Family Pairs with SAIT to build Certifiably Environmental House
Earthships, net-zero homes and now living buildings. The owners are teaming up with SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) to develop a house with the goal of spurring green change in the construction industry by becoming more accessible for regular homeowners
The homeowner has been working on the project for 10 years and has no regrets about reaching out for help from the environmentally focused SAIT program, which also partners with Woodpecker European Timber Framing.
SAIT’s Green Building Technologies program is all about promoting environmentally friendly tech in Canada, with an eye to changing the way things are done.
“The other homes that have achieved full certification, are in the US and they don’t have maybe the same rainfall, the same snowfall, the same temperature ranges from –5 C to 35 C. So we had to contend with all of that stuff,” Chala said.
“And we don’t expect everyone to go in and build this, but by showing that all of these things can be done, I think we’re making baby steps and making progress in sort of catalyzing the industry toward some big change.”