It's easy to build green

An increasing number of homeowners are concerned about the environment and want their homes to be as energy efficient as possible. As a result, Montreal has seen the construction of more and more environmentally friendly houses.

Green homes, characterized primarily by their water and energy-saving features, are multiplying in numbers and are in the process of evolving with the advent of net-zero-energy housing — homes that use up as much energy as they generate.

One such home, a triplex, is currently being built in Verdun and will be ready for occupancy early next year, and an 18-unit complex on the same site is already underway and will be put on the market in the next few months. Both are developed by the same company, EcoCité Developments.

“Net-zero-energy takes it one step further by incorporating a few additional energy systems so that it produces more energy than the buildings we normally develop,” says Cheryl Gladu of EcoCité.

As part of an even larger design team, Abondance Montreal, Gladu and EcoCité won a sustainable development competition in February, sponsored by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, allowing them to go ahead with the project.

“We’ve used geothermal [technology] in the past in a few of our projects. This is a technology that takes energy from the earth to provide heating and cooling for the buildings,” saysGladu, 30. “But this will be the first time that we use photovoltaic [PV solar panels] and solar thermal [vacuum tubes] in order to generate electricity… and to produce hot water for the building. It’s a more energy-productive building than we’ve done in the past.”

EcoCité founder Christopher Sweetnam-Holmes, 32, completed his first green project in 2004, a property in Point St. Charles near Atwater Market, named Habitat 1. Sweetnam-Holmes says that first project and the several projects he’s worked on since, led to the one in Verdun.

“I had lots of challenges in terms of learning what worked and what didn’t work. Each building is like a laboratory and I learn from it,” he says.


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