Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs) are high performance thermal efficient panels, composed of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) insulation and Oriented Strand Board (OSB) or plywood, for walls, roofs and floors in new residential and commercial buildings. The use of SIPs in the construction industry brings a number of benefits to building companies and the individuals investing, including improved quality, durability and energy performance of Canadian homes. Compared to a conventional framed home or building, a well-built space that uses SIPs will provide a tighter building envelope and higher insulating properties.

Below is a quick look at what SIPs are and what builders should know when working with them.

(Article Source greenbuilding.com)

Want to build a new green home? The idea sounds perfect, but sometimes the planning of building green can be time consuming and overwhelming. There is a lot to consider when building a new green home.

While Planet Panels makes it as easy as possible for you, there are some things that you need to keep in mind when you start your initial planning. Firstly, you should take great care in choosing the lot you are building on. Choose a lot that will allow you to benefit from the wind, sun and soil. These are things that you cannot change but can help you in reducing your environmental footprint. Obviously, another big consideration is your homebuilder. Planet Panels uses a fully panelized system that not only ensures perfect fitting and sizing to eliminate wasted materials but our homes are also developed with a “no draft” system that is extremely energy efficient.

What else should you keep in mind? Be sure to install hard surface flooring to control the indoor air quality of your home, use energy star rated appliances, and use LED lighting throughout the house. Also when landscaping your yard, plant trees and shrubs so they can be used for wind protection, shade, cooling and privacy. More ideas to consider are listed in the article below.

(Article Source: Green Affordable Housing Coalition)

In its efforts to apply technology, design thinking and risk management to the “massive reduction of environmental footprint” worldwide, an environmentally responsible organization based in Canada is honouring the most constructive, holistic building retrofitting developments of 2010.

Are you or someone you know a potential nominee for Zerofootrpint’s 2011 Re-Skinning Awards?

(Article Source World Interior Design Network)

Zerofootprint has launched the 2011 version of this competition in association with its partner the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto.

The Zerofootprint Re-Skinning Awards invites the best minds in architecture, design, building, and engineering to submit green building projects that display the innovative use of energy retrofitting technologies. Retrofitting and re-skinning involve the use of design solutions to significantly reduce the environmental footprint of older, energy-inefficient buildings.

According to Zerofootprint, most buildings are inefficient by today’s green standards due to outdated insulation, heating, and cooling systems. In Toronto, office buildings, shopping centres, and urban dwellings account for 63% of the city’s emissions, and in other major cities worldwide buildings account for 60% to 80% of emissions with 60% in London, 72% in Hong Kong, and a massive 79% in New York.

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Canada’s capital university, Carleton University, has been recognized for being the first post-secondary institute in the country to complete a major construction project that is backed by the current federal and provincial stimulus capital program.

The six-storey, 100,000-square-foot Canal Building, as the following article suggests, is the university’s greenest building and one of the most sustainable structures in Canada that will abode programs in biomedical, sustainable energy and environmental and aerospace engineering. At Planet Panels, we support green building and encourage everyone to start being more eco-conscious, and that is exactly what Carleton University has done. Its cutting-edge sustainable design features will become a part of the research executed at Carleton, and the school’s students will be actively involved in the testing and evaluation of green building standards.

(Article Source the Ottawa Citizen by Don Butler)

Green Building Systems Growing Abroad

As the environment, economy and human health continues to see a great impact by the built world, a number of private and public institutes are employing green building programs, which focus on reducing such things as energy consumption, maintenance and capital costs, as well as environmental impact and increasing occupant comfort and health. Worldwide there are a number of green building programs found that incorporate these human aspects, the economy and the environment into the design and structure of a building or home, as they slowly emerge across the U.S. and Western Europe.

When implementing green building programs, it can be a challenge knowing what it takes (and is being done) to increase environmental awareness and, as the following article suggests, could be worth familiarizing yourself, and others, with information on the world’s established national green building programs.

(Article Source thetyee.ca by Monte Paulsen)

Today’s Tyee presents a Cole’s Notes-style guide to green building certification systems in Canada . But there are even more systems operating in China, Japan and beyond. If the British Columbia wood products industry aspires to evolve beyond exporting raw logs and cheap 2x4s, it might be worth knowing more about these international green building programs.

BREEAM — The BRE Environmental Assessment Method was launched in 1990 in the United Kingdom, and served as the inspiration for LEED and many other systems. BREEM has certified more than more than 115,000 buildings, most of which are in the UK.

THREE STAR — China is on it’s way to becoming the largest construction market in the world, and China’s government has set ambitious targets and guidelines for green building. The Green Building Evaluation Standard, also referred to as the Three Star System, was introduced in 2006 and is administered by the China Green Building Council. The standard complements BREEAM and LEED, which presently are used in China for office buildings for multinational companies or upscale apartments.

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Remember when you were little, and your parents would tell you not to believe everything you read, see or are told? While being able to separate fact from fiction may seem easy enough, is it really?

