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What is Green?? – Canadian Home Workshop Magazine

BY JAY SOMERSET

For every 100 home-builders who claim they can’t make a decent living building green homes, there’s a Ben Polley, a successful, environmentally focused builder that can’t keep up with demand. “We’re turning down more clients than we can accept,” says Polley, who’s company, Guelph, Ont.-based Harvest Homes, has grown more than 50 per cent each year of its seven-year history. “When we started, the intention was to stick with straw-bale construction, as a subcontractor, but our business kept growing and we were bidding on entire projects, building entire homes.”

Cut to 2007: Harvest is one of several Polley ventures that go beyond straw bale and into alternative energy and water systems, eco-construction (rainwater harvesting, green roofs, urine diversion), and turnkey home-building, where Polley designs and builds the entire home. To say he’s doing well is an understatement. “We’re the only builder that can specialize in all aspects of green building without needing the assistance of a general contractor to finish the job,” he says.

Polley represents a new breed of builder: a contractor who understands how to combine best business practices with environmental building—a builder who knows how to make green from green. “I’m a realist when it comes to what people can afford and where the economy is,” he says, “and demand is outstripping supply when it comes to builders.”
Green building is here to stay. Everywhere you look, builders and consumers alike are turning green, whether it’s with energy efficient windows and doors, drywall made with recycled materials, lumber from sustainable forests, or low VOC paint and finishes. And while the main impetus seems to be cost (an energy efficient home costs less to operate), more holistic benefits (reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, less waste) are the result.

People versus planet

So then, what is green building? If I build an energy efficient home but pay little attention to recycled materials or indoor air quality, am I green? What’s more important: the health of the homeowner or the health of the planet? “There are two basic building considerations: people and planet,” says Polley. “Is the product lor building method or system] good for the homeowner, or good for the planet? Most often, it’s not good for either.” Polley breaks down each category into subsections; people considerations include indoor air quality (off-gassing, VOCs, carbon dioxide), ingestible or absorbable poisons (lead, arsenic, cadmium) and personal financial considerations (the cost of energy).

“People issues address the physical and financial comfort and health of the homeowner.”
Planetary considerations are more altruistic and focus on the health of the local and global environment and include such things as recycled content, greenhouse gas emissions, land and water pollutants, and embodied energy—the energy that goes into the extraction, creating, shipping, installation and disposal of a product. “If you were to add up all the energy used to create a new house, it would compare to the energy used to run the house over the first eight years.” specialize? “I leave it up to the client to make these decisions,” says Polley. “We do the research and give them the option, so we don’t have to specialize in one over the other, so long as we understand the benefits and implications of both.”

“Whenever I’m speaking to an architect or engineer and I say the word ‘green,’ they’re down my throat because it’s so overused,” says Teresa Domingues, one of the organizers of the Green Building Conference, which is part of the annual Construct Canada show in Toronto. “They ask me what exactly I mean by green.” Indeed, green in a catchall word, but right now, at least in Canada, most builders and consumers align green with energy efficiency, probably because, on the spectrum of environmental concerns, it sits neatly at the crossroads of people and planetary concerns.

“Right now, energy efficiency is the number-one environmental issue because of global warming and climate change— and as people watch the prices go up at the gas pump, they become increasingly aware of fuel costs,” says Corey McBurney, managing director of EnerQuality, which oversees the Energy Star for New Homes program. Energy Star, like the label you see affixed to efficient furnaces, fridges and windows, takes energy efficiency as its chief concern, mainly because it drives consumer choice. “We did a J.D. Power study and found out that it’s not so much environmental concern that’s driving the green market, it’s cost. People buy Energy Star-rated homes because they use 40 per cent less energy. It’s about cost savings.”

Clash of greens

What about when the two considerations—people versus planetary—clash? Does this mean Polley, or any green builder, must specialize? “I leave it up to the client to make these decisions,” says Polley. “We do the research and give them the option, so we don’t have to specialize in one over the other, so long as we understand the benefits and implications of both.”

“Whenever I’m speaking to an architect or engineer and I say the word ‘green,’ they’re down my throat because it’s so overused,” says Teresa Domingues, one of the organizers of the Green Building Conference, which is part of the annual Construct Canada show in Toronto. “They ask me what exactly I mean by green.: Indeed, green is a catchall word, but right now, at least in Canada, most builders and consumers align green with energy efficiency, probably because, on the spectrum of environmental concerns, it sits neatly at the crossroads of people and planetary concerns.

“Right now, energy efficiency is the number-one environmental issue because of global warming and climate change – and as people wtch the prices go up at the gas pump, they become increasingly aware of fuel costs,” says Corey McBurney, managing director of EnerQuality, which oversees the Energy Star for New homes program. Energy Star, like the label you see affixed to efficient furnaces, fridges, and windows, takes energy efficiency as its chief concern, mainly because it drives consumer ghoice.  “We did a J.D. Power study and found out that it’s not so much environmental concern that’s driving the green market, it’s cost. People by Energy Star-rated homes because the use 40 per cent less energy. It’s about cost savings.