, such as Africa or Asia. But solar energy doesn’t only make sense in places where you have plenty of light. Canadian communities with as little as five hours of sun a day could soon leapfrog from diesel dependence to a clean energy economy. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

Retrofit or Rebuild? A Design Charette with 8 Green Building Experts [video]

Chris Phillips:

Hi, my name is Chris Phillips and I'm the president of Greening Homes. Greening Homes is a renovations company whose mandate is to minimize our environmental impact on our projects as much as possible. We've recently been retained on an exciting new project in East York. It's an attempt to reach Passive House standards on an East York bungalow, a 1950s existing building. And my role for this project is primarily acting as a project manager, keeping track of the budget, having an input on various materials going into the project, and also offering some of my expertise in building science and also sustainable building and design. Read the full article

[greenbuildingcanada]

Sustainable From the Bottom Up: Green Materials for an Entire Building

by Ghergich. From Visually.   Screen reader version:  

Happy Feet: Eco-Friendly Alternatives

  Bamboo Best for:  Bedrooms, kitchens, living rooms Pros:  Matures in less than five years Available in caramel and blond-colored planks Lasts as long as traditional hardwood Read the full article