Newmarket celebrated the groundbreaking of Canada’s greenest residential housing community Tuesday with environment commissioner Gord Miller and Andrew Bowerbank of World Green building council. Ed Evans (right) bought the first 100-per-cent sustainable eco-home in the subdivision.
Newmarket
November 14, 2007 08:24 PM
By: David Fleischer
Who needs hard hats and shovels?
Rodeo Fine Homes officially launched Eco Logic, a Newmarket subdivision that will be the greenest in Canada Tuesday, .
“This is really thrilling, this is a wonderful day,” said Ed Evans, a Toronto resident who has been waiting to be one of the first buyers of the 34 Platinum LEED-rated homes set to be built on the former Stickwood-Walker lands.
Mr. Evans recalled a poorly attended residents meeting three years ago at which the idea of creating a green subdivision was hatched.
He joined the Newmarket Environmental Action Committee and has remained involved as the town moved forward with plans to ensure the development was earth-friendly.
“It’s really nice to see something that started as a little idea ... and three years later, everybody is here. It’s the most important housing project in Canada.”
“This, for me, is the tops in my career,” said Lenard Hart, a former head of the Energy Star and R2000 programs, who consulted on the project. He compared the local history of development to driving a car the wrong way on a dark highway during moose season.
The new development is proof that we are finally turning the car in the right direction, he said.
“This is a project of national significance,” said Mayor Tony Van Bynen, who has continued the efforts of former mayor Tom Taylor on the project.
“This will set the standard for sustainable building practices across Canada.”
LEED—which stands for Leadership and Energy and Environmental Design—is a program through which builders can receive points for various aspects of design and construction.
So far, it has only been used for larger, commercial products.
Whereas a normal home might warrant 15 points on the scale, LEED certification begins at 45 points. Platinum certification requires 90 points and the Rodeo homes will surpass even that, aiming for 96 points.
Rodeo’s homes will generate 65 per cent less construction waste, use 25 per cent less water, produce 50 per cent less greenhouse gas and use 60 per cent less energy than a typical home.
They will actually be rated through the American LEED system, since Canada’s Green Building Council will be using these and other homes to develop a system for Canadian builders.
“It’s a process of learning a new way of doing it that will become standard, I think, within 10 years,” said Andrew Bowerbank, executive director of the World Green Building Council.
The next big step, said Mr. Bowerbank, is to develop a LEED system that examines neighbourhoods as a whole.
The development sets a new standard others will have to follow, Gord Miller, Ontario’s environmental commissioner, said.
“It’s a challenge to other communities to be as bold as Newmarket and for other builders to be as bold as Rodeo,” he said.