Greg Kalyniuk
You can go to the grocery store and buy either regular or organic produce. You can also go to a city near you and buy either regular or “green” building construction. The organic produce of today is in demand and customers pay a premium for it. The questions are whether the same can be said for “green” homes and commercial buildings in the Okanagan and whether homeowners really care.The allure of a green building is the demonstrated energy efficiency and reduced carbon footprint they provide. While more expensive to build it is the long term energy savings payback and the prestige of ownership that brings out buyers.
It could also be argued that the home or office will be much more comfortable and healthy to live in, and these benefits alone are worth the higher construction costs.
Just as organic produce has industry standards for being called organic, green buildings have industry standards that must be met before they can be called green. For simplicity green building means either of two accepted designations:
Built Green or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). Both designations were developed to ensure buildings are more energy efficient, have better indoor air quality and use materials and building practices that reduce environmental impact. Both designations have various levels of green.
There are 13 Built Green registered builders in the Okanagan, who have registered 88 residences in the program, of which 66 are accounted for by the Mission Group in Kelowna.
Compare that to only one LEED Platinum certified residence in Vernon designed by the architect Hugh Bitz, and built by Okanagan Sustain Homes. According to the Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation there were 1,059 single family housing starts in the Okanagan in 2009. Among the total number of homes on the market in the Okanagan today, there are only a handful of green homes to choose from.
There are at least 10 LEED certified commercial buildings in the Okanagan. Most notable of these is the Centre for Learning at UBCO, which was completed in July 2009 at a cost of $28 m. Out of all the commercial buildings in the Okanagan then, the number of LEED certified buildings is also very small.
There are several reasons why. Firstly, the certification process and the standards for building green are just now becoming more accepted. The Built Green program only came to B.C. in 2006 and is only available in B.C. and Alberta at this time. The LEEDS certification, while more accepted in the U.S., has only been available in Canada since 2004. It is pretty hard to have green certified buildings if the certification agencies themselves are relatively new and not accepted by builders and homeowners.
Another factor is the lack of appropriate technology and construction materials. For example, the ICF (insulating concrete form) system of building walls is just now becoming a more accepted construction method. Green construction materials are also very hard to come by and expensive. Again, pretty hard to have a green building if you can’t get the right materials or the building systems aren’t practical.
Perhaps the largest factor to green homes not becoming more available is that homeowners do not even know that this is an option. A few builders have taken a lead in educating homeowners and building green homes, but the majority of builders are content with building homes quickly, inexpensively and the way they always have.
Until builders and developers promote to customers the benefits of a green home there won’t be many buyers.
At this point most home and business building owners don’t really care whether a building is “green” or not. Maybe they want a blue one instead! Seriously though, the facts are that most buildings today are not built to either a LEED or even to the less stringent Build Green standard and people aren’t asking for them. Given a choice I would rather eat organic produce than the other stuff and similarly, I would rather live or work in a green building than a regular one.
The time will come though when most homes and commercial buildings will be built green and that will be a good thing.
Greg Kalyniuk is a Vernon realtor working for RE/MAX. You can reach him at 250-503-3758 or by e-mail at
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. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of Greg Kalyniuk and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of RE/MAX Vernon.
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Comments
The B.C. government had a MAXIMUM of a 3 kilowatt wind turbine during their brief Live Smart program. Tell me...if green is so good, why would there have been a MAXIMUM set for the wind turbine? At least the US government is doing something if someone is seriously interested in making a purchase, yet is obviously stunned by the higher price.
This isn't about organic--or non-org--lettuce. It's about a building that can cost anywhere from $350,000 to $3.5 mil.
So an incentive from government would be a nice encouragement (with our own money).
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