Salt Spring Energy Strategy - Housing & Energy Strategies

New residential solar water heating incentives are available
You can find out more about the solar program at
Solar BC

"The GHG Implications of Different Settlement Patterns
on Salt Spring Island"
Final report of the SSI Green House Gas Study - July 2007
download report (pdf 17MB)

The Trust, BC Hydro and the Canadian Institute for Climate Studies at University of Victoria work to help islanders reduce electricity demand. A first step is to conduct a series of walk-through electrical energy audits of sample commercial/business and residential properties read more...

We are co-winners with the City of Vancouver of the Community Challenge Contest between all the Community Action on Energy Efficiency (CAEE) pilot communities in BC. The prize money of $30,000, shared between SSI and Vancouver, will go to Islands Trust and is dedicated to energy upgrades for the Murakami affordable housing project.

Tickets will be available May 17th at:
Salt Spring Books
the Conservancy office in the Upper Ganges Centre building
and the Conservancy website: www.saltspringconservancy.ca

10:00am-4:00pm Eco-Home Tour – a day of guided tours gets underway from the Gulf Islands Secondary School

5:15pm – Grand Finale at the Salt Spring Golf and Country Club. Dinner and screening of “Build Green” with local green hero, Meror Krayenhoff, on the Nature of Things, hosted by David Suzuki.

On Sunday, June 17th, residents and visitors to Salt Spring can enjoy a day of guided tours to 10 unique ecological and sustainable homes.

This year’s tour will focus on what each person can do to reduce their energy use, and help turn the tide of climate change. As in previous years, participants are encouraged to adopt at least one idea from the tour. Homes focus on the actions the landowners have taken to reduce energy and resource use through such features as solar power, hemp straw bale walls, insulation, masonry heating, Energy Star appliances, water-catchment and grey water systems. Salt Spring has a reputation as a unique place where innovative individuals live among nature, but our reputation is growing as a community that is leading the way by embracing increased energy efficiency.

Many homeowners that are concerned about sustainability have put their ideas into action by building homes that reflect their values. These passionate homeowners share their homes and their visions for a sustainable future with the public by guiding tour participants through their homes.

The homeowners, who in most cases built their own homes, will explain the many cutting edge features incorporated into the home designs. On the tour is an a masonry heater with built-in bake oven and plumbing for hot water, the island's first legally permitted cob dwelling which has walls made from sand, clay and straw, and insulation made from recycled blue jeans; a water catchment system; and a hemp straw bale home. Straw bale walls are highly insulative (up to R40) and sound proof. The homes are packed with ideas to reduce energy and water usage, and associated operating costs.

Tickets will be available May 17th at Salt Spring Books, the Salt Spring Island Conservancy office in the Upper Ganges Centre building, and Conservancy website: www.saltspringconservancy.ca.

Tickets are $25 each, or a carpooling group can buy 4 tickets for $90. Discounts will also be available at the Conservancy office to drivers of hybrid, biodiesal and Smart cars, as well as cyclists. Carpooling and cycling are highly encouraged and the homes on the tour this year were selected for ease of access. You can also meet at Gulf Island Secondary School to park your car and form carpools at 9:00am. All proceeds go to support the Conservancy programs to educate schoolchildren, the public, and landowners about land stewardship and conservation. Volunteers are still needed and