St. Albert residents can hear how they can build a greener botanic arts city next week as Alberta builders hold their first green homes summit.
About 100 people will be at the Royal Glenora Club in Edmonton this Jan. 29 for the first annual Alberta Green Homes Summit. Organized by the Canada Green Building Council (Alberta chapter) and sponsored by the City of St. Albert, the conference aims to kick-start construction of energy-efficient homes in Alberta.
Alberta has a growing market for green homes that will likely expand as residents look to cut their energy bills, said Tanya Doran, St. Albert resident and executive director of the Canada Green Building Council (Alberta chapter).
"We have some fabulous leaders in our own market," she continued. The Landmark Group and Avalon Homes are both building high-efficiency homes, for example, while innovators like architect Peter Amerongen have helped make Edmonton one of Canada's leaders when it comes to net-zero homes.
"We still haven't gotten to that mainstream justification," though, she added, and many changes will be needed before green homes become commonplace.
St. Albert Coun. Gilles Prefontaine said he used $1,500 of his council professional development budget to make the city the Bronze sponsor of this conference because of his passion for sustainable development.
He's also having keynote speaker Sean Pander speak to council the day after the conference about sustainable homes.
Sustainability is about more than just the environment, Prefontaine said – it's also about economics and affordable housing. Recent studies by the city suggest that not only do citizens value their parks and open spaces, but that they are also in great need of affordable homes for young professionals and seniors.
"How do we design more sustainable neighbourhoods?"
Greening our homes
Governments need to be more open to new housing ideas if they want to see sustainable communities, Prefontaine said.
"Our building practices nowadays are geared around pushing water off of our lawns … and then we get out there with a hose and we water," Prefontaine said.
"That's not an effective use of water."
Rene Michalak of the Canadian Association for Rainwater Management will be at the conference to speak on how rainwater harvesting can help the environment and reduce utility costs.
Cities also have to have the right bylaws in place to encourage the walkable communities that people want, Prefontaine said.
Pander's keynote address will be about Vancouver's Greenest City plan, which aims to cut community-based greenhouse gas emissions by 33 per cent from 2007 levels, require all new buildings to be carbon-neutral, and ensure that over half of all trips are made by bus, bike or foot by 2020.
Doran hopes that the province will upgrade its energy standards for new homes to encourage energy efficiency.
Energy efficiency is the most cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said Jesse Row, who will speak at the conference for the Alberta Energy Efficiency Alliance. The most important step Alberta can take to encourage it is to update its building code.
"We actually haven't had any new energy efficiency standards in the building codes since 1981," he said.
"It's long, long due."
Albertans are losing out on about $500 million in savings a year because the province has yet to adopt the 2012 federal standards for energy efficiency in buildings, Row estimated.
"Albertans will save more than these programs cost."
Greener homes are also better for your health as they emit fewer toxic chemicals, Doran said.
"More often than not, it's just about your own comfort," she added.
"A well-insulated home with a great envelope is ultimately more comfortable when it's minus 30 outside and the wind's whistling or when it's plus 30 and the sun's shining."
Visit www.cagbc.org for more on the conference.
