This year marked the fourth year Formica Canada ran it's FORM design competition, and the second year that it was won by Canadian design students. Formica Canada runs an annual design competition called the FORM Student Innovation Competition, and it has been won by University of Montreal students Bénédicte Laurent…

Ecohome encourage anyone building with some ready mix concrete to check if there is a local supplier of CarbonCure to help reduce the carbon footprint of your build. A while back Ecohome was pleased to find and report on some upcoming technologies that were producing Low-carbon and carbon-neutral concrete…

Raising taxes is usually something that dips into all wallets - but the Carbon tax, applied correctly to target consumption, may be the best thing that ever happened for the North American construction industry and homeowners. I was a carpenter/contractor for decades, during and in between university. In 2008 an old…

When we think of big-box stores and retailers we don't generally think of sustainability, we think of a "pile it high & sell it cheap" disposable mentality - but we've been discovering that Ikea, the worlds largest furniture retailer, is at least trying. So here’s a new situation – We find that a certain corporation…

Swimming in your own home pool is a great way to stay fit, enjoy time with the family, and top up your vitamin D. But beyond the purchase price, what does it cost to run and clean swimming pools, and how can we best reduce energy costs. Energy efficient & eco friendly swimming pools - are they even a thing?! The…

With the high cost of lumber, we decided to look at how we can still build high performance yet affordable homes. The cost of lumber is at an all time high, and because of that fact, other wall assemblies are showing themselves to be more affordable in comparison. So it’s a great time to highlight a few…

After the 50th anniversary of Earth Day last April kind of fizzled out in the face of impending viral doom, what does Earth Day 2021 mean for the Planet. Under a previous US administration, the environment seemed to have taken a back seat to nationalism, industry, jobs, and the economy . Initiatives like the Paris…

With our international perspective of construction and home pricing trends, it's time to stress the importance to the homeowners of North America and Canada of home performance. If buying or building a home - please read this first. A recent report in the UK by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) has started ringing…

When we were spring gardening and had azaleas to plant, we remembered reading that coffee grounds might help certain garden plants so thought we'd check it out. We all know that coffee has many a wonderful benefit, from that ever-so-necessary espresso first thing in the morning, to rubbing it on your skin for a bit…

The impact of 2020 and working from home has a lot of people considering moving away from urban centers to the countryside. How do we stave off an environmental disaster of losing greenspace to housing. With so many of us being forced to work from home, this has brought many changes to our economy, our priorities…

How to live a zero-waste lifestyle - reduce your climate impact and carbon footprint with simple lifestyle choices , learn more here. Garbage is a major contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions heating up the atmosphere and causing climate chaos. People generate over 3.5 million tons of solid waste every day…

Coles Supermarket partners with Cleanaway to convert waste into fuel to divert all waste from landfills. I’m not the first and I definitely won’t be the last to say that there is far too much (unnecessary) plastic packaging on foods. It’s everywhere! As soon as you step foot through the automatic doors in the…

Named “The Confluence,” this house produces more energy than it uses, it captures water on site and has a positive impact on its occupants and surrounding environment. Located northwest of Calgary, Alberta, The Confluence home is a partnership between Southern Alberta Institute of Technology’s ( SAIT ) Green…

Home offices are being used much more than before, and we're staying inside more than we should - Here's how to use Biophilic Design in a Home Office for better health. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have daydreamed on more than one occasion of having the luxury of being able to work from home. Oh, the thought…

Trane Technologies recently announced plans to cut its product carbon emissions by nearly 50% by 2030, supporting the Paris Agreement goal of Net-Zero Emissions by 2050, and having these claims validated independently. Cutting product emissions in half over the next decade supports Trane Technologies’ 2030…

With city populations doubling by 2050, we can't sustain the growing impact of urbanization on current transit solutions. Traffic is bad now in many of our urban centers, imagine what it will be like with double the number of cars. There's a significant traffic issue on the horizon, and even all of us deciding to…

Green roofs have known benefits for biodiversity in urban areas, water conservation, insulation properties and are simply more attractive to look at - here is an example of them being very practical too. Most commercial green roofs in an urban area offer green space for occupants and manage rainwater, but large…

Plastics are inescapable - but we can reduce their impact by better informed choices, better legislation (and probably lots of it), and by reducing waste production from construction. Plastics and their devastating impact on the environment is not news at all. For all our efforts to reduce packaging, recycle…

A San Francisco based startup named Ample seeks to shake up the electric car market with an interchangeable car battery for EVs. Ample is a new electric vehicle charging system which works by having robots quickly replace small modular battery packs in electric cars, getting them back on the road in a few minutes…