global warming...

scary thought for the day - www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm

could be good for english wine (and probably welsh!), but not so good for the French... and effect canadian infrastructure - wonder if they've taken that into consideration in the new toronto ttc expansion plan - McGuinty announcement - transitcity.ca? Will have to go and meddle in their consultation on Thursday 28th June...

Letting clothes dry naturally

We were only talking about this the other day. There's a mad system here where it seems that no-one is allowed to dry their clothes outside... Instead they're supposed to use power hungry devices to dry their clothes despite the fact it may be gloriously sunny out - thereby increasing the power need and the likelihood of smog (again in the national post today)....

link about this from greenlivingonline.

links from the ontario smartgrowth network

links

green houses & alternative energy in ontatio

good article from cnet that translates well to here.

ontario to become a leader in alternative energy - which I guess correlates to the article in the star the other day "critical mass a definite factor".

Still dissapointed that there doesn't seem to be any greenhomes for sale in Toronto.

Home efficiency show

Just looking through a really good write-up on the show last week in BD architects review of the BRE Offsite - as below. There are also some presentations available from BRE which look interesting - you need to sign in with an email address.

Whilst reading the BD article, I found myself looking up the following:

• The UK/British governments "code for sustainable homes" referred to in the article (wonder if there is a North American version of this). Seems to be quite a bit of info (for a change with government docs - why would you use a table instead of random progressive number series)... level 6 is essentially carbon neutral... Date 2010, 25% carbon reduction - level3; 2013, 40% carbon reduction - level4; 2016 - carbon neutral - level6. Energy/carbon improvement as compared to Part L (Building Regulations 2006).
• U-value - from a diypage, wikipedia - "Simply put, it is the number of watts that will be lost per square metre, at a given temperature difference in kelvin. For a simple example, if the interior of your home is at 20 °C, and the roof cavity is at 10 °C, that gives a temperature difference of 10 K. Assuming a ceiling insulated to R–2, energy will be lost at a rate of 10 K / 2 K·m²/W = 5 watts for every square metre of ceiling." or 0.5 U in this case.... So the examples for these houses of 0.15W per sq m looks pretty good.
• Heat exchange - stack effect
  
• solar gain
• passive ventilation
  
• Du Pont’s innovative Energain phase change panel
• rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling

the madness of bottled water

couldn't have said it better myself - this article from the 'union of concerned scientists' - over 10,000 more expensive than tap water, damaging to the environment, not necessarily any 'real' benefits. also this post by commondreams.org.

Green Toronto Festival in Nathan Phillips square

Well, you've got to give credit where due. There was another 'green' event in Toronto yesterday "Green Toronto Festival" in Nathan Phillips square.

A random selection of stalls with various not for profit, for profit, and volunteer organisations - everything from wind/solar energy, walking/cycling groups, 'green themed' estate agent, backyard tree planting, a green business/enterprise network, commute options 'smart commute' (as public transport is so bad out of downtown there seems no current option - big expansion planned by the TTC though commentry on CityNews), and many many more, see the full list of exhibitors. I loved the fact that the city had put on a little fresh water trough direct from the city mains - a great way on a hot day to let people have access to water without having to sell bottled water!

Having a dig around the toronto.ca website there seem to have been a few good incentives, esp one around green roofs, just wonder if this is still being publicised... I know from looking around the rooftops downtown, there certainly doesn't seem to be a wrath of them around... seem to be a few companies though 'greenspaceroofing', also see other article below.

Yesterday I was there again for the farmers market - wasn't that much selection by the time I got there (which is hopefully a good sign!), but the product seemed to be generally good - see here for a list of famers markets in GTA.

first house to get carbon neutral tax exclusion in the UK

A great looking new carbon neutral house announced in the Guardian - the lighthouse. Gordon Brown (the next PM?) a while back announced this perk to avoid paying stamp tax to the government (when you buy a house, 1,2.5 or 3%) - I think for the next 2-3years anyway.



There seems to be an event - BRE Offsite 2007 - which looks pretty cool; would love to be back in the UK to go along to that one. Some interesting photos from their blog.

Also interesting compertition link for future housing by bdonline architects website.

How long before anyone in Toronto/Canada gets onto these prefabricated off-site sustainable houses.. I wonder if anyone is lobbying the government or provinces...?

Open Doors Toronto

What a great event - Open Doors (in the star and globeandmail, ctv) I know other cities do it - certainly I saw the London one be advertised enough times (although I never made it).

Personal favourites were:

• Levitt Goodman House (for the green roof, and sleek modernist design of the house), I'm not sure that they'd really thought about the entire project in a carbon neutral (or zero-energy building) way, like say bedzed in the UK. But the view out over the grass from the main bedroom looked particularly calming.

• The roof garden and living biowall at Robertson Building, The if only there would be a few more of those in this city, the effects of the smog and heat might, might be reduced...

• Another notable was the interesting Ravina Project with huge the solar panel harnessed to his roof - interesting character running the 'project', a retiree couple who are the 'only' people doing this type of research on this latitude... They essentially are going by the official guidelines for degrees of set up, and then every other day setting the solar panel up as if it was a radio receiver with the sun the publisher - he'll be uploading his data in November to the web...

It was good to see the interest level of the people in these events and in the Green Living show but I think that the mindset of the population isn't there yet - the love affair with the car & the cookie-cutter houses especially if Toronto is going to be the greenest city in North America - (reducing dependence on car). But first the public transport needs to be sorted out - as its all a bit shocking! - really surprised that there's smog in this fair city - but its not easy...

The other interesting point that came out was the improvements to your house - as in the ones above (solar, wind, etc) - which would attract subsidies (incentives and rebates) when installing can actually increase your annual tax rate, as it increases the value of your house - bit of a double edge sword that needs to be addressed... Maybe the type of approach by the UK for zero stamp duty (paid when you buy a house) for carbon neutral houses is one effective means to get the developers and population to start thinking green...

See also this interesting article from the Economist.