RAISING THE ECO BAR
The blue-sky approach to building green
October 31, 2009
Tracy Hanes
TORONTO STAR
Dave de Sylva and George Le Donne enjoy pushing the envelope when it comes to building "green."
Two years ago, the pair launched an innovative condo project in Burlington called Appleby Woods, built using Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs), heated and cooled with a geothermal system and with solar panels powering the parking lot lights.
Now the Del Ridge Homes partners' latest project, GreenLife in downtown Milton, will set what they believe to be a Canadian precedent – a condo building that is carbon neutral, which means it will produce as much energy as it uses. And condo fees for the 160-unit project will be minuscule, three cents or less per square foot.
GreenLife, to be built on the site of the Greib cardboard container factory in downtown Milton, will be six storeys, constructed with ICFs, heated and cooled by ground-source (geo-thermal) heating, with a massive rooftop solar array and an off-site wind turbine connected to the power grid.
The 250,000-watt solar array designed by Arise Technology will generate around $200,000 in annual income from selling electricity to the grid; $270,000 is needed to cover the annual condo budget (which includes maintenance, window cleaning, common element lighting, elevator operation and reserve fund), so that's where the wind turbine comes in.
"There will be no natural gas on site and we can't put more solar arrays on the roof, so we're installing a 1.25-megawatt wind turbine near southern Lake Huron and allocating part of it to this building to achieve carbon neutrality," explains de Sylva. "For a developer, it's a good choice. People like the money-saving aspect, but what's exciting for me is that there will be no dirty energy. We are setting an example with a non-polluting building."
Sales for GreenLife, for those who have pre-registered, begin Sunday; sales officially open Nov. 7. When a sign promoting the project went up on site, 700 people registered.
"We have a reputation here and I like to think we do quality work," says de Sylva, a longtime Milton resident and engineer who studied at the University of Toronto.
De Sylva has been in land development for 37 years. He and Le Donne teamed up to form Del Ridge 20 years ago and have built throughout the GTA, including Markham, Thornhill, Burlington, Mississauga and Milton. Their projects have included custom homes, commercial and retail complexes, single home developments and condos.
Though Del Ridge broke the condo building mould with its sustainability features at Appleby Woods in Burlington, de Sylva says "people bought there mostly because of the location and style. But they've been pleasantly surprised at their low heating and cooling costs." The average monthly bill, which includes all energy use (space and water heating and electricity) is $50 a month. De Sylva's daughter is among the residents.
While Del Ridge has become a trend-setter when it comes to green building, it also believes in attractive architecture. For example, their Ellington Park project in Unionville features classical French styling.
"That's why we don't build anything taller than six storeys – anything taller than that is just repetition," says de Sylva.
The partners' goal with Appleby Woods was to create the most energy efficient building on the market, so they developed their own proprietary green building program, Enerbuild 7000. GreenLife will exceed those standards with a new Enerbuild 7000e program. Suite sizes will range from 700 square feet to 1,375 square feet, with prices starting at $189,900.
De Sylva says ICF construction's superior energy-conserving properties is fundamental to green technology. ICFs resemble giant Lego blocks; the polystyrene foam pieces snap together to form a buildings' structure, are reinforced with steel rebar, then filled with concrete. The insulated concrete walls effectively stop transmission of energy (i.e. loss of heat).
You can't stop heat escaping entirely from windows, but using low-E glass and attention to sealing will minimize it, says de Sylva.
De Sylva and Le Donne discovered the merits of ICFs almost by accident. They were building a condo project in Markham a few years ago and started looking at alternative construction means when the demand from China sent steel prices soaring and tightened supply. They built the basement the conventional way, then used ICFs for the rest of the building, including walls between units.
"We were doing an inspection and noticing how really quiet it was between units. I had one of our guys go into a unit next to the one we were in and bang on a piece of steel and we couldn't hear it," recalls de Sylva. "Then later, we asked residents about heating and cooling systems, they said it hardly ever comes on."
That convinced them to use ICFs in other projects (GreenLife will be their fourth ICF-constructed project) and they started looking at other ways to build sustainably.
"We were in love with ICF, I had been fascinated with wind energy for years and I got into solar a bit as a hobby. I said to George, 'We have to do this,'" says de Sylva.
He had also been sold on geothermal heating since 1989 when he installed it at his parents' bungalow. With the system, which draws heat from the ground beneath the frost line in cool months and expels heat into the earth during hot months, their annual heating, cooling and hot water costs were only about $400.
It's been a voyage of discovery for the pair, as few builders were using the technologies. For example, de Sylva says they found an oil driller to drill the pilot holes for their ground source heating systems (which require underground loops of polyethylene pipes).
"It was challenging, as no one was doing geothermal," says de Sylva – at least for the size of the projects they were building. "But most things can be broken down to simple steps."
De Sylva also was sold on energy efficient lighting after noticing a dramatic drop in his own electric bill after changing all his bulbs to compact fluorescents.
Other energy-saving means at GreenLife will include thermal wrapping of pipes, dual-flush toilets and hot water pre-tanks, which will heat water between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. (when Milton's smart-metered rates are cheapest) then dump it into the main tank.
De Sylva also determined that heating an exterior ramp leading to underground parking cost about $6,000 a year; so GreenLife's ramp will be enclosed.
"And when the building's finished, there will be no grass. Turf is not natural," says de Sylva. "It will be all trees, shrubs and mulch. You will never have to cut or fertilize. Lawnmowers are big polluters and fertilizer is one of the worst things for the environment."
De Sylva points out that even the location promotes sustainability, as residents won't have to rely on cars, as GreenLife is within walking distance of all amenities, shopping and transportation. The GO station is a two-minute walk from the site.
Even, the sign advertising the project and the street lights leading to the sales office are solar-powered. The sales office is a renovated three-car garage beside a heritage farmhouse at the west end of downtown, where two future Del Ridge projects are planned.
A "green" room in the GreenLife sales office will show the different technologies used and explain how they work. Visitors will also get a copy of Del Ridge's Enerbook, which talks about conservation and clean energy technologies. De Sylva also welcomes queries from other builders and developers about how to build sustainably.
"People want to do something green, but they wonder what they can do," he says. "The people who buy here will be leaving no carbon footprint. It's about leading by example. Most of us in our company want to do something different. You have to urge people to explore and engage something different."
For more information, visit www.delridgehomes.com.
Toronto Star