The Temperance Street Passive House will be the first passive house certified in Saskatchewan. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

139. The first certified passive house in Saskatchewan

David DodgePassive Solar, Buildings, Energy Efficiency, Solar 5 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson In 1976, gas prices doubled overnight. Naturally, this freaked …

Edmonton's new carbon neutral net-zero garage suite is full of sensors and will be part of Godo Stoyke's PhD lifecycle assessment of the home to determine if energy efficiency and solar energy production can make not only the operation of the home carbon neutral, but whether it can also offset the carbon used in materials and construction and decommission. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

137. Carbon neutral laneway home–first of its kind

David DodgeBuildings, Energy Efficiency, Energy Storage 2 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson This carbon neutral garage suite is a first for …

Visiting the Kinney Earthship, in the dead of winter on the Canadian prairie landscape north of Lethbridge, Alberta does invite comparisons with the lunar landscape! So much so it inspired photographer Steve Nagy to create this selfie in the middle of the night on a fine winter day. And in fact the number one question the Kinney's get about their Earthship is how does this passive solar heated home work when it's -30 degrees celsius.

136. Earthship living in a cold Canadian winter

David DodgeBuildings, Energy Efficiency, Net Zero, Passive Solar, Renewable Energy, Solar 8 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson  When we last visited the Kinney Earthship it was a smokin’ hot 30 …

Carl Lauren of Tyee Log and Timber Homes in Kimberley B.C. wanted to promote energy efficiency in home building so he pushed City Hall to start a program. Pictured is the crew that hand builds log homes at Tyee in Kimberley. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

131. Small town energy efficiency program is simple by design in Kimberley B.C.

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By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson All Carl Lauren wanted to do was promote the …

Science teacher Stephanie Bennett with two alumni - all veterans of the Cochrane High School Sustainable Development Committee. Successive committees have built seven major projects at the school including solar, energy efficiency and gardens. Photo David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca

118. Cochrane students install solar and get new town policy permitting renewable energy

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney There’s a quote from cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead that …

Here in Halifax you can peek in and get a view of the super chilled mass of rock that provides the district cooling in the Aldnerney 5 project.

117. Sustainability snapshots: How Halifax, Tallinn, Hannover and Ottawa are learning from each other to make their cities more sustainable

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney If you’ve hung around some of the wackier, more …

Jason Rioux's shipping container cabin. The cabin was built out of seven containers in a hub-and-spoke pattern near Bobcaygeon, Ontario. Photo Courtesy of Jason Rioux

112. Welcome to the Octopod: An off-grid, solar powered shipping container cabin in Bobcaygeon, Ontario

David DodgeBuildings, Energy Efficiency, Solar 1 Comment

By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney  Whether you call it a cottage or a cabin, …

Location Efficiency expert Kurt Borth says too many people "drive until you qualify" for a big house, without considering the very real and significant transportation costs you will experience just getting to work and play. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

110. Location efficiency: Discovering the hidden transportation costs of where you live

David DodgeTransportation, Buildings 2 Comments

By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney When you buy a house the first thing your …

Dominic Ries, Adrienne Lynn and Cam Munro of Clark Builders stand in front of a gate designed to keep soils and construction mud on site by using a cattle gate that shakes the mud off vehicles before they leave the LEED construction site and hit the streets of Edmonton, Alberta. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

108. LEED works: How a green building rating system transformed the construction industry

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney Governments and developers love issuing press releases announcing the …

Jacob Komar of Revolve Engineering shows off the workings of the geothermal system in the net-zero Mosaic Centre commercial building. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

107: Geothermal: Hitting the geoexchange heating and cooling sweet spot

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  By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney   There is something calm and comforting about …

AIM Energy Pros have created their own custom circuit by circuit energy monitoring unit that here is hooked up to Evergreen Ecological Services electrical panel searching or energy savings. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

106. The $750 billion dollar opportunity in industrial and commercial energy efficiency

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney Put your hand on the radiator in our office’s …

The grand opening of the Mosaic Centre for Conscious Community and Commerce in Edmonton. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

103. Welcome to the Mosaic Centre: Canada’s biggest net-zero building

David DodgeBuildings, Solar 5 Comments

  By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney  The gap from net-zero house to large scale …

No two homes are the same in the Craik Eco-Village. There are tiny homes, homes made of straw bales, homes made out of insulated concrete forms – each home is its own unique recipe for building eco-home. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

99. Craik, Saskatchewan: The little Eco-Village that could

David DodgeBuildings, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Solar, Wind 3 Comments

By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney  About ten years ago the town of Craik, Saskatchewan, …

The Kinney family Earthship at dawn. The house is 2,300 square feet in size with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

82. How we built our own Earthship, a radically sustainable, off-grid home on the prairie

David DodgeBuildings, Energy Efficiency, Passive House, Passive Solar, Solar 4 Comments

By Duncan Kinney and David Dodge When you tell people you’re building an Earthship there …

Landmark Solar Townhomes

81. Chasing Net Zero: Go big or go home

David DodgeBuildings, Energy Efficiency, Energy Labelling, Net Zero, Renewable Energy, Solar 4 Comments

By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney American poet, philosopher and naturalist Henry David Thoreau once …

Shafraaz and Serena Kaba’s near net-zero home was inspired by the German concept of the Passivhaus, a super energy efficient home that requires very little energy for heating or cooling. The home is air tight, very well insulated and it gets half its heating from passive solar energy streaming through the windows. Photo Darren Greenwood

80: Chasing Net Zero: Net-zero evolution

David DodgeBuildings, Energy Efficiency, Energy Labelling, Net Zero, Passive Solar, Renewable Energy, Solar 8 Comments

By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney It’s a beautiful, livable, functional net-zero experiment – Welcome …

Spo'pi solar house

79. Chasing Net Zero: Net-zero beautiful

David DodgeBuildings, Energy Efficiency, Energy Labelling, Net Zero, Passive Solar, Renewable Energy, Solar 2 Comments

By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney Building a net-zero home is an intricate dance between …

Photo Garth Crump Chasing net-zero Part 1: Net-zero 101

78. Chasing Net Zero: Net-zero 101

David DodgeBuildings, Energy Efficiency, Energy Labelling, Net Zero, Passive Solar, Renewable Energy, Solar 10 Comments

By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney A net-zero home is more than just a place …

Photo Duncan Kinney, Green Energy Futures GLOBE 2014 Vancouver

72. Three up and comers show their stuff at GLOBE 2014

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney GLOBE 2014 is the biggest business and sustainability conference …

Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures Passive Solar Heating Belgravia Net-zero Home in Edmonton, Alberta

63. The power of passive solar and thermal mass

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By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney The Ancient Pueblo peoples got free heating and cooling at the Mesa …