This year, Wildsight Kimberley/Cranbrook is bringing net-zero energy building to the area with their net-zero speaker series. Experienced builders will share their knowledge about design, construction practices, and materials that make buildings that generate as much energy as they use a reality.
What if our homes and buildings produced as much energy as they consumed? What if the our buildings emitted no climate-changing CO2? Net-zero energy buildings and homes are here – and people across Canada and around the world are already building them. The net-zero speaker series will bring experienced net-zero builders to Kimberley and Cranbrook to share their knowledge about how we can make our buildings sustainable in the long term, while living more comfortably and in a healthier environment. Even in our cold climate, with good design and materials, net-zero is attainable.
“When we think about how much gas, wood, and electricity goes into running our homes, net-zero energy homes sound like fantasy,” said Wildsight’s Lars Sander-Green, “but the reality is that with good construction practices, sensible design, and solar energy, buildings that generate as much energy as they consume are definitely within reach. Our series speakers have the experience to prove it.”
The first session in the series is this Friday, January 8th with Murray Guy of Ecosmart in Saskatoon and Kimberley’s own Jori Adank, who recently built a solar home on the Selkirk Hill. We’ll start off with an afternoon session for professionals to dive deep and ask questions in a small group format followed by a inspiring public one-hour presentation in the evening.
There will be three more sessions in the series, starting with Arthur Lo of Insightful Healthy Homes of Vancouver on January 22nd, with Dave Spencer, founder of EchoHaven, a sustainable development in Calgary and builder of his own net-zero home in Calgary on February 19th, and with Shafraaz Kaba, an architect from Edmonton who designed and built his own modern net-zero home in Edmonton on March 4th.
The first professional session runs from 1PM-5PM in Lecture Theatre S114 at College of the Rockies in Cranbrook and the first public session starts at 7:30PM at Centre 64 in Kimberley. Admission to the public sessions is by donation, while tickets to the professional sessions will be $25 – but the first professional session is completely free! Anyone with an interest can attend the detailed professional sessions.
“Canadians are stepping up to build net-zero homes and buildings and we are very excited to have some of those builders coming to Kimberley and Cranbrook to share their knowledge,” said Sander-Green.
All the details and tickets for later sessions are available here.
Wildsight Kimberley/Cranbrook gratefully acknowledges the financial support of Columbia Basin Trust for this project. Photo: Shafraaz Kaba’s modern net-zero home in Edmonton, Manasc Isaac Architects.