Toronto architect Monica Kuhn in front of Sackville Place, an early-1900s house that she retrofitted as a sustainability demonstration project using modern construction systems and materials.Thomas Bollmann
Making housing more sustainable is increasingly urgent as the effects of climate change become more frequent and significant. The federal government estimates that buildings produce up to 17 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, from space and water heating and electricity.
This jumps to 30 per cent when emissions from making and moving building materials and construction are added to the mix.
“There are many variables when it comes to making a building sustainable,” says Toronto-based architect Monica Kuhn, who has been designing and managing sustainable buildings for three decades.
“The important thing is to get started on at least one element, such as energy use, resilience, reuse of materials and so on,” says Ms. Kuhn, who heads her own Toronto-based firm, Monica E. Kuhn, Architect Inc.
Ms. Kuhn has built or retrofitted many houses, including an early-1900s house in downtown Toronto, Sackville Place, that she redeveloped as a sustainability demonstration project and now uses as her office.
“We wanted to show what can be done using readily available modern construction systems and materials,” she says. The exterior retains the façade and character of the original building, which was two semi-detached houses that were merged.
The sustainable redesign of Sackville Place included putting energy-efficient, triple-glazed glass into the standard wooden window frames – double the insulation of standard glazing – and a garden on the roof.Supplied
“We put triple-glazed glass into the standard wooden window frames – double the insulation of standard glazing,” she explains. “We heat using off-peak electricity and about a cord of wood (128 cubic feet) a year, and cool with a heat pump and we installed a roof garden that insulates against summer heat, improves air quality and provides a beautiful meadow.”
Inside, it’s 21st-century sustainable, featuring low and no-VOC [volatile organic compounds, which are toxic] paints, carpets using recycled content, low-watt mechanical pumps and fans.
“We’ve also laid the groundwork for future systems, such as solar panels and rainwater collection,” she adds.
The result is an 80-per-cent reduction in heating compared with the original home and a 25,000-lb.-reduction (11.3 tonnes) in carbon dioxide.
“This is equivalent to saving 4,770 litres of gasoline per year,” she says.
According to urban designer Ken Greenberg, principal of Greenberg Consultants and former director of urban design and architecture for the City of Toronto, sustainable housing needs to extend beyond individual buildings to holistic community-building.
The dilemma in Canada is that there is so much pressure to build affordable units of any kind, sustainable or otherwise.
— Mary Rowe, president and CEO, Canadian Urban Institute
He points to projects such as the Well, just west of Toronto’s downtown core, as a good example of a project that integrates housing, commercial and retail uses, making it easier for people to live, work and enjoy leisure time in one area.
The Well, a mixed-use development in Toronto’s King Street West neighbourhood, combines residential, commercial and retail spaces.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
Governments and agencies can help with planning regulations and building guidelines, for example, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) offers a program for municipalities called Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Program (SNAP).
“It lets planners and developers come up with an entire customized community, which includes not only more sustainable buildings but also green infrastructure, energy efficiency, resilience to severe weather and features like local grocery stores so people don’t always have to drive,” explains Mr. Greenberg.
Sustainable housing can be costly and complicated, says Mary Rowe, president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Urban Institute, a national platform linking policy-makers, civic leaders, designers, builders and academics. According to the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC), sustainable homes sell for between 0.5 per cent and 2 per cent more than a comparable non-sustainable average home.
“The dilemma in Canada is that there is so much pressure to build affordable units of any kind, sustainable or otherwise,” she says.
The demand for homes across Canada can work at cross-purposes to the push for sustainability, says Vincent Delfaud, vice-president of design and sustainability at Vancouver-based Bosa Properties.
“Obviously we need more housing, so we have to look for lots of ways to be sustainable, through materials, size of buildings and the infrastructure of the neighbourhoods where we build,” Mr. Delfaud says.
Organizations such as the CAGBC and government agencies such as Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. provide advice for building more sustainably. Canada is making progress, but we can do more, says Mr. Delfaud, who is an adviser for the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
“We should keep an open mind to taller buildings for housing,” he says. “You need less surrounding infrastructure. Living in a taller building takes getting used to for some people, but well-being means living in a place where the air and water are clean and you’re saving energy. You can live better sustainably.”
Ms. Rowe, Mr. Delfaud and Mr. Greenberg agree that there are more and more examples of sustainable residential neighbourhoods being built. For example, Enwave, whose district energy system uses Lake Ontario water to heat and cool some 180 buildings in downtown Toronto, also provides energy to Springwater, a Markham, Ont., neighbourhood developed by Mattamy Homes.
Springwater’s homes draw thermal energy from pipes that extend as much as 250 metres deep into the earth. With this geo-exchange energy, there are zero direct fossil fuel emissions used for heating. This results in a 75-per-cent reduction in carbon emissions compared with a typical home with a natural gas furnace, Enwave says.
Ms. Kuhn says there’s “just no excuse any more to avoid sustainability.”
“We all can do it; the technology exists, and you don’t have to be a technical wizard to build sustainably,” she adds. “People are also discovering that it can be aesthetically pleasing too.”