Joni Carroll and Michael Ireton show off their Built Green home in Altadore

Insulated concrete form walls. Double argon-filled windows. Reclaimed agricultural material doors. In-floor heating with 11 thermostats. Chemical-free paint and carpets.

This isn’t some dwelling off of Star Trek; it is Joni Carroll’s and Michael Ireton’s Built Green Platinum two-storey infill in southwest Calgary, where they live with their two rambunctious children and one very fat cat.

Built Green is an industry-led green building certification program which monitors and rates environmentally sustainable projects. And Platinum is the highest level of certification available.

THE IDEA

When they had kids, Carroll and Ireton wanted a different house. They were thinking about building green when it occurred to them that with Ireton being an accredited Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) professional (a green building expert) who had worked on the LEED Canada for Homes pilot project, and Joni being an architect, they should build their own green home. The idea percolated for a few years until they found a suitable lot and began working on building two identical Built Green Platinum houses — one to live in and the other to sell.

For Ireton, being green is more than just being energy efficient. To be completely green he wanted to incorporate three main things.

The obvious objective is energy efficiency. The open-concept Altadore home has an 84 EnerGuide rating, which means it will produce 5.7 tonnes less greenhouse gas than a standard home. To put the savings in perspective: You would have to drive your car 30,000 kilometres to produce 5.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Secondly, a healthy indoor environment is a priority. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air can be more polluted than outdoor air, even in large cities. “You don’t want your house to kill you,” Ireton says. To reduce pollutants, the couple incorporated products free of formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs). They also use an air filter to keep the air particulate-free, which makes dusting a breeze.

“Just after we had moved in there was this enormous shaft of light shining into the living room one morning,” says Joni. “And there was nothing floating in it.”

Durability is the final requirement. The longer a building lasts and the less it has to be maintained, the smaller the footprint. “If we build houses intended to last for 30 years, then send them to the landfill and replace them, it’s not a very green, sustainable practice,” Ireton says, adding that their house is built to last at least 100 years.

The couple also tried to use as many recycled and renewable materials as possible, such as steel and bamboo, and reduced their carbon footprint by supporting local manufacturers.

Carroll’s design centred on light, both for energy conservation (most days you don’t have to turn the lights on) and increased livability. According to Carroll, the house has twice as many windows as an average infill and in most rooms there is light coming from at least two directions. In the master bath a “bumpout” (a section of wall pushed beyond the main wall of the house) holds the sink, with windows on each side to “put your makeup on without turning on the lights,” says Carroll.

Many people think you have to be “off the grid” (produce all your own energy, often using solar or geothermal power) to be really green. Ireton and Carroll set out to prove they could achieve a platinum standard with conventional technologies that people are comfortable with.

THE CHALLENGES

The couple started this project three years ago, before many manufacturers and distributors knew about or stocked green products. “We had to do a little envelope pushing,” Ireton says. “I did lots of research on the web.”

They received a variety of reactions from companies. “Some were very enthusiastic and well aware of what was going on, but most were not terribly familiar,” Ireton says. “This was at the height of the boom, so people said ‘We’re too busy, why should we think about bringing other products in?’ But now many of the companies say that these products are their bestsellers.”

Compromises sometimes had to be made between choosing local manufacturers and getting sustainably produced products. For example, their windows came from Manitoba because the local company couldn’t guarantee the wood was sustainably grown and the aluminum recycled.

THINKING OF BUILDING GREEN?

If you are interested in building green now, your only two options are having a custom house built or doing green renovations,” says Ireton, adding, “If customer demand keeps burgeoning things could change.”

“Ultimately it comes down to the consumer,” Ireton says. “Developers will always say they only respond to consumer demand and governments only respond to crisis or when people make so much noise they can’t ignore it.”

Some green changes, such as using natural carpet and formaldehyde-free board, are a small price increase, while some, like in-floor heating, could cost more than four times that of a traditional forced air system.

“I will argue until I’m blue in the face that getting the building envelope tight and doing the mechanical systems ‘right’ are the most important and critical things,” says Ireton. “But you have to look at how you actually use your house and your budget before making decisions about what systems to put in.”

Consumers have to invest a lot of money to really “green” their house, but they will reap the benefits of cheap utility bills and a number of government rebates. Ireton says his utility bills are one-half to two-thirds of what they paid in their previous house. There are also rebates up to 30 per cent on building permits available from the City of Calgary for achieving LEED or Built Green status, up to $10,000 from the provincial government based on the house’s EnerGuide score, and grants and tax breaks available from the federal government

The Toronto Dominion Bank now offers a green mortgage and a line of credit, and some insurance companies will offer lower house insurance rates for LEED or Built Green certified houses. And when it comes time to sell, according to Ireton, numbers in the United States show that a green house tends to hold its value better than an average home.

But Ireton warns there is a lot of “greenwashing” out there, companies marketing a product as green when it really isn’t, which is why he feels certification is so important.

“I really believe strongly in Built Green and LEED certification because it gives you the Good Housekeeping Seal,” Ireton says. “It gives consumers peace of mind that, ‘Yes we are getting what the builder promised’ and you’re not just relying on overburdened city inspectors.”

The couple are selling their 3,500-square-foot house next door, which is identical to theirs, for $1.25 million.

Comment on this story at ffwdweekly.com.

Built Green vs. LEED (Sidebar)

The Built Green program focuses on performance in:

Energy efficiency

Indoor air quality

Resource use (including waste management)

Overall environmental impact

The LEED Canada for Homes rating system focuses on performance in:

Water efficiency

Energy and atmosphere

Materials and resources

Indoor environmental quality

Awareness and education

Innovation and design process

Location and linkages

Sustainable sites

Note: In 2003 the City of Calgary committed that all new City buildings and any major renovations to existing buildings would meet or exceed LEED silver standards.

The Nitty Gritties (Sidebar)

The Boiler: High-efficiency natural gas, modulated output.

In-floor heating: 11 thermostats control separate areas of the house, heated by water running through tubes in the concrete floor.

Ventilation: Turbulent flow precipitator, air turbulence forces dirt out before the air enters a HEPA filter.

Exterior walls: Insulated concrete forms are durable, quiet and prevent energy loss.

Joists: Recycled steel. No load-bearing interior walls mean the house can be gutted for renos.

Floors: Concrete. Quiet, will never sag or creak.

Carpets: 100 per cent organic New Zealand virgin wool with rubber backing.

Paints: Low volatile organic compound (VOC) content

Trim, baseboards, shelves, drawers: Formaldehyde-free

Interior doors: Reclaimed agricultural fiber (rice, corn and wheat stalks)

Windows: Triple pane, double low-e coated, double argon-filled, recessed.

Cupboard doors: Bamboo with water-based finish

Toilets and faucets: Low-flow