Geranium makes water AND energy saving a priority at Edgewood in Pickering

Homeowners of the new executive home community Edgewood in West Pickering, Ontario, will enjoy built-in energy and water savings by award-winning builder Geranium. Edgewood is a unique detached home community with residences that provide three fully-finished floors, offering lower level walkouts to rear yards. The 21 residences at Edgewood are enrolled in “Savings by Design” an Enbridge program that was developed to help builders improve energy and environmental performance in new construction projects. In addition, each home will include a complete greywater recycling system, reducing annual water use by approximately 20 per cent.

The objective of the “Savings by Design” initiative is to construct residential homes that exceed the 2017 Ontario Building Code’s energy performance requirements by 15 per cent. To achieve this, Geranium is including several energy features at Edgewood, such as: radiant in-floor heating in the lower level finished areas, a high-efficiency, Energy Star® qualified forced air gas furnace with energy recovery ventilator, and much more.

Geranium is the first builder in Canada to include a greywater recycling system into the construction of an entire community. Each Edgewood home includes a complete Greyter HOME™ water recycling system at no extra charge. In addition to the water conservation benefits, this results in the homeowners’ annual water bill reduced by approximately 20 per cent and, for a family of four, saving up to 30,000 litres of water in one year - an amount of water that could fill a 16 ft. x 32 ft. rectangular swimming pool.

Boaz Feiner, President of Geranium explains “Water is a precious resource and Canadians are one of the highest users per capita worldwide. We hope to see large-scale adoption of greywater recycling systems by the new home building industry. By providing a Greyter HOME™ system, paired with energy-efficient toilets, showerheads, and faucets, we are in the vanguard of residential water conservation. We are proud to be creating awareness, and hope that in time, a greywater recycling system may become as common in new homes of the future as furnaces are today”.

Geranium won the Enbridge Gas Innovation Award at RESNET’s Cross Border Builder Challenge and has been selected as the winner of the City of Pickering’s 2019 Sustainability Award for the Edgewood community.

More about Greyter and how it works
In 2019, Greyter’s residential HOME™ system received the stringent NSF 350 certification, a requirement by the States of California, Texas, Colorado, and Florida. An equivalent Canadian certification does not exist at time of article publication. The approval and availability of the Greyter HOME™ coincided with Geranium’s construction program at Edgewood in Pickering, providing the company an opportunity to give the 21 homeowners a unique benefit and to monitor the results. In addition, Greyter will provide an in-home orientation, complimentary service, and maintenance for Edgewood homeowners for the first year of home ownership.

"We are very excited about this project and applaud Geranium's commitment to water conservation" said John Bell, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Greyter Water Systems. "We are also looking forward to expanding these water reduction efforts in other communities within Ontario," he continued.

The Greyter HOME™ captures and treats shower and bathwater so that it can be reused for flushing toilets. The entire system is installed inside the home; is compact in size; requires only five standard plumbing connections and is, therefore, easy for a professional plumber to install. Additional features are its superior, proprietary filtration and treatment process; low maintenance; low energy requirements; and it has a touchpad controller that handles all aspects of the system operation, providing the homeowner with performance data, maintenance reminders and tutorials.

Pickering – a leader in energy and water conservation
“The City of Pickering is highly supportive of this initiative by a private home builder,” says Feiner. “It aligns with their goal of sustainability and becoming a leader in energy and water conservation.” Geranium and Greyter will share data collected from the Edgewood homes, with the City of Pickering and Durham Region.

About Edgewood
Located in a west Pickering neighbourhood, Edgewood is a residential enclave of 21 detached homes on 40- and 50-foot lots. A selection of executive homes with three finished levels of living space, 3-car garages, and four bedrooms are offered in size ranges from 3,238 sq. ft. to 3,990 sq. ft. Prices start from $1.2 million. A fully furnished Model Home is available to view, to contact the sales centre, call 905-492-2600 or visit www.edgewoodpickering.com

About Geranium
Founded in 1977, Geranium is one of Ontario’s fully integrated land development and new home building companies with a reputation for design innovation and construction excellence. The company is the recipient of numerous industry awards, a tribute to the wide-ranging capabilities of its team. www.geranium.com