CTV’s Homes & Lifestyle Series includes Green Homes Segment

BUILT GREEN® Home Featured

On February 21 and again on the 24, CTV aired an episode focused on green homes as part of their Homes & Lifestyle series. This reflects the growing focus on climate change mitigation, as sustainability themes pepper mainstream media, industry, and academic journals; meanwhile, all orders of government are increasingly focused on the environmental agenda, and consumer demand for sustainably built, certified homes continues to rise.

63% of homebuyers say a high performance home is a “must have”, while an additional 27% “really want” this—according to the 2017 Canadian Home Buyer Preference National Study by Avid Ratings and CHBA National. An overall energy-efficient home is the fifth highest-ranking feature in the study. 43% said low-flow toilets are a “must have”, while ratings showed other water-efficient features to be important to homebuyers as well; in-demand sustainable features go beyond energy efficiency. 53% say home certification is a “must have”, plus 27% “really want” certification—only 5% feel this isn’t important.

The Green Home episode included a panel discussion from industry experts on sustainable building, with Marco Carello from VerdaTech Energy Management & Consulting; Donald Janz from Green Calgary Association; and Lance Floer from Excel Homes and Immediate Past Chair of Built Green Canada’s Board of Directors.

Floer spoke to the benefits of a home built through the BUILT GREEN® program, which takes a holistic approach to sustainable building that includes Energy & Envelope, Materials & Methods, Indoor Air Quality, Ventilation, Waste Management, Water Conservation, and Business Practices.

A key theme each panel member discussed was the affordability that comes with a sustainably built home; homebuyers will be quick to calculate their mortgage, but as Energy Advisor, Carello, points out, it’s important they consider their operating costs as well—there’s money that can be saved over the long-term with a more sustainable home. Builders focused on efficiency, like BUILT GREEN® builders, will have looked at both energy and water consumption, helping their customers keep these utilities costs down.

Buyers are looking for cost savings wherever they can—and they’re finding rebates for efficient homes are available. When it comes time to take out their mortgage loan, homebuyers may submit proof of their home’s BUILT GREEN® certification and redeem the automatic mortgage loan rebate eligibility of 15% that comes with this certification (through Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation and Genworth Canada).

Onsite at an Excel Homes’ BUILT GREEN® home, Floer did a walk through. He chose a build in progress, so he could identify features that would otherwise be hidden—like expanding spray foam insulation around windows that offer better insulation than traditional insulation.

Many of the features shown are visible upon completion as well—Floer pointed out the benefits of key features like the high efficiency furnace, the heat recovery ventilator, and triple-glazed windows. Keeping it simple and speaking in common terms, he showed that sustainability can be straight forward—along with smart and cost effective. Floer says, “Third-party sustainability programs like BUILT GREEN® help move the sustainability agenda forward.”

The program is a two-in-one, so alongside the BUILT GREEN® certification seal through Built Green Canada, there’s the EnerGuide label through Natural Resources Canada. To obtain the EnerGuide label, the builder hires an Energy Advisor, like Carello, who does energy modelling and testing. Carello spoke to some of the items he inspects with his work rating the home—from insulation to home orientation to the mechanical system in a home—giving builders and homebuyers alike a glimpse of the building science behind holistically built homes and their certification labels.

This independently produced series by In-Houze Productions / Kim’s Kitchen Inc. ran on CTV and CTVtwo—stations with viewers across the province and with a viewership of well over one million.

See the full episode with the walk-through here: https://youtu.be/AMhuPl-Nxco, and the panel discussion only is here https://youtu.be/7RrOCFkFLcM.