Anatomy of a Straw Bale Dream Home

396. Anatomy of a Net-Zero Straw Bale Dream Home

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Green Energy Futures Straw Bale Dream Home Series By David Dodge, GreenEnergyFutures.ca Lance and Wendy …

TerraView net-zero

264. TerraView builds net-zero ready and only net-zero ready homes

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By David Dodge and Kay Rollans TerraView Homes from Guelph, Ontario doesn’t just build homes—they …

Vivian Manasc green architect

241. Vivian Manasc – A lifetime of Building it Green

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By David Dodge and Kay Rollans Last year, Vivian Manasc received a lifetime achievement award …

Blatchford Carbon Neutral Community

Green Energy Futures – Four stories that matter from 2019

David DodgeBuildings, Climate Change, Energy Efficiency, Net Zero, Passive Solar, Renewable Energy, Solar Leave a Comment

By David Dodge Happy New Year from Green Energy Futures!  This week’s episode of Green …

Reverend Annabelle Wallace and elder Les Young

237. God’s green home is net-zero

David DodgeNet Zero, Energy Efficiency, Geothermal, Passive Solar, Renewable Energy, Solar 1 Comment

A few years back, then-minister of Westmount Presbyterian Church Reverend Annabelle Wallace and her congregation …

Greenest School in Canada

236. Greenest School in Canada has a solar-geothermal greenhouse

David DodgeEducation, Geothermal, Net Zero, Passive Solar, Renewable Energy, Solar Leave a Comment

By David Dodge and Kay Rollans “Words without actions are meaningless,” Lacombe Composite High School …

Derek Leahy4

220. Alberta farms fertile land for Rural Routes to Climate Solutions

David DodgeClimate Change, Education, Geothermal, Passive Solar, Renewable Energy Leave a Comment

By David Dodge and Scott Rollans When Derek Leahy told his Ottawa friends he was …

102E16C3 49B6 42CB B066 7847B7AEE7DC

213. First passive house car dealership in Canada

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By David Dodge and Scott Rollans While touring the Subaru plant in Indiana, Garrett Scott …

The Symonds Passive House

209. Passive house runs on sunshine, good to -30

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 By David Dodge and Scott Rollans When you step into the Brookfield Symons Gate …

First Net-Zero Home in Canada to receive Net-Zero Home label

194. Home builders embrace net-zero with new labelling program

David DodgeEnergy Labelling, Buildings, Energy Efficiency, Net Zero, Passive Solar, Renewable Energy, Solar 1 Comment

By David Dodge Until quite recently net-zero homes were pioneered mostly by an early adopter …

North Glenora Net-Zero Church and Townhomes

193. Visit 21 Inspiring green buildings on Eco-Solar Home Tour

David DodgeNet Zero, Buildings, Electric Vehicles, Energy Efficiency, Geothermal, Passive Solar, Renewable Energy, Solar Leave a Comment

 By David Dodge & Scott Rollans Ever heard of the Eco-Solar Home Tour? Believe …

Skeena passive house

163. Skeena – Canada’s largest passive house

David DodgeRenewable Energy, Buildings, Energy Efficiency, Energy Labelling, Passive Solar 4 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson Vancouver, the self-styled “world’s greenest city” has built Canada’s …

brad leavitt making smaller bales 30439645186 o

157. Straw-bale 101: A tale of two homes

David DodgeBuildings, Energy Efficiency, Passive Solar 5 Comments

By David Dodge & Dylan Thompson When you hear the term “straw-bale home”, you could …

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 …

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 …

Dave Spencer and Debbie Wiltshire in front of their net-zero home. They wanted to develop a green community in Calgary and started the process more than 12 years ago. The concept turns traditional suburban neighbourhoods on its ear. Photo David Dodge, Green Energy Futures

86. Echohaven: An environmentally friendly, energy efficient suburb

David DodgeEnergy Efficiency, Net Zero, Passive Solar, Solar 1 Comment

By David Dodge and Duncan Kinney To borrow a popular internet meme, what if I …

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 …

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 …