Chris Higgins Talks LEED Canada for Homes

As Sustainability Month comes to an end on our blog, we are excited to share our interview with Chris Higgins, the Program Leader of LEED Canada for Homes. The LEED building program is run by the Canada Green Building Council. The main initiative of LEED is to create a sustainable future for our communities by creating different levels of standards that buildings can meet when it comes to construction and design. With Higgins, we discussed LEED Canada for Homes - how it works and the overall goal of the program.

On to the interview!

NewInHomes (NIH): What was the genesis of LEED for Homes, how did it all start?

Chris Higgins (CH): The Canada Green Building Council was started by a builder-engineering firm and an architecture firm, and they were interested in creating a standard that brought better buildings to market. Buildings that use less energy, better materials, better indoor air quality and generally better to live and work in - that’s where the council came in. LEED for Homes is the council’s answer to single family and small multi-family buildings, wanting to cost effectively have a national benchmark that we can certify high levels of energy and environmental performance.

We have worked with 50 developers and builders throughout the country, working to develop it in 2008. That brought us to launch. Launch was March of 2009, and then the project started registering and certifying for LEED for Homes. It also has a big brother, which is LEED for Construction, which is for commercial and institutional projects.

NIH: Talk about the program itself. How do you achieve points and reach the different levels?

CH: The rating system is broken into different categories, like water efficiency, energy atmosphere, materials, indoor environmental quality, and a few others. Essentially, the rating system provides flexibility for builders and developers that want to build a better home based on the local market and what homebuyers are interested in. In some markets, water efficiency is important, whereas in others it’s energy efficiency. Some, it’s indoor air quality. The rating system allows builders and developers to build the home that they would like to, and build it with better quality of materials, while also using techniques that will improve the energy efficiency, and they get credit for all these things. For example, if you put in a dual flush low flow toilet, you get four points. Another developer may not like dual flush toilets, but they put in a high efficiency furnace and get a few points for that. The system allows that flexibility. Certification is the base, while Silver, Gold and Platinum are the tiers. For an average sized home, it’s 45 points to be certified, 60 for Silver, 75 for Gold, and 90 for Platinum.

NIH: What are the benefits of a LEED certified home? Why do developers push to achieve certification?

CH: A big benefit is lower monthly costs. Lower energy, and depending on the municipality they are in, lower water or sewer bills. Some people suffer from respiratory issues, so being able to provide those families with the opportunity to live in a home with a higher quality of air is a big plus for us. Durability is a big one as well. We ensure that the materials will be sustainable over the life of the home. A home that is located in an area that is somewhat walkable plays a role as well.

NIH: What is some of the feedback that you have received about the program?

CH: Some of the best feedback that we can receive is when a builder or developer plans a project, markets that project, sells it quickly and gets great feedback from it. When they register a second or third LEED project is when we know the program is doing well.

NIH: Has there ever been any changes to the LEED program?

CH: In terms of the energy efficiency standards and the technical aspects of the program, there has only been one change, which was when we raised the minimum energy efficiency level in new homes last year. We reference a scale called Energy Guide, and we went from a 76 as the minimum, to an Energy Guide of 80. That was in response to two provinces who changed their minimum code, including Ontario.

NIH: What sort of growth has the program experienced over the past three to four years?

CH: We had 50 builders and developers join us in a pilot development a few years ago - now there is about 2,700 units that have been put on the market, 600 of those have been finished. We are now working with a much wider range of developers from Victoria, British Columbia to St. John’s, Newfoundland, and every province in between.

NIH: What do you hope to accomplish over the next few years? What’s LEED’s vision of the future?

CH: In five or six years, I'd love to see the program grow to certify somewhere in the area of 2,000 to 3,000 homes annually - that would be exceptional growth. The program isn’t designed to certify all homes nationally; it’s designed to work with some of the better homes in regards to energy efficiency, water efficiency, and air quality - that kind of growth - working with builders and developers to make LEED homes an important part of their communities - that would be success.

We would like to thank Chris Higgins for his time and allowing us to pick his brain about LEED certification for low-rise homes. To find out more about the LEED for Homes program, check out the Canada Green Building Council’s website at www.cagbc.org