Imber Akse House – Burlington’s LEED home

I don’t know what it is about the counter top. When asked about our home over cocktail chatter the polite conversation starts with questions about sustainability and the green features; geo-thermal, greywater reclamation and rainwater collection, radiant heat – yawn. But then with a strange pause like they are about to ask a very personal question they query, “what are you doing for counter tops?”. Counter tops.

It’s like counter tops are the tip of the iceberg, the Apple symbol in your car window or the tatoo peaking out of your sleeve that says there is more than you know or this commitment runs deep. If you can manage to go green counter top you must be hardcore.

So here goes – we’re in deep.

Counters are a challenge for sure. I’ve found a few suppliers of material that fit the bill but getting them to respond or react is strangely difficult. So I may go with a good standard that, though not Canadian, they do qualify for some LEED points for the materials stability, longevity and presumed recyclability. It is called:

http://www.caesarstone.com/.

Though I’m not convinced that it is entirely green/sustainable as it is derived from quartz, it is at least very durable and beautiful which in itself should outlast most products in both application and aesthetics — something that is worth considering when thinking about any product or material.

Other materials I sourced were of a recycled pulp/wood/paper that is fused together with other compounds to make a hard surface and are touted as Green by a number of resources. However they have been difficult to deal with and are also American:

http://www.paperstoneproducts.com/
http://www.kliptech.com/ecotop.html
These guys took forever to reply but say there will be a Toronto supplier up and running January to solve the communication gap. If they get their supply chain together, I’ll likely use this product.

The competitive product is:
http://www.richlite.com/countertop/

http://www.thehealthiesthome.com/products/kitchen_bathroom/cabinets_countertops.php
This Canadian company sells the above counter tops which may prove fruitful to call. I don’t remember if I followed this lead.

Icestone (http://www.icestone.biz/) and others sound great as they use recycled glass – an unfortunately abundant resource. I don’t know about you but I think the recycled glass is too busy – even ugly really. I wished they’d just crush it longer. We ruled this out too. I think the most eco counter may be the Paperstone / Kliptech.

A decent materials resource that is way too intoxicating is:

http://www.ecolect.net/

Say goodbye to 2 hours.

We were recently asked by a visitor to the site what has been the greatest challenge in the experience of the sustainable home build to date. Though there have been a few challenges that have caused delays, these things were typical so not top of mind as difficult.

What has been a lot of effort has been sourcing for a few reasons that simply shouldn’t be.

1. Communication
Ironically, finding suitable suppliers of sustainable goods and services is tricky when you have a criteria of sustainability. This criteria seems like it should have minimal effect on products; locally produced or sourced, energy efficient, eco-conscious, excellent quality, affordable and available but it is limiting by cutting down on the selection pool on suppliers.

Now the difficulty isn’t with locating the goods themselves. In fact, there are countless helpful resources for materials and suppliers, be it online or in print, that point you in the right direction toward piles of info to absorb and decisions to make in order to narrow the menu. However, once you’ve chosen the product or service, the hard part starts.

Getting the suppliers to react, to reply to emails, to quote or return phone calls, is often tiring. Basically, the service of sustainable goods and construction materials in general isn’t where it should be in our region.

Perhaps it’s a case of a good run in a busy economy, or because of shortages in availability, or because of limited technical ability behind technical online faces or pure lackadaisical attitudes but whatever the reason, this symptom of a greater problem makes the task of finding the right fits for our home the most time consuming task.

In the end, many suppliers of sustainable products are just too hard to deal with. No, not more than other suppliers but when you consider that their products can cost more and may have more limited availability, adding hard to deal with in the mix doesn’t make convincing the average altruistic but tentative consumer or builder that much easier.

2. Knowledge
The next experience from some suppliers once located is equally confusing but more easily explained. That is that some of the suppliers we’ve dealt with simply don’t fully understand what they are supplying or have an arms length understanding of sustainability and where their products fit into the criteria of the category. For them, it can be just another product in a supply chain and without personal or corporate sustainable beliefs and practices, it is just another product.

Furthermore  and almost more importantly, there is a general lack of relationship between the products they supply and other products that will cohabitate with theirs in the sustainable home. Essentially, their is a subtle lack of graciousness to acknowledge their roommates and to lead you in the right direction toward others. There is a general lack of time available to educate the consumer or builder as to the benefits of sustainability beyond the product, and certainly little time to share in the knowledge base of what other products may be available either in a competitive set or otherwise.

If sustainability is to be as successful as we need it to be in the short time we have to reach goals for our ecology, this frontier has to participate beyond selling a product. The pressure against them is a building industry that is hesitant to change and is looking for every reason to stick with status quo and worry about change and new suppliers the next time. And you can’t blame them, it isn’t easy to change sometimes.

In the end, we’ve managed to locate most everything we needed to suit our design and along the way we’ve dealt with many suppliers who stood out as being communicative, helpful and resourceful. Along with Branthaven, our builder, it’s these partners that have made the overall build successful — providing quality products and services and a positive learning experience while also creating an atmosphere of  sustainable community.

Some of these partner suppliers that come to mind so far:

+ Stüv Fireplaces – 80+% efficient wood stoves
+ Schreiber Roofing – TPO Roof system
+ Pella Windows – Energy Star FSC Windows and Doors
+ Jarvis Insulation – Closed Cell Foam Insulation
+ ALD – Energy efficient lighting calculations and design specifications