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Green House, Right PriceThe Verdant makes ecoliving look easy - and affordable, too. by MEG WALKER
Verdant: the word usually conjures things greening, growing well, like mountainside swaths of pines or healthy crop fields. On Burnaby Mountain, The Verdant refers to a new, 60-unit green residential neighbourhood—and to development manager Heather Tremain’s vision. The community has grown from a backpacker’s dream to a model of ecoarchitecture. Ecofriendly is almost an understatement for Verdant, part of SFU’s UniverCity community. Heather Tremain, CEO and co-founder of reSource Rethinking Building and project manager for the development, rattles off an impressive list of features, including geothermal-heat sinks, solar panels, and radiant-heat floors. Interiors are finished with healthy paints, adhesives, and sealants. The neighbourhood includes a daycare, and a monthly transit pass is included in the co-op fees. Homes were sold at 20 per cent below market value, as VanCity Enterprises Ltd. and SFU Community Trust partnered to create an unusual financing system: the Trust absorbed a financial hit to attract people to this not-exactly-downtown area. To create economic sustainability, buyers agree that the homes will be resold in the future at this cut rate. All of this is wonderfully practical, which makes the contrast to Tremain’s own story a delight: her passion for ecohousing was born when she took time out for “useless” travel. Like many arts undergraduates, in her early 20s Tremain had “no idea what to do” and went travelling in the United Kingdom. “I remember going past a social-housing project,” she recalls, “and I said to myself—‘I can’t believe people are being housed like this.’ And I thought, that’s it! I could become an architect. I could make housing that shows people they’re cared about.” By then, she had met her business partner, Robert Brown, a developer who wanted to build only ethical developments. Their first project, the four-unit Ardencraig townhouse with a unique stormwater management system, won the Mayor’s
Environmental Award in 2001 and an Ethics in Action Award in 2000. For their 2002 project, Koo’s Corner (where Tremain now lives), an auto garage converted into six townhomes, they added more systems like greywater heat recovery. Corin Flood joined reSource in 2005 to head up commercial Tremain says she and her associates like to create challenges for themselves by looking at completed green developments and asking, “What’s the next roadblock to making it bigger and better?” Verdant is the company’s biggest project and a chance to expand sustainability in two directions. They increased the focus on space for community and made the buildings more energy-efficient than any other housing project in B.C. People became a priority because “green building and a sustainable future is about people getting along to create innovative solutions,” Tremain says. “So we took the building, tried to make it energy-efficient, and then broke the building apart and created a courtyard.” The end result: at least 50 per cent of the homes have an entry onto the street, which provides shared space for interaction. And most of the units are two- and three-bedroom homes, which isn’t common in ecohousing. Decisions about tech were tied closely to economics.Many existing energy-efficient systems, like solar power, are not incorporated into new developments due to expense. ReSource calculated the cost of creating a 60-per-cent more energy-efficient home—which translates into long-term savings for the owner—and compared it to traditional construction costs. Next, they arranged a loan to cover the difference, which the Verdant strata council will repay over 25 years or less. So homeowners start with low,amortized energy payments and end up with lower-than-average costs because the homes are so efficient. This approach could become very powerful for multi-unit developments because the expense of going green doesn’t sting the developer nor does it break the buyer’s bank. In other words, any development could be built this way and remain economically competitive. This creative Thoughtfulness was especially important for reSource on this project because it started with pristine land instead of on previously existing infrastructure. “We thought it would be worth the small amount of extra work now to create the best place for the long-term future,” Tremain It sounds like that tag could apply to all the players behind The Verdant: SFU Community Trust for leasing the land at a cut rate and choosing green-focused developers and planners, VanCity Enterprises Ltd. for designing the financing, reSource for pushing the green building components, and the new residents for choosing healthy homes. It’s a feel-good story that also feels good on the ground. For more information on The Verdant, visit verdantliving.com. For more about reSource Rethinking Building, visit rethinkingbuilding.com. Meg Walker (artist, writer, nomad) scribbles about art, literature, and anything that involves creative thinking. Her work can be seen at megwalker.ca. 5 ways to GREEN your HOME Most of us probably won’t be building a house from the ground up, but even apartment-dwellers can make small changes to dramatically reduce energy use.
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