L.E.E.D. Design and Construction, Geothermal Real Estate Development, Green Skyline on North Shore Property

What is L.E.E.D. Design and Construction?

LEED is a grading system to determine the Environmental Efficiency of a finished building. LEED is certification through the "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" process, and currently the most definitive certification process in North America. B.C. is the leader of LEED certified buildings and green development in Canada with 31 as of December 20, 2007. LEED certification is based on a variety of categories, such as: Site sustainability, Energy, Materials and Indoor quality. Although LEED provides credit for many types of performance improvements, energy and water savings provide the most direct financial benefits. Typical energy savings for different levels of certification: LEED Certified: 24%, LEED Silver: 33%, LEED Gold: 47%, LEED Platinum: 60%. Typical portable water savings: Indoor consumption: 30%, Outdoor consumption: 50 - 90%. For more information, please call The Evolution Fund offices at 604-629-7697.

What is Geothermal Real Estate Development?

As many people have noticed, there are many more geothermal heating and cooling Vancouver real estate developments starting right now. As a selling point, developers want to get across the importance of this new technology to its home buyers. A Geothermal Heat Pump is an electrically powered device that uses the natural heat storage ability of the earth and/or the earth's groundwater to heat and cool your home. How does it work? Like any type of heat pump, a geothermal system it simply moves heat energy from one place to another, using the same scientific principle as your refrigerator. By using the refrigeration process, geothermal heat pumps remove heat energy stored in the earth or groundwater and transfer it to your home. How is heat form a geothermal heating system in a real estate development transferred between the earth and the home? The earth has the ability to absorb and store heat energy. To use that stored energy, heat is extracted from the earth through a liquid medium (groundwater or an antifreeze solution) and is pumped to the heat pump or exchanger, and the heat is used to heat your home. In the summer the geothermal process is reversed and the indoor heat is extracted from your home and transferred to the ground through the liquid. Does it do both heating and cooling? One of the things that makes the geothermal heat pump so versatile is its ability to be a heating and cooling system in one. You can change from one mode to another with the flick of a switch on your thermostat. In the cooling mode, a geothermal heat pump takes heat from the indoors and transfers it to the cooler earth through ether groundwater or an underground loop system. For more about geothermal real estate developments and heat pump processes, please visit www.borderplumbing.ca. For further information on this and other geothermal and green developments contact The Evolution Fund at 604.629.7697 or read more at www.Evolutionfund.ca.

Envisioning a Green Skyline on the North Shore Property Market

Tour offers a glimpse of green construction real estate gems on the North Shore real estate market. By North Shore Outlook staff reporter Scott N. Some of the North Shore’s greenest buildings will be open to the public this weekend as part of the Green Skyline Tour. Residences that adhere to the strictest principles of green construction will be showcased as part of the second annual event. Sunday’s tour of the North Shore green real estate market is one of several events that will take place around the province this week. “Our hope is to educate professionals and the public on green building,” said Mona Lemoine, co-driector of Cascadia B.C. the organization that launched the Green Skyline Tour for Vancouver. “We hope people gain more information on what green building features are being done in B.C. already.” To qualify for inclusion for the Green Skyline Tour Vancouver, these buildings tend to have achieved the Leadership in Energy and Design Certification (LEED). Other green buildings have innovative features that reduce their environmental impact. “These buildings have features that are considered to be green,” she said. “The typical areas we look for are site design, energy, tyhpes of materials used, water efficiency, indoor air quality, beauty and inspiration.” The North Shore Green Skyline Tour focuses mainly on residences, while tours in Vancouver offer a range of public and private buildings including a bike tour of the UBC campus. Among the North Shore green residences on the Green Skyline Tour is the Hanvey-Goodland House in North Vancouver real estate. The 1,600 square foot home features low-flow fixtures such as dual-flush toilets that cut water use in half. Efficient appliances and good insulation in the home limit energy use. When the home was renovated in 2004 to green building code, the contractor was careful to minimize construction waste. Three quarters of the existing vegetation was preserved and replanted and irrigated by rainwater collected in a rain barrel. “There are a lot of ideas incorporated as features into these homes,” said Lemoine. “Professionals can look and think about what they can include in their green projects.” People on the Green Skyline Tour can start in any order and tour times are at 11am, 12:30pm, 2pm and 3:30pm on Sunday. Many of the Vancouver tours are offered with a bike option, but with homes spread across the North Shore real estate market, Sunday’s green tour is recommended by car. The Green Skyline Tour North Shore was inspired by a similar event in London that draws more than 300,000 visitors each year. Lemoine hopes Cascadia’s Green Skyline Tour BC will spread across the country and encourage more green building construction. When it comes to green building, B.C. leads the way in Canada but Ontario is catching up. The province also lags well behind Oregon and Washington, Lemoine said. One of the reasons is that U.S. contractors and green building developers have been quicker to adopt eco-friendly practises. “In Canada, much more of the public sector is doing green building whereas the U.S. it’s the private sector,” said Lemoine. “Contractors and real estate are coming on board, but architects and engineers were frist to come on board.” Cascadia is the region’s green building council with members as far south as Oregon and all the way up to the coast of Alaska. The tours are meant to spread green building principles among all its members. “We hope to continue it as an annual event,” Lemoine said of the Green Skyline Tour of Vancouver. “Our hope is that it continues to grow across the entire province.” Homes on the North Shore Green Skyline Tour include the Pagani/Carruthers renovation at 855 8th St in West Vancouver, the Passive Solar Wardrop Home at 1338 Haywood in West Van, the Hanvey-Goodland Home at 715 East 18th Street in North Vancouver, Quayside Village Cohousing at 510 Chesterfield Ave in North Van and the Moore-Babiki solar heritage home at Edgemont Village. Tours cost $15 for Cascadia members and $25 for non-members. To register for the Green Skyline Tour, please visit www.cascadiagbc.org.