by Sustainable | Architecture for a Healthy Planet is proud to have our recent FlexPlex featured in the Early Spring 2024 issue of Ontario Home Builder Magazine.
In this magazine our client Greenbilt Homes, along with other major firms, opens their playbook to environmentally-responsible sustainable construction. This is done through carbon cuts, focusing on reducing climate-change-causing greenhouse gas (carbon) emissions through the construction and operation lifecycles of their buildings.
The FlexPlex can affordably be one, two, three, or four housing units that can flexibly change as needed; which provides a socially-responsible answer to our housing crisis in Toronto. Of course, Sustainable makes sure that the FlexPlex hits the triple bottom line by being simultaneously socially, financially, and environmentally responsible.
Reducing operational carbon emissions is relatively easy – like the Flexplex, follow Passive House principles:
- Concentrate on air-tightness to eliminate uncomfortable drafts and heat loss through air leakage;
- Manage ventilation with an Energy Recovery Ventilator;
- Increase insulation levels to reduce heat loss through wall and roof assemblies;
- Eliminate thermal bridges: structural elements that allow the transfer of heat from inside to outside;
- Control window sizes to reduce unwanted solar heat gain in summer and heat loss in winter; and
- Once energy requirements are reduced by the above passive strategies, electrify: the space, water, food heating, and clothes drying of the home using Ontario’s 90% carbon-clean electricity.
- Use an air-source heat pump for your space heating and water heating;
- An induction stove to cook your food; and
- A gentle heat pump dryer to dry your clothes.
Boom! – your building is using less energy, and the energy that it is using is 90% carbon-clean!!
But what about the carbon emissions from the construction materials and methods?
This is a bit trickier, but there are some simple strategies to employ:
- Hook up the construction site to the electrical grid and avoid the use of gas generators during construction. Therefore the site will be quieter, less stinky, and better for the environment;
- Use materials that have low embodied carbon. The closer to nature and the less human-made, the better.
For example: concrete, steel, glass, and foam insulation all require high levels of carbon emissions to extract and manufacture. Wood and other nature-based materials, however, do not. Now we must not forget to consider how far the material has to travel – is that bamboo floor from Asia really better for the environment after it is shipped to Toronto?
Therefore, use locally-sourced wood for the structure (including basements with Permanent Wood Foundations), wood fibre or cellulose for insulation, natural stone, and wood for exterior cladding. Also use a lifetime recyclable steel roof with high recycled content rather than petroleum-based asphalt shingles.
If in doubt, check out what the good folks at the Ontario Natural Building Coalition think.
Or, hire a designer who understands and cares about your family’s health and the health of our planet – Sustainable | Architecture for a Healthy Planet.
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