Green-conscious homes hard to come by
Garry Marr, National Post
Guilt aside, is there any real reason for a consumer to go out and seek a so-called green house?
We’re talking an environmentally friendly home, not an enclosed glass room with a bunch of garden vegetables growing inside.
The statistics show builders have not exactly embraced the idea of a green home, despite all the hype.
John Kenward, chief operating officer of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, freely admits most of the association’s members are not building houses to the standard devised by the government in 1982 known as the R-2000 initiative.
To get a house certified as an R-2000, builders have to jump through a number of hoops like making the house energy efficient. That can mean natural gas appliances and conserving water, among other things.
“It’s true probably much less than 1% of homes are built to the R-2000 standard,” admits Mr. Kenward.
That may sound pathetic but the truth is that houses have become more energy efficient over the past two decades and part of that is being chalked up to builders meeting consumers demands and mandatory building codes for such energy efficient items as thermal windows - all which can be traced back to the R-2000 initiative.
The federal government maintains that the R-2000 initiative has helped reduce energy use in the average Canadian home by 20% since the early 1980s.
“The data shows the way in which we build houses has changed dramatically and much of that change has come from technology that was part of the R-2000 program,” says Mr. Kenward. “I think of all the industries in Canada, housing is the closest to meeting up to the Kyoto targets.”
Peter Norman, an economist with Altus Clayton, a real estate research firm, said builders continue to say they are building to R-2000 standards but don’t bother to get certified. “My impression is there isn’t a stark contrast to a green house and a traditional home,” he says.
Mr. Norman said much of the green home is really just a matter of materials you are using and they keep getting cheaper with technology improvements. “I think home building has become more green almost in spite of itself, not because of the environmental process,” he says.
The real issue comes down to cost and how quickly the upfront costs can be recovered through annual energy savings. Mr. Norman says studies have shown the extra costs associated with green homes can add 5% to 15% to the final purchase price.
“It really depends how much you want to go overboard,” he says.
Add solar panels to your roof and get some of your energy from the sun and you may be able to impress David Suzuki but not your accountant. Solar panels are simply never going to pay for themselves, say most builders.
Brian Johnston, president of Monarch Corp., said over the years he has discovered consumers run when it comes to the final cost for extra features that might be considered efficient.
His company builds subdivisions but when a customer came to him and said he wanted a heating and cooling system that would be energy efficient in the long-term, he agreed to do it.
“We said we’ll do it at cost less 10%. We wanted to see how it would work out and then maybe do it for all our homes,” said Mr. Johnston. “When he saw the final bill he walked away. It really comes down to a question of cost.”
Don Lawby says buyers just don’t care about the issue. “I think it’s about to become an issue, at least that’s my feeling but not right now,” he says. “This has to start from the builder not from the consumer.”
His advice to consumers is not to look for something with a green tag but to be more practical and look at issues like how well a home is insulated and how much reusable material was part of construction.
“It’s still hard for an individual consumer to find a home that is environmentally friendly because it hasn’t been built that way.,” said Mr. Lawby. “Besides for most, it’s still about location, location not green, green green.”
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