There is so much we could do IF we had the political will and/or if as individuals we would accept our responsibility to act. There are solutions “out there.” What has precipitated this rant on my part? I took a tour of the Green Home in Richmond Hill (213 Coon’s Road; NW of King Rd & Yonge).
Some of its features: tankless water heater, solar heat assist to help warm the hot water, insulation far beyond Ontario building code, solar electric energy to feed the grid, energy efficient lighting (motion activated in bathrooms, CFL and LED lighting), grey water system (shower and bath water recycled to toilets), permeable pavements, PET carpets (recycled pop bottles) and more. You can learn more by visiting Green Home website and you go on Saturdays and Sundays to tour it yourself.
One of the first steps in the ICSP (integrated community sustainability plan) is to paint the picture of what we want King to be in 20-30 years, to create a vision. In 20-30 years I want someone to say to me: “You live in King don’t you? Isn’t that where there is all that beautiful rolling landscape? And isn’t that where all the newer sections of the villages feature homes built with the best early 21st century technologies to minimize impact on environment and where the earlier homes are steadily renovating to match these improvements. You must be so proud…and you are so lucky!”
Perhaps even more valuable than the showcasing of some of the current technical solutions, the Green Home is going to be monitored for 3 years and tracked against a same sized house with the basic Energy Star features. The monitoring project is being done collaboratively with Ryerson.
The selected photo shows the techniques used in the Green Home to enable rain and storm water runoff to reach the water tables. Specifically it shows the permeable pavements and infiltration galleries. (The latter is river stone in combination with underlying granular material; there are plans to add drought resistant plantings.) Also note the continued use of the rain barrel!
Very interesting – any chance of getting a Green Home in our new subdivision developments? It’s a great way to educate people. I gather that all new houses built in China have solar panels on the roof.
Hello Fiona, My dream is many “green” homes in our new subdivisions. Need to do some work to make it a reality. And I think the timing for our commitment to become sustainable and to start that process will help that to happen.
Hi Debbie
I thought there was a whole development of “green houses” in Newmarket completed some years ago. Do we have any information on the progress of that development?
The hope of getting people to voluntarily change their behaviour is optimistic. We do not relate our behaviour to starving people in Africa, so guilt does not work. Why not emphasize the personal economic benefits of building or modifying your house to meet” green” standards. Money is an incentive for change.
So where does one start saving [making] money? I believe one of the largest impediments to change is lack of knowledge or understanding. There are volumes of guidelines and instructions and numbers and formulas to tell you what to do. But it seems the whole business is just too exhausting and cumbersome. We now buy energy efficient appliances and energy-efficient light bulbs and so on. We do these things, they’re done and we forget about it. Our behaviour has not been changed in any fundamental way. The average person just does not get it. A commitment to sustainability is an ongoing process.
So, getting back to making money. Let’s take the economics of air conditioning as an example. It is probably causing a huge strain on our electricity generation capacity at this moment during this “heat wave”. In our house, which is about 3500 ft.², there is no air-conditioner. Actually we do have an air conditioner but we haven’t used it for six or eight years and had it disconnected three years ago. This causes no discomfort at all. We have not upgraded our insulation in 20 years although we have installed thermal window shades in the last two. How do we do it? It takes a little effort every day to manage the temperature in our house but in time it has become a game to see how cold we can keep the temperature during the day. Our air-conditioning is free.
Hello Hans, I have never heard of the Newmarket “green house” developments; I will follow up.
I get your point totally about “making money” as a way to change behavior. I have not seen the stats but last week I heard that one of the reasons Toronto has had only one smog day this summer to date is because cars are being left at home because of price of gas and more people are using transit. I know that I will be envious of your “free” A/C when I get my July electricity bill. It is quite true that geothermal A/C is very effective but it needs the electricity to run it. Because of the power of financial incentive I was very pleased that our water rates feature a tiered consumption charge. Debbie
Hello Hans,
Yes you are quite right. In Newmarket Rodeo built a small subdivision (34) with homes billed as EcoLogic. I gather that it was completed in 2009. I have contacted builders with hopes of understanding market responsiveness and whether they have any data on customer satisfaction post moving in. To date there has been no response. To see the suite of “green” features here is their website.