Since its evolution, green building has gained reputations nationwide, both positive and negative and, as the following article suggests, has come a long way over the past couple of years, yet is continuously being challenged by myths indicating it is ‘complicated’ processes and ‘absurdly’ expensive costs.

Green building, complicated? Expensive? More like myth #1.

(Article Source The Tyee by Monte Paulsen)

Green buildings have earned a reputation for being large, complicated and absurdly expensive. This is particularly true in Vancouver, where taxpayers are still forking out millions of dollars a month in interest payments on the world’s first LEED Platinum neighbourhood — the 2010 Olympic Village.

But this reputation is increasingly at odds with the next-generation of green homes, schools and workplaces. These green buildings — most of which are certified by organizations such as the Canada Green Building Council or Built Green — tend to be small, simple, and surprisingly affordable.

What’s more, these green buildings represent the fastest growing sector within the North American construction industry, one that McGraw-Hill Construction estimated to be worth $60 billion last year.

During the next several weeks, The Tyee Solutions Society will explore trends within green building — call it Green Building 2.0 — with an eye for ideas that could pay off by helping create sustainable jobs in British Columbia, lower energy bills and make a real dent in emissions causing costly climate change.

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Becoming green and living a more eco-friendly lifestyle is something that all Canadians and North Americans are becoming more conscious of. We are trying to build and live with a greener frame of mind and adjust our lifestyles so they have a friendlier impact on the environment.

Every small step counts. And every adjustment you make to live a greener life does make a difference. But, what if we could make an entire city eco-friendly? China is taking the lead and has plans to create Tianjin, and Eco-City. This city will span 30 kilometres and will house some of the newest energy-saving technologies including an advanced light rail transit system, eco-landscapes ranging from sun-powered “solarscapes” to a greenery clad “earthscapes” for its estimated 350,000 residents to enjoy. The Eco-City will use solar power, wind power, rainwater recycling, and wastewater treatment/desalination of sea water. The city is expected to be up and fully running by 2020. To read more about this amazing green city initiative, click here.

There are always questions on how to make your home “greener” or more energy efficient. Some of the best advice is often common sense that is overlooked, for example, how many of you have living rooms and dining rooms that go unused 90 percent of the time? These rooms are usually not used regularly, however they are always being heated or air conditioned, this is an extreme waste of energy. Also, if you are building your house, build it with southern exposure to allow the most natural heat and light you can.

Another earth-friendly fix is ensuring the materials used for your home are supplied from an environmentally friendly source and are not contributing to deforestation. Many companies claim to be eco-friendly but construct their homes using materials that are not “green” and in a manner that wastes an excessive amount of material and energy.

The actual building of the home can be another earth friendly fix, the article Earth Friendly Fixes for Your Home, says “how well sealed and enclosed the home is may be the simplest and easiest way to improve a home’s energy efficiency.” Planet Panels is a prime example of home builder that comes to great lengths to ensure their homes are constructed perfectly so that there are no drafts or any room for heat loss. To read the article, click here or to learn more about Planet Panels building techniques, click here.

The design of high-performance green buildings in the United States has been published a new standard, which is described to be a “long-needed green building foundation for those who strive design build and operate green buildings”. Intended for adoption into model building codes, the standard (according to Atlanta-based ASHRAE, and as the following article suggests) could potentially be seen, in whole or in part, by a number of authorities in Canada.

(Article Source the Journal of Commerce by Patricia Williams)

After three years of work by a committee representing a variety of disciplines and organizations in the United States, a new standard has been published for the design of high-performance green buildings.

Ultimately, the standard could make inroads into the Canadian market.

The first “code-intended” commercial green building standard in the U.S., standard 189.1 was drafted by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) in conjunction with the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America and the U.S. Green Building Council.

Intended for application to all but low-rise residential buildings, the consensus standard provides what Atlanta-based ASHRAE describes as a “long-needed green building foundation for those who strive to design, build and operate green buildings.”

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Today’s world consists of continual climate change and heightened energy prices, making it crucial for buildings to use as few fossil fuels as possible when thinking about the future and unpredictable rising prices. As the following article suggests, major players in retail are “tightening up” and building energy efficiency into new building and improving efficiency in older buildings to accommodate the worldwide green building movement that has continued to accelerate, encouraging attention to sustainable building and eco-friendly movements.

(Article Source Alberta Construction Magazine by Tricia Radison)

The big boys in retail are tightening up. Companies like Shoppers Drug Mart, Lowe’s, and most notably, Walmart Canada, are building energy efficiency into new buildings and improving efficiency in older buildings. But concern for the environment may not be the biggest motivating factor behind the trend.

“Retailers are high-energy users, mostly because of their display lights,” says Bill Partridge, executive VP of the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) Calgary. “Their biggest costs are their ongoing operating costs. If they can do things that will reduce their consumption, they are motivated to do it in order to reduce those costs.”

The stores Walmart builds today are 30 per cent more energy efficient than those built in the past. One, in Burlington, Ont., is an environmental demonstration store that’s 60 percent more energy efficient thanks in part to geothermal heating and cooling.

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