Steve Somerville
Volunteers raise a wall at this housing project at the Kortright Centre for Conservation in Vaughan. The house is an example of the highest standards for a green home and a future blueprint for the construction industry.
Vaughan
July 17, 2008 11:32 PM
By: Keely Grasser
A considerable team of volunteers is building a model home in Woodbridge that sets the highest standards for green home construction.
The 17-day blitz to build the model is giving the local construction industry a hands-on chance to see and learn some of the newest environmentally friendly building technologies.
Construction-industry workers make up a good portion of the more than 150 volunteers helping to build the home at the Kortright Centre for Conservation.
“Conservation is invisible. It’s hard for people to see,” said Peter Love, the chief energy conservation officer at Ontario Power Authority’s conservation bureau. But he added a project like this gives a visual example of available conservation technologies.
The project is a partnership between the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority and the Building Industry and Land Development Association, which represents almost 1,500 GTA land development, building, renovation, supply and service companies. Another goal of the home is to serve as an educational site for the public.
Planning for the more than two week-long project meant six months of intense scheduling, buil-industry association member Larry Brydon said.
Using donated material, the building association’s members, as well as other volunteers, are working under the instruction of a site foreman, who is on loan from Habitat for Humanity, an organization with experience overseeing quick construction of houses by volunteers, Mr. Brydon said.
Empire Communities, a Markham producer of EnergyStar-rated homes, is one of the companies lending workers to the effort.
“By actually participating in a project like this, you get engaged with excitement,” executive vice-president Paul Golini said. “There’s a sense of pride of being involved with a project like this.”
“Everyone here has something to learn from someone,” added his construction manager, Lou Natarelli. “It’s a permanent monument, almost, to construction technology.”
Building industry CEO Stephen Dupuis said green building is growing by leaps and bounds and this model shows off the technology to industry players.
“We want to lead them to the water. If they decide to drink, it’s up to them,” Mr. Dupuis said.
From its foundation to its windows, the model is to show off current and future green building technology.
It was designed by architects Anne Stevens and Terrell Wong, whose design won a green contest.
The model home is semi-detached. One unit showcases today’s green building technologies and the other features tomorrow’s technology, such as fuel cells and types of power generation.
Each home will be rated under a variety of home labelling systems, including EnergyStar, GreenHouse, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for homes and R-2000.
Among other things, the home showcases high-efficiency fiberglass-filled windows, Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood, rainwater harvesting, solar hot water heating systems, a wood/concrete composition insulated block foundation, an electrical and a gas high-efficiency heating system, passive solar design that reduces summer cooling requirements, advanced framing techniques and recycled and low-impact materials.
But the green thinking doesn’t just end at the house’s walls.
They are aiming for 100 per cent waste diversion for the project, Mr. Brydon said.
A solar power compactor is on site, as well as recycling bins to sort out drywall, plastic wrap, wood, metal and all the other waste a construction project makes.
Even the volunteers’ meals are environmentally friendly. There are bins for composting, which will also accept plates and cutlery, which are starch-based and recyclable.
The model home is expected to open in September.
Upon its completion, it will become a permanent exhibit at Kortright. It sits in the conservation area’s forest landscape, near the Earth Rangers Centre.
“That’s the beauty of it. We know this parking lot is filled with buses of students on school trips on the weekdays and families on weekends,” Mr. Dupuis said.