Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Feature - Building green

There are a variety of motives behind Rod Nadeau’s Whistler EnviroHome

Before he dies, every man should build a house. The process, like writing a good autobiography, organizes personal history, clarifies dreams, confirms uniqueness, satisfies the soul.

— Plato

Rod Nadeau has built dozens of houses in Whistler over the last 25 years, but none have attempted to satisfy the soul the way the Whistler EnviroHome does.

The EnviroHome, a $3 million showhome in Nordic Estates, started as an initiative to demonstrate "green" building technology that’s available in B.C. As president of the local chapter of the Canadian Home Builders Association, Nadeau was keen to showcase "off the shelf" products that meet or exceed the R-2000 building standards for energy efficiency and the environment established by Natural Resources Canada.

He built an R-2000 house 20 years ago but "couldn’t sell it to save my life." He’s been building energy-efficient homes for years and stopped using caustic finishes that give off gases a long time ago because he and his crews didn’t like to work with those materials.

But last year Nadeau felt the timing was right to build another R-2000 home for the Whistler market, using all the latest materials and technologies.

"All other things being equal, people are becoming more concerned with health, and indoor air quality is a big part of that," he says.

Nadeau points to one study that found in Los Angeles the indoor air quality of some homes is five times worse than the outside air in a city known for its smog.

"We’ve essentially limited sources of indoor air pollution," he says of the house in Nordic. There is no carpet in the house, nor any formaldehyde-based insulation or pressed-board. The drywall, paints, stains, grouts and floor sealers were all chosen on the basis that they don’t produce off-gases.

The exterior walls were all built with insulating concrete forms – hollow foam blocks that are filled with concrete. They produce a virtually air-tight home, so a controlled ventilation system was incorporated into the building to bring fresh outdoor air to each room. An air-to-air heat exchanger warms the fresh air.

The house is attracting a lot of attention in building circles because of the way its built and because it’s a $3 million Whistler home. But what really motivated Nadeau to build this house at this time?

"I was (annoyed) the municipality was spending $1 million on a sustainability study when most of the information could have been downloaded from the Internet."

The S-word is bandied about frequently these days, in Whistler and elsewhere. Several local developers have used or pledged to use green building techniques in houses, including houses in the Stonebridge subdivision above Alta Lake Road. But there are no green building standards for homes in Whistler, at least not yet.

The LEED standards (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) that originated with the U.S. Green Building Council, apply only to commercial and institutional buildings, not to houses. LEED has four levels of green building certification, based on total credits earned in five categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. The municipality is attempting to earn a silver LEED rating on its new $2 million fire hall in Spring Creek.

"We’re shooting for silver," Graham Smith, development services manager with B.C. Building Corporation, said of the fire hall last year.

"Going for gold frankly just costs gold. You’d have to put in even fancier systems than we could afford."

The municipality is expected to establish green standards for house building in Whistler, but Nadeau wanted to set a standard himself.

"I want to show that industry can lead (in the move toward sustainability)," Nadeau said. "You can spend a fortune getting LEED certification, because they have to certify every screw and nail. This is a made-in-Whistler solution. It’s easy to do; any qualified builder in Whistler can do this."

And as Nadeau points out, homes are far more numerous than institutional buildings in Whistler, and therefore a larger factor as far as energy consumption and sustainability are concerned.

What there is right now as far as standards for building green houses is the R-2000 program, established by Natural Resources Canada’s Office of Energy Efficiency and administered by the CHBA. It has been around for more than 20 years but it has changed as new building technologies have emerged.

R-2000 homes are about 40 per cent more energy efficient than building codes require. The R-2000 building process starts with a computer analysis of building plans. Inspectors do numerous checks of a building during construction in order for a house can be certified as R-2000. And the builders themselves must be trained and licensed R-2000 builders.

The government hopes that every home built by 2010 achieves R-2000 standards, as part of Canada’s commitment to meeting the Kyoto protocol. But right now there are few incentives or requirements to build to R-2000, which is fine with Nadeau.

"Government incentives just don’t work," he says. "I think I get a $500 rebate from the R-2000 people. I’m not doing it for the government incentives."

In fact, the EnviroHome is an extension of building practices Nadeau, and other local builders, have been following for some time. He’s been building foundations with the ICF foam blocks for years. For the house in Nordic the blocks were just extended to the full height of the house and the design was based on the blocks’ dimensions, so there was little waste.

And it doesn’t cost any more to build this way, Nadeau says.

"It’s one of the greenest and most energy efficient homes built in Canada. It’s a $3 million house, but it has the features of a $3 million house," he says.

"It might cost 5 per cent more to build this way in lower-end houses, but it doesn’t cost any more to build this way in a $3 million house."

Durability is also part of sustainability, Nadeau says, and being a concrete structure the house will last for years. He expects it will eventually be renovated, rather than torn down.

The building techniques and materials also help differentiate Nadeau and Associates in a marketplace full of fine homebuilders.

"Our company should be a leader," he says. "This will just help raise the bar in our industry.

"My message is: I can make money doing it this way, so why do it any other way?"



Comments