In parallel to Earth Day, Built Green Canada celebrates the first project certification awarded through their BUILT GREEN® Communities Pilot Program—Spring Creek’s Phase One of their Spring Creek Mountain Village in Canmore, Alberta.

The timing is fitting. Earth Day is an annual, worldwide event devoted to environmental action, and this year, the theme is Restore Our Earth. Alongside advocacy around methods that will capture carbon, like reforestation, this year’s theme is aimed at encouraging the reduction of carbon pollution, as is critical to limiting global warming.

Clean energy is one of the key features of the BUILT GREEN® Spring Creek Mountain Village; Owner and President, Frank Kernick, B of S, M.E., estimates that, on an annual basis, their geothermal heating and cooling system will eliminate 600 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. It pumps heat to and from the earth by circulating fluid through a ground loop: using the natural heat of the earth, instead of the more conventional method of burning fossil fuels for energy.

“We were one of the first to adopt geothermal technologies in Alberta to meet our goal: to create a truly sustainable mountain community,” Kernick explains, “this is a nod to my parents and grandparents and to Canmore—a legacy for the town in which I grew up.”

Spring Creek Mountain Village is 28-hectare redevelopment in the heart of Canmore that has seen massive transformation. In 2004, the Town of Canmore approved the master plan to create this distinct, new urban neighborhood, and construction started in 2006. Spring Creek notes that they have strived to achieve the highest levels of BUILT GREEN® certification on all residential building projects and they are honoured to be the first recognized in the BUILT GREEN® Community program, combining environmental, social, and economic sustainability throughout the community.

Ensuring healthy waterways and banks, all Spring Creek projects are designed to maximize riparian habitat standards—and this main development area has a unique and defining edge with Spring Creek and Policeman’s Creek. A perimeter trail system has been incorporated to allow public enjoyment of the creek and to facilitate trail connections. Several bridges have also been added, which provide pedestrian and bicycle access through the entire town, including infrastructure like schools, employment, public transit, entertainment, healthcare and nearby parks.

Within the community, the green space requirements exceed those of Canmore Municipal and Environmental reserve standards. And, Spring Creek has designed a water system for irrigation that uses only ground water, so they do not pull from the municipal water supply.

Composed of commercial, single- and multi-family housing, Spring Creek Mountain Village is designed for all ages and stages of life. This includes a special project designed for active senior living, with unique live/work condominiums that allow owners to operate street-front shops connected directly to their homes; a luxury hotel and conference centre offering a living roof (grown in The Malcolm Hotel’s plaid brand); and, affordable housing: 5% of housing is offered at half price, helping staff and residents to continue living in Spring Creek.

Operating out of Canmore, where environmental sustainability is a focus, Spring Creek has long been invested in sustainable building practices, offering Canmore citizens and visitors with greener living spaces that have been verified through third-party certification. An active member of Built Green Canada—which provides third-party certification programs to builders wanting to create greener, more responsible buildings—Spring Creek has certified over 50 projects BUILT GREEN®, including single family and high density. With the launch of the BUILT GREEN® Communities Program pilot, this is Spring Creek’s first opportunity to put an entire community through certification.

With this program, Built Green Canada expands opportunities for builders/developers focused on creating better, healthier homes and communities. While the Communities Program was already in development, the pandemic prompted Built Green to ready this as a pilot. Now, more than ever, health and wellness have become a priority, and there is growing awareness that a sustainably built home is a healthier home. Many people are spending more time inside their home as they adjust to other ways of doing business, while social connections are encouraged to occur outside, expanding the focus to the outside of the home and to the health of communities.

The Communities’ program framework takes a holistic approach to development, consistent with Built Green’s other third-party certified programs, and focuses on the optimization of health, resiliency, lifecycle sustainability, new urbanism, greenhouse emissions, greenspace and resource consumption.

Another homebuilder and community developer, Averton (active in Alberta and Ontario), was the first to participate in the pilot with the enrolment of their St. Albert community; Midtown is an 18-hectare, master-planned community that has been designed around the experiences of its residents, offering a diverse range of housing types, abundant open space and everyday convenience. It includes distinct architectural forms, a mix of for-sale and rental residences, alongside street design that prioritizes age diversity, safety, and general accessibility.

In recognition of the importance of initiatives like Earth Day, as well as those contributing to sustainable living and building every day, Built Green Canada’s Chief Executive Officer, Jenifer Christenson, says, “Considerable planning has gone into the development of our Communities program, with ongoing input from industry professionals, including engineers and energy advisors, as well as consultation with industry. And, with the leadership Averton and Spring Creek, the pilot is already being put to use to create greener, healthier communities in Canada. On Earth Day, we would like to recognize innovative, sustainably minded builders who, all year long, work towards a more sustainable, healthier future.”

About

Built Green Canada is an industry-driven, national, non-profit organization committed to working with builders interested in responsible sustainability practices in the residential building sector. The organization offers programs for single family, single family renovations, high density (including multi-storey, residential tower, and mixed-use), and high density renovation projects, and now, a communities program in pilot.

builtgreencanada.ca

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