Halifax Green Builders Collective does it naturally

It hasn’t got a name, a phone number, a website or its grant money,
but a Halifax Green Builders Collective is happening.

“Clients want it,” says Anne Sinclair, an architect with a lot of
green knowledge and 25 years design experience, who sees how hard it
can be for people to realize their ambitions for an ecologically
friendly home. “They have good intentions but get overwhelmed.”

What kind of windows are the most energy efficient for the money? Is
solar or geothermal the best, most environmental investment? It’s easy
to let your conviction slip. “We’ve discovered there are gaps in the
industry,” says Sinclair.

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Along with natural building expert Kim Thompson, Sinclair has a
group of builders and architects united under a common, holistic goal:
to help clients get the best, most environmental opportunities for
their building and renovation projects right down the line. That means
getting realtors and plumbers on board too, with everyone helping the
client be more environmentally conscious. Sinclair says she can design
any number of green solutions but if they go to tender and the
contractor has ideas contrary to hers, it doesn’t benefit the
client.

“It’s what they call an Integrated Design Process,” says Sinclair,
“with the end product more likely to be a success.”

“It’s more and more about skills and trades from other professions,
linking them together,” says Thompson. “The need for that has come out
of our professional work and my work with the Ecology Action Centre.
Everyone that’s involved in it we’ve worked with in different
capacities together.”

Sinclair says what’s most exciting about the new initiative are
“really intelligent young architecture grads, locally and from Ontario,
that are into it. It’s so nice to be around them.”

Kim Thompson’s work on natural building extends to a Low Impact
Forest Directory, assembled with the EAC and the Eastern Shore Forest
Watch Association. It’s a list of Nova Scotia-based businesses and
organizations that offer services for people interested in sustainable
wood products. Hard copies of the first edition are available for sale
at the EAC, but the information is also available on the Eastern Shore
Forest Watch website at forestwatch.ca. And if you are interested
in wood products and printers endorsed by the Forest Stewardship
Council, visit ecologyaction.ca or novascotiaforests.ca.

Another useful resource is Nova Scotia Green Sheets, a guide put
together by Thompson and the students of the Dalhousie architecture
school that should be available at the EAC by the time you read this,
as well as through the Dalhousie architecture school website and on
Thompson’s website, naturalbuilding.ca. It’s a
sophisticated rating system for green building products available here
in Nova Scotia.

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This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2009.