lakeland college interior design

Well, they did it again. Fiona McLeod and her Interior Design students presented their final proposals to us yesterday. What a great job. Now all we have to do is decide how many of their ideas we are going to incorporate. Have a peek a Newcap's news story. Thanks to all.

pretty lame hey?

How lame is it that only two people are following this blog and one just happens to be my daughter. I'm still waiting for David Suzuki or Al Gore to sign up. Anyway, thanks Hannah, I appreciate the moral support. And number 2 follower, thanks also.

Today I am getting ready to meet with the Utilities and Environment Committee at the city. I hoping we can begin discussions regarding municipal support for sustainable building projects. We'll see.

Tomorrow I will be attending a seminar in Edmonton with the folks from Lakeland College's Renewable Energy Program. The Edmonton seminar is on "Connecting to the Grid". It's put on by Gordon Howell, P. Eng, Howell-Mayhew Enginering, http://www.hme.ca/.

Gordon was heavily involved with the Net Zero project "Riverdale"
http://www.riverdalenetzero.ca/Home.html

insulation

Maybe the biggest decision we'll have to make is "which insulation should we use". Two of the best articles I have read on the subject are:

http://www.buildingenvelopeforum.com/Foam.htm
http://www.buildingenvelopeforum.com/pdf/airtightbuilding.pdf

did you know?

I don't think I have commented enough on the most important aspect of this project -"the building envelope". The theory here is - "reduce your requirements so you can reduce the cost of meeting those requirements".

Did you know:

1. that 40% of our green house gas emissions are from our buildings
2. that with the proper building envelope you can reduce those emissions by 90%. Yes that is not a typo. 90%

Two of the best sources for information on this type of envelope are:

http://www.e-colab.org/
http://www.passivehouse.us/


If you are interested at all in this type of building, check them out.

it shouldn't be this hard

Maybe I'm just tired and cranky. But it shouldn't be this hard. Really it shouldn't. What I'm referring to is the amount of time and energy that is required to access information and grants from the various levels of government.

It's just a maze. Just trying to find out what's available takes an enormous amount of time and energy. And then there's the forms OMG.

So, I was thinking.......Why doesn't a really progressive lending institution (BDC are you listening) or accounting firm (MNP are you listening) take this little problem under their wing.

NOW THAT WOULD BE A SERVICE. Not only would they be helping me out - they would have a solution for many others down the line.

MARKETING GUYS ARE YOU LISTENING!

So, for all you REALLY REALLY REALLY progressive lending institutions (are you listening BDC) and accounting firms (are you listening MNP) out there.....I'd be jumping all over this.

Just imagine you:

a. could be green heros
b. could have a great marketing tool
c. could even charge for this service ie. a percentage of funds accessed.

Yes if I were you, I'd be all over this. But then again, that's just my opinion.

insulation decisions

I met with Rod Sieben of Louvic Spray this morning to finalize pricing and materials for the project. Rod comes highly recommended and has a wealth of experience. I have been debating which product to use and we have narrowed it down to BASF's Walltite Eco and Polar Foam's Soy based product. I don't think we can go wrong with either product but my gut is telling me to go with Walltite Eco. But in my mind, this is probably the most important decision we will make so I am being very deliberate in evaluating them.

We've decided to run the product spec's past our engineers. One of the issues that needs to be nailed down is how the insulation application ties in with our green roof. There will clearly have to be some careful and thorough discussions with all parties to ensure that we get the building envelope correct. And, finally we will have to determine just what R value we are trying to achieve.

Regarding building envelopes, check out these sites:

http://www.e-colab.org/
http://www.passivehouse.us/
http://www.netzeroenergyhome.ca/