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Having a green home provides savings and peace-of-mind
Toronto Real Estate Board President’s Column as it appears each Friday in the Toronto Sun’s Resale Homes and Condos section
When it comes to character, you just can’t beat the charm of an older home. Newly constructed homes however, come with their own unique assets, one of the most noteworthy of which is energy efficiency.
From the roof to the foundation, a number of innovative building practices often go into constructing today’s greenest homes.
Roof shingles for example, are now available in recycled materials. Environmentally friendly spray foam insulation, which can help prevent dampness, keep out pollutants and contribute to structural strength, is even partially made with recycled materials.
Roofs, walls and floors can be insulated as well with special structural panels that consist of two layers of board with insulating foam in between them. The forms that are used to mould a home’s poured concrete foundation can now also be found with insulating ability, and barriers that prevent dampness from rising into the foundation can be used at this stage of construction as well. Even exterior cladding is now insulated to offer greater energy efficiency.
If you prefer an older home though, there are many simple ways to make it more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.
Start with an Energy Star programmable thermostat that will save on heating and cooling costs when you’re not home. You can take this approach a step further by investing in a new high efficiency furnace or air conditioner. Adding insulation to the attic of your home will offer reduced energy costs for years to come as well.
A tank-less water heater will also save on energy costs by providing only the amount of heated water that you need rather than maintaining it in a cylinder.
Even making minor changes can have an impact, like choosing energy efficient light bulbs – Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) are good and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are even better.
If you’re planning to make cosmetic changes to your home you can do your part for the environment by choosing wood flooring, and even carpet, made with recycled content. Look for low VOC paints and stains as well, which reduce the number of unstable, carbon-containing compounds that enter the air and react with other elements.
In the bathroom, you can keep more money in your pocket by installing low-flow faucets, showerheads and toilets.
Replacing old windows with low-E argon-filled units that have the Energy Star symbol can make a dramatic difference to your home’s energy efficiency as well.
Changing your old appliances with new Energy Star machines is also a great way to reduce energy consumption while enhancing the overall appeal of your home.
Beyond enjoying the aesthetics, cost savings and fulfillment associated with helping the environment, you can also consider getting an energy audit to take full advantage of a number of government rebates for energy-saving home improvements. Please visit www.TorontoRealEstateBoard.com to learn more about them.
Regardless of the approach you choose, remember that nothing can substitute for good-old fashioned conservation. Remember that the energy you save today may well be the energy that is needed tomorrow.
Tom Lebour is President of the Toronto Real Estate Board, a professional association that represents 28,000 Realtors in the Greater Toronto Area.
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Earth Hour is a family affair
Earth Hour is a global lights out phenomenon, led by WWF (World Wildlife Fund) to show support for action on climate change and demonstrate that individual action can make a big difference. It’s also a great opportunity to talk to your family about the environment and look at what you can do to reduce your environmental impact.
This year, Earth Hour takes place on Saturday, March 27 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. (local time). Families are encouraged to join millions of people around the world and turn off their lights for one hour in support of action on climate change. Small acts can make a big difference. For more information or to join the movement, visit www.EarthHourCanada.org.
Here are some activities to help you and your family make an evening out of Earth Hour:
1. Make a plan: Engage your family in a conversation about conservation and come up with ideas on how to save energy, limit waste, and make a positive impact on the environment at home. Then discuss other ways your family can take action for the planet year-round, like switching to CFL light bulbs, using cold water to wash your clothes, and buying energy efficient appliances. More ideas can be found online at wwf.ca.
2. Community involvement: Find Earth Hour events happening in your community and get involved. Being part of a community with purpose will prompt your kids to start seeking out other opportunities to get involved on their own and inspire more action.
3. Candle-lit games night: Dust off the board games or play a game of flashlight tag. Gather the family for some old-fashioned quality time to remind your children that games can be played without a computer or TV screen and that fun can be had with mom or dad.
4. Take a tour: Explore your neighborhood in a whole new light and take a flashlight walk, or tour around your city using “green” modes of transportation. Walk, bike, skateboard, scooter, or take the bus and show your kids that travel can be fun, and sometimes faster, when you leave the car at home.
5. Scavenge and save: Set up a scavenger hunt in and around your house to mark off areas where energy can be saved. Encourage the kids to place flags or stickers in spots where appliances or computers can be unplugged and lights turned off – highlighting the spots where they can make a difference.
More information and ideas are available online at www.EarthHourCanada.org.
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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Cabbagetown cultivates lanes
Lane-naming a tribute to ‘hidden gems’, noteworthy Torontonians
Laura Blenkinsop, National Post
City works crews arrived last week amid the Victorian row houses and cottages of Cabbagetown, halting their trucks at eight narrow laneways. Residents watched as they erected street signs with names like Woodward Evans Lane, after the two Torontonians who first invented the light bulb and then sold the patent to Thomas Edison; Drovers Lane, after the occupation of some early City of Toronto residents who drove herds of livestock to market; and Hagan Lane after award-winning artist Frederick Hagan, known for setting up his easel to paint in Cabbagetown’s laneways.
It is the first lane-naming project of this scale in Toronto; before they are done, 44 more lanes will get names.
They are a tribute to the persistence of Douglas Mc-Taggart, who has spent three years pushing to name all the back alleys in Cabbagetown.
“There’s a beauty to the laneways now, and I think it’s really trying to accentuate the positives,” said Mr. McTaggart, chairman of the Cabbagetown Preservation Association Laneway Naming and Signing Initiative.
“They’re part of the Victorian plan so they are historic. I think there is so much potential for them.”
Cabbagetown is the largest continuous area of preserved Victorian housing in North America
Cabbagetown, named for the flood of impoverished Irish immigrants who used their front lawns for vegetable gardens filled with cabbages, is shedding its slum past, although not quickly enough for some residents.
The signs erected this week are all in the neighbourhood’s more troubled western edge.
Mr. McTaggart’s inspiration to name lanes came as a way to deal with the problems he faced in the alley behind the Seaton Street home he moved into in January, 2002.
A Toronto Community Housing Corporation building is across the alley from his home and with all the residents, he said over time garbage was piled five to six feet high and 20-feet long. He found used syringes and broken glass when children in their bare feet were playing nearby.
After a drug deal gone wrong, a person was thrown to their death off a balcony into the alley, he said.
“I believe it’s a liability to have an unnamed thoroughfare in Toronto in this day and age,” said Mr. McTaggart. “It’s really life and property that are at risk.”
His complaints to the city proved fruitless, he said, so in 2004 he decided to submit an application to get the troubled lane a name.
In December, 2005, his back alley was officially named Oskenonton Lane, after a First Nations entertainer from the early 1900s.
Since the lane’s naming, Mr. McTaggart said he’s noticed a reduction in crime.
The TCHC building’s garbage is collected three times instead of once each week and new lighting has been installed.
“It really was a tangle of issues of urban decay,” Mr. McTaggart said. “Naming and signing the lane was a step that really vaulted us forward.”
He decided nearby lanes should also be named so they could be cleaned up, to speed up emergency response times and increase traffic safety.
So the human resources consultant and historical preservation enthusiast bought property data maps and spent three winter weeks canvassing the area and noting down the locations, problems and historical icons of every lane.
He also created the laneways initiative, which submitted the application to name 52 lanes on March 22, 2006. Desmond Christopher, the city’s supervisor for Street and Parcel Mapping, said that is a lot of lanes.
“Normally we don’t name lanes unless we are required for emergency purposes,” he said.
The city also names lanes if a new building’s front entrance looks onto an alley instead of a street, or if city councillors and residents want to honour someone who has died.
For the signage for the first eight lanes, the city has spent about $2,500 in labour and materials.
Mr. McTaggart intends to continue his activism for the laneways, pushing for road surface, sewage and greening improvements until Cabbagetown’s lanes are “hidden gems.”
He said he’s been humbled by thank you e-mails he’s received from neighbours for the signs that have already been installed.
“I don’t think anybody should undervalue the signage that’s in place,” he said. “Signage brings great benefits.”
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Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information - 416-388-1960
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