CMHC urges greener homes in denser urban areas
Lori Mcleod - Globe and Mail
Building greener homes in highly populated urban areas is the key to reducing the housing sector’s impact on the environment, according to a study by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
Road transportation accounts for half of all household greenhouse gas emissions, and downtown living could dramatically lower this by cutting down on car use, the CMHC said in its 2007 Canadian Housing Observer.
Most of Canada’s population growth is taking place on the outskirts of major cities, with outlying urban areas up 11.1% in the five-year period from 2001 to 2006 compared with 4.2% for bigger cities.
In 2006, 81% of Canadians lived in centres of 10,000 or more, compared with 80% in 2001, an increase of 1.6 million people in five years.
The fastest growing metropolitan areas from 2001 to 2006 were Barrie, Ont., Calgary, Oshawa, Ont., and Edmonton, while the fastest-growing small towns were mainly located around Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
Building new homes closer to downtown cores and along transportation routes would help cut down on the use of cars for commuting to work along with other short-distance trips, the report says.
It adds that Canadian residential developers are beginning to adopt green building practices, which are more widespread in countries such as Japan, Germany and the United States.
Use of solar heating and low-flow appliances can help residences dramatically reduce consumption of water and energy. Residential use currently makes up 60% of the country’s water consumption and 17% of its energy use.
Homes can also recycle “grey water” from the shower and dishwasher for uses including lawn watering. In its report the CMHC said this building niche is expected to become the norm in Canada in the future.
Other findings in the report:
- The number of Canadians living in housing that falls below adequacy, suitability or affordability standards, has dropped slightly. In 2004, 13.6% of the population lived in such housing, a small decline from 13.9% in 2002;
- Housing-related spending increased by 6.1% in 2006, contributing $275-billion to the Canadian economy. But debt is also on the rise, with total outstanding mortgage credit hitting $694-billion last year, up 10.7% from 2005;
- Increased equity in real estate helped fuel an increase of more than 4% in the average net worth of Canadian households in the years from 1999 to 2006. The number of households in Canada that owned a second home or cottage hit 1.1 million in 2006, up 200,000 from 1999.
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