COMPANY    |    PLANET    l    TEAM l    SERVICES

 

The process of building or renovating a home is resource-intensive, but it’s also a great opportunity to implement measures that reduce our carbon footprint as we reinvent and expand our housing stock.

In the early stages of planning and design, it is imperative that we make the right choices.

Three crucial components areas of construction We pay attention to the details, from design and planning through to execution, in order to create smart and healthy homes with low operating costs that retain excellent resale value.

Construction processes can be planned carefully to reduce embodied carbon in many different ways, including:

  • prefabrication

  • Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs)

  • Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF)

  • smart framing techniques

The footprint is further reduced by using lower-impact materials such as FSC-certified lumber, insulation free of greenhouse gases, formaldehyde-free millwork, recycled glass counters, zero emission paint, and the installation of Energystar appliances and smart lighting. Heating and ventilation systems are critical mechanical components to be considered when planning a renovation or new build, and must be optimized to ensure the system operates efficiently, consumes few resources, and delivers healthy air and a comfortable environment to the occupants.

When it comes to renovations, we can think of no better way to honour the principles of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle than to restore a quality older home. Currently, 33 per cent of waste generated in Metro Vancouver comes from demolition, renovation, and new construction. The reuse and repurposing of existing houses and materials drastically reduces demolition debris. It is a special privilege that, simultaneously, we can honour the artistry of craftsmen from another era, and the quality materials such as old growth local timbers harvested during the city’s infancy, by highlighting these elements in our designs.

Macfarlane Laneway-.jpg
Prince Albert Kitchen--3.jpg
 
 

Passivhaus

Passivhaus is a very promising approach to building that exemplifies our green focus. It is a performance-based certification standard that emphasizes reducing energy consumption during a building’s operational lifespan. This standard is achieved primarily through:

  • paying special attention to air-tightness

  • quality windows and doors

  • generous insulation throughout the envelope

  • reducing thermal bridging (and other wasteful energy losses)

  • orienting windows to take advantage of solar heat gain

  • excellent ventilation and heat recovery

With an airtight, well-insulated envelope and careful energy modeling during the planning phase, the Passivhaus home’s operating energy needs are reduced by up to 90 per cent, and the required heating systems are downsized drastically, offsetting part of the initial investment. Considering that 80 per cent of a home’s lifetime energy consumption is used during operation, as opposed to 20 per cent during construction, it is critical to think carefully about the entire life cycle of a home.

The City of Vancouver has mandated that all new buildings be carbon-neutral by 2030, and currently accepts Passivhaus as an alternative to LEED certification in rezoning and development approvals. They have released a Passive Design Toolkit to encourage architects and homeowners to begin adopting some of these tenets in their designs. Implementing even some of these approaches (without going for full certification) can reduce a building’s energy demand by 50 per cent. Maestro can help you get there.

Architrix 1.jpg
14002 PLWH view2--rs.jpg
 
PassiveHouse canada new.png