Built Green inspires homebuyer confidence

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Going green is not only getting the green light from homebuyers, it’s also an increasing focus for Canadian home builders.

And two recent studies are showing how that interest is continuing to grow even as building codes address higher levels of energy performance.

More than eight in 10 Canadians are open to or somewhat open to installing renewable energy generating on or in their home, according to a recent study from Nanos Research, conducted from March 31 of this year to April 1 and commissioned by Schneider Electric. Fifty-eight per cent said they were open to installing these features and 27 per cent were somewhat open.

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Meanwhile, more than 57 per cent of respondents to the 2023 Canadian Homebuyer Preference Study showed that an overall energy efficient home was a must have. The study, conducted by Avid Ratings Canada in partnership with the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, surveyed 20,720 homebuyers across six provinces.

Those numbers, according to Edmonton-based Built Green Canada, are just the tip of the iceberg.

“While sustainable building practices are not new, they’re still in their infancy and as such, are still considered innovative,” said Jenifer Christenson, Built Green’s CEO. “As with any innovation, we know that you cannot just rely on the customer to drive demand. For those homebuyers who aren’t asking for green features, they’re not asking for them yet because customers cannot ask for ‘green’ if they don’t understand it. But this is changing.”

The industry-to-industry organization said it’s increasingly getting calls from homebuyers asking if a home they’re looking at purchasing is Built Green certified.

“People are becoming more discerning about the legitimacy of ‘green feature’ claims,” said Christenson. “Without a third-party certified label like ours at Built Green to back them, builders wouldn’t be able to prove their green building claims.”

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Built Green Canada came about after Jay Westman, Jayman Built’s chairman and CEO, was doing some work in the United States. Since then, Jayman has registered over 13,500 Built Green homes and is now building homes to Net zero certification.

“Jayman was building homes, at the time in Denver, and we had seen a concept similar to Built Green in Denver. We brought this concept back to Calgary, where Jayman, in partnership with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, in 2003, put up the initial funding to launch Built Green,” said Westman. “From that, it grew from Alberta, across many provinces in Canada and today, Built Green is one of the foremost programs in North America. I am very proud of Built Green’s history, which is (now) over 20 years.”

As an industry-driven, environmental non-profit organization committed to working with builders interested in responsible sustainability practices in the residential building sector, Built Green also provides third-party certification, which requires builders to contract energy advisors or engineers to assess the effectiveness of the systems in the home.

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Since Built Green began in 2003, builders have worked with them to complete 51,670 Built Green certified single-family, multi-family and high-density projects, as well as two Phase 1 community certifications (taking into account new communities take years to complete) in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario.

Green Visions

Two Canadian firsts are under way in Alberta.

Averton’s Midtown, a 45-acre development in the western portion of St. Albert and just north of Edmonton, will one day be home to more than 1,000 residents. But it’s not just a new residential community, it’s also one of Canada’s first ever Built Green certified communities — Spring Creek Mountain Village in Canmore is the other one.

Midtown was also the first community to become part of Built Green’s Communities Pilot, geared to residential developers who want to create greener, healthier communities.

“Our vision for community development goes beyond what we have seen in more typical new communities, as we employ a focus on the experience of the end user, as well as the idea of the community’s ability to thrive and grow in a sustainable manner,” said Paul Lanni, Averton’s president and CEO. “Certification with Built Green would provide us with a platform to articulate our differences to a wider audience, reinforce our direction as we move through the development of our communities, and also inform some of our decision making along the way.”

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Averton also notes it has seen increased traction with buyers that recognize the importance of thinking about sustainability for the long term, and that more and more homebuyers are looking to incorporate sustainability in their decisions over where to live.

Averton isn’t the only builder to notice this, so has Ontario’s Generations Master Builder, a supporter of both sustainable building practices and Built Green.

At first, there was the odd client that really bought into sustainability, but most were not, said Murray Pound, president of Generations, adding that nor were they willing to pay extra for it.

“Move the clock forward 15-plus years and sustainable products and business operations have become normalized (expected) across a wide range of industries,” said Pound. “There is now an expectation that a new home is energy efficient and healthier than ever before.”

Third-party certifications of a product are valuable tools to help reassure a potential client they are investing wisely, said Pound, as having a legitimate measuring tool like Built Green helps the client understand what improvements have been made to Generations’ homes over its competitors.

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Homeowner Component

Built Green encourages, and provides tools, to help builders educate homebuyers. It also takes a holistic approach as it points out the house really does operate as a system.

“A home can be very air tight, but without consideration, for example, of what materials are brought in, the occupant could actually end up being trapped in a home with high volatile organic compounds,” said Christenson. “It is important to understand that occupants also impact utility bills — a home can have all the right features but to some extent, the homeowner’s behaviour will impact how much they save.”

Above and beyond that, single-family homes that are certified Built Green Gold, Platinum, and Net Zero+ are eligible for a partial mortgage loan insurance premium refund of 25 per cent with a Building Certificate of Authenticity. Other economic benefits include that homes with green certification tend to sell for close to 10 per cent more, on average, than homes without certification. There is also the fact that Built Green certification includes both an EnerGuide label and a Built Green label (for single family and renovation certifications).

“Today’s homeowner can choose to buy a healthier, more durable home with a lower environmental impact — alongside a reduction in monthly operating costs, mortgage loan rebate eligibility, greater resale value, and more,” said Christenson. “We expect this interest to continue increasing as many of our brightest minds are busy making it their life’s work to find more sustainable practices, including for our homes. New innovations will emerge making our lives better, diversifying the economy and contributing to climate mitigation.”

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