“Green” subdivision slated for Newmarket, Ontario
It’s nice to see more home developers entering the green housing space, on top of the one-off builds typically handled by custom developers and progressive architects. The Town of Newmarket announced this week that it sold 34 lots for $3.2 million to Rodeo Fine Homes Inc.
Among Rodeo’s promises for this subdivision:
* 25 per cent reduction in household water draws compared to conventional homes.
* 60 per cent reduction in overall water discharge flows, solid waste, energy use and greenhouse gases compared to conventional homes.
No details were provided on how it plans to reach these goals, so this will be a project worth watching as it unfolds. It would be nice to see the use of solar heating and geo-exchange systems, or a combination of both. It would also be interesting to see some solar-integrated building products used in housing projects, so this could be a good opportunity for a company such as Spheral Solar to demonstrate the fruits of its alliance with Elk Roofing.
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca