Founding Member Recognized for Ongoing Sustainability Ambassadorship
Alberta’s Jayman BUILT honoured as finalist in national Maverick Awards
To reward and profile leadership in sustainable building, Built Green Canada launched its inaugural awards program (the Maverick Awards) with three exclusive category winners, which saw entries from British Columbia to Ontario. Fitting, that in the Maverick’s inaugural year, its founding member, Jayman BUILT, was a finalist for not one, but two of the three offered awards: Ambassador and Innovation. For the Ambassador Award, rewarding sustainability stewardship, Jayman is recognized for their mandate centered on sustainable building practices that resonates through industry, their progressive four-step approach to homeowner packages, which starts with a high-performance standard spec, alongside their extensive marketing that spotlights the value of green building practices.
The Ambassador Award was this year’s most popular category—the purpose of which is to recognize those on the ground, promoting and encouraging sustainable building: those ambassadors driving change towards the progression of industry. This award speaks to Built Green’s origins in industry engagement and the value of word of mouth—internally and externally.
Sustainability has always been important to their business model, as evidenced by them being the driving force behind the formation of Built Green Canada. However, this ramped up in 2016 with the introduction of their “Core Performance” energy-efficient inclusions, offered as their standard. These inclusions provided a way to meet future energy codes sooner, instead of waiting until renewables were mandated. In 2019, they introduced a six-panel solar system on every single-family home. As a result, Jayman BUILT was becoming a recognized leader in energy efficiency in Alberta and even across the country. The introduction of solar panels garnered local and national press coverage, as the first builder in Alberta to include solar as standard. They built their brand strength around energy efficiency, which has become a source of pride and accomplishment for their team.
Every year since 2019, they’ve improved on these energy systems. As part of this, Built Green’s program continues to guide their annual specification improvements, as they consider energy, water conservation, indoor air quality, homeowner comfort and durability—for a holistic approach to sustainability. All their homes go through third-party certification, and today, the majority are BUILT GREEN® Gold—with a total of 13,271 certified, including both their Single Family and High Density projects. This is more than any other builder that has participated in Built Green Canada’s programs—and Jayman has many more slated for certification, including upcoming projects in their Magna community in Calgary’s University District.
Jayman has positioned sustainability not as an extra feature, but as the standard that homebuyers should expect—and that industry must meet. Standard across their single family homes is their Core Performance Package, featuring 10 solar panels, 96 per cent high efficiency two-stage furnace, active heat recovery ventilator, tankless hot water heater, foundation wrap, triple pane R-6 windows and UV light air purification system. Homeowners save up to $1,300 annually on energy costs and prevent 4.63 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere; these homes are 33 per cent better than the 2023 Alberta Building Code.
There are three additional packages available for homeowners to choose from, based on their budget and lifestyle, which further reduce environmental impact and annual utility costs. These go up to net zero, their Quantum Performance Ultra E-Home, with 30-plus solar panels and their proprietary wall system with net-zero building envelope. Meanwhile, all townhomes include between four to 10 solar panels, and many of the same energy-efficient features from the Core Performance (for example, high-efficiency furnace, HRV and tankless hot water heater). And their condominiums include over 100 solar panels per building to reduce or offset the electricity requirements to power common spaces.
Jayman BUILT has the largest residential solar installation in Canada; since 2019, they have installed over 7.9 megawatts of solar power on over 3,400 homes in Alberta. Solar and Core Performance features combine to save over 8,300 metric tonnes of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere each year!
Locally sourced products, water conservation and waste management are other critical areas of focus. They integrate low-flow fixtures, saving 84 million litres of water, and their building practices and materials have contributed to 40,000 metric tonnes of waste material being recycled instead of going to a landfill—even their carpets are made from recycled water bottles.
They call this the Jayman Code, which far outstrips building code. While today’s offerings are new, their approach isn’t. Back in 2003, as part of Jayman’s involvement with BILD Calgary Region, their Chairman and CEO, Jay Westman, spearheaded the development of Built Green Canada, with the hope that it would enable leading builders to showcase their sustainable practices and build upon them—through a builder-friendly framework that could guide industry forward. It was not enough that they continue to improve upon their own practices: Jay Westman was intent upon helping other leaders make steps as well—moving industry forward.
Jayman BUILT’s efforts have been recognized through municipal, provincial, and national building associations with awards, coupled with positive media coverage, helping their message to make an impact on the market. As a well-known industry leader in sustainability, they hear from fellow builders, utility partners, CHBA and BILD associations, as well as local and provincial government agencies about the positive impact of their efforts and are asked to assist in strategies to introduce sustainable building practices within the industry. They are beginning to see other builders advance their solar and net-zero efforts, which they feel is because of their involvement with these partners.
Jayman has, and continues to, extensively promote what matters to them most: innovation, which is grounded in their commitment to sustainable building practices. From television and radio to social media, digital advertising, billboards, newsprint, their website and extensive collateral in their show homes—all to educate homebuyers on their offering and the benefits. On their socials, the Customer Care Team even offers tips for maintaining features like tankless hot water heaters, helping homeowners care for their homes. Ultimately, their efforts have impacted government, the industry, and homebuyers as Jayman advocates and spreads the word on the importance of these green features and sustainable building, through third-party certification. Their cumulative impact is wide-reaching.
For over 40 years, Jayman BUILT has been leading the industry in new home construction, sustainable building practices and energy-efficient design. Operating out of Edmonton and Calgary, Jayman builds between 700 to 800 homes per year. Regardless of barriers that challenge the industry, their goal is to continue to find new ways to improve energy efficiency, while keeping the purchase price of their homes attainable for Albertan homebuyers. They innovate to save customers money, protect their health and reduce their shared environmental footprint. Sustainability is at the heart of their business, and this inaugural Innovation Award finalist is proud to be making a significant contribution to greening up Alberta’s electrical grid and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Maverick Awards are another step forward in Built Green Canada's mission to progress sustainability practices and recognize leadership; three winners have been announced in conjunction with title sponsor, BC Housing. The Ambassador Award, sponsored by Excel Homes, went to Kelly Williams for championing company-wide BUILT GREEN® adoption, while rallying trades and suppliers for full activation, driving Sterling Homes Edmonton to become the next generation of sustainable production builders. The Maverick’s awarded Kanas Corporation the Innovation Award for their Calgary-based project, Orion at Lumino Park, which is the tallest ICF building in Western Canada, with a state-of-the-art cogeneration system providing 534 KW of electricity. While the Transformational Award went to Major Homes in Greater Vancouver, who transformed from a traditional builder into a leading energy and sustainability focused builder, and catalyst to the custom home building sector.