Toronto Star
Sat, Jul 12, 2008
Byline: Michael Moldenhauer

Peter Love, Ontario's chief energy conservation officer, has deep roots in the green building movement; so his participation in the kickoff of the blitz-build of the Archetype Sustainable House at the Kortright Centre this week was apropos, as were his remarks.

Love was executive director of the Canadian Energy Efficiency Alliance when it partnered with the Ontario Home Builders' Association just over 10 years ago to form the EnerQuality Corporation. Back then, R-2000 was the only energy-efficient housing label available, but Love brought the rapidly growing Energy Star for new homes program to the marketplace before moving on to his provincial role.

More recently, EnerQuality introduced its new Green House label, so Love's legacy continues to grow; but I digress. The reason Love was at the Kortright Centre in Woodbridge was to join hundreds of volunteers from both BILD and the Toronto Region Conservation Authority as we officially commenced construction of Building Blocks, the winning design for the Archetype Sustainable House.

Over the course of just 17 days, hundreds of volunteers will build a semi-detached home that will serve to show the best green building practices today, and what could be achieved as the industry moves forward.

Energy and water conservation, site management, material sourcing and construction processes are among the issues that will be demonstrated in these sustainable houses.

Brian Denney, the Conservation Authority's chief administrative officer, quipped that the project has been a great lesson to his agency in just how difficult it is to build a house (TRCA's main role is regulatory).

He added that the most significant aspect of the project is the strategic partnership with the building industry via the association.

Speaking on behalf of BILD, Leith Moore of the Sorbara Development Group said the Archetype House was a great opportunity for the industry to demonstrate its commitment to sustainable development and green building with such a great partner as TRCA.

Wrapping up the formalities, Love noted that code-built homes in Ontario are the most energy-efficient anywhere in Canada. He also spoke of how the great, green work the building industry is doing is actually "invisible."

"It's in the walls, the windows, the ceiling, the furnace, the heat recovery ventilator; it's all there but it looks so conventional that it can go unnoticed," Love said.

And so he urged home builders to begin making some noise about their green initiatives.

Taking up the challenge, I am very proud that the home-building industry has met the Kyoto targets. According to Environment Canada's Greenhouse Gas Inventory, in 2006 emissions from the residential sector were 8.5 per cent below the level released in 1980 and 2.5 per cent below the Kyoto target. That's great, but more needs to be done and the Archetype Sustainable House will serve as a great platform for BILD to inform and inspire its membership to build green.

I'm also very proud of the fact that our provincial industry association continues to be a partner in EnerQuality, which not only offers the Energy Star and Green House labels, which will adorn the homes at Kortright, but is training builders and contractors by the thousands to build greener.

Finally, I'd like to brag about the many BILD members who stepped up to support this demonstration project by donating green products, materials, skilled and unskilled labour.

There are far too many to mention here so I would encourage readers to visit newhomes.org and click on Green Homes, then Archetype House for more information on the project and our supporters.

Michael Moldenhauer is president of the Building Industry and Land Development Association. His column appears Saturdays in New in Homes. The views expressed are those of the president. Email president@bildgta.ca.