If you want a close look at something truly different in home building, be sure to drop into the Grand Opening of the first GreenHouse certified home in Halton on Saturday, May 8th at 1 p.m. The house, which is now for sale, is located at 2305 Belyea Street in Bronte Village. The two-storey home has been built by a young company with a mission to build energy-efficient, ecofriendly homes. Greenbilt Homes is dedicated to make green homes affordable by building infill projects in the GTA that are comparable in price to regular homes.

Home building in Ontario is gradually becoming greener, and the major push for this change is coming from the industry itself. There are a number of industry-wide initiatives that are encouraging home builders to embrace and adopt energy-efficient products, technologies and practices, but it is individual companies like Greenbilt Homes that are leading the way. As the Broker on this exciting new project, I am proud to be associated with the latest evolution in building and to be part of this critical movement of creating homes that will reduce our carbon footprint. With this house, Greenbilt is proving that you don’t need expensive and state-of-the-art technologies to achieve green. In fact, many of their solutions are common sense such as relying on daylight for lighting, overhangs and porches for cooling, utilizing recut and repolished granite, quartz with recycled glass, cork flooring in the kitchen with 100 per cent recycled content and the list goes on. In fact, there are 85 green features, combining to exceed the GreenHouse Certification requirements.

The owners’ inspiration was actually drawn from the past rather than looking into the future. “This brand new home incorporates a lot of basic concepts of early Ontario houses that used knowledge of nature to make the home more liveable,” says company vice-president Catherine Marshall. “The one green feature I am proudest of is our earth-cooled cellar in the basement because it is a modern sanitary walk-in cold room that is geothermal cooled by a simple and inexpensive system that came out of our research.” Traditional cellars were burrowed into the ground or the side of a hill, but while Greenbilt’s 80-foot walk-in food and wine cellar is in the basement, it is kept at the earth’s temperature, a constant 55 degrees, via the geothermal system. Greenbilt also focused on the lifestyle of Ontario’s agricultural forefathers who minimized waste, used resources carefully and built durable homes to last.

This first Oakville project by Greenbilt was the culmination of two years of research and development, explains company president Mike Manning, who has spent 30 years in construction, has an Architectural Technology diploma and is a licensed carpenter. While Manning learned as much as he could about green building before beginning this project, he says they also relied on their suppliers who were knowledgeable about products and materials and assisted the company by suggesting creative approaches. Some of these interesting features simply need to be seen to be appreciated, he suggests.

Approximately 20 suppliers, from lighting suppliers to cleaning companies, will be on hand following the brief Grand Opening ceremony. “Come expecting to learn about greening a house in an entertaining way,” Manning says. Whether you are in the market for a new home, simply have an interest in what the green movement is all about or just curious to learn more, I encourage you to come out and have a look for yourself. You may be surprised by the new-found knowledge you will come away with. See what the future of building might look like.

Dan Cooper is an award winning Broker with Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., Brokerage – the Number 1 Royal LePage Team for Canada in 2009. He can be reached at 905.338.3737, direct line at 905.849.3303 or through his innovative and interactive website at DanCooper.com. Be sure to catch the Dan Cooper Real Estate Series on DailyWebTV.com. For his free booklet How To Sell Your House For Top Dollar – Fast! or his Guide to Oakville Real Estate, please call the Dan Cooper Team.