CANADA’S GREENEST HOME will be built this summer in Peterborough, Ont. The Endeavour Centre, a not-for-profit organization aimed at educating students in construction and design, plans on building the home during their five-month program of this year, making it their ninth sustainable project.
Chris Magwood, executive director of the Endeavour Centre, said the aim of the project is not only to build the home, but to involve students in all aspects of the construction while offering programs they can take to expand their engineering knowledge.
“Some of the students come to the program with a fair bit of building background already, while some have never engaged in construction before,” he said.
The home is attempting the Living Building Challenge, a certification program established by the International Living Future Institute to certify projects as being green.
“It is the most thorough sustainable building rating system in North America,” Magwood said. “There has never been a house that has fully lived up to the Living Building Challenge.”
The challenge rates the energy, materials, water usage, indoor air quality, development, and equity of the project.
“Our students build a building with us from start to finish,” he said. “Students tend to already have some post-secondary education. Often students are a bit older, are looking for a career change, and are hoping to go in a different direction.”
Sean Harris, a 2009 graduate of the centre, pointed out the support he received from Endeavour even after he was finished the program as a contributing factor to his successful construction business.
“By the end of the course, my knowledge of sustainable building was thorough,” he said. “I got an invaluable experience from the centre. Because you are building a home, you get an experience that is unlike any other school I have done.”
The centre offers three programs: Sustainable constructions, which the “Canada’s Greenest Home” project is being built under, sustainable design, and sustainable renovation, along with a wide variety of workshops in sustainable building.
“Knowing the centre, the project will have all sorts of new and sustainable ideas,” Harris said of his alma mater.
Students can register to participate in the project at Endeavourcentre.org.
—Andrew Ikeman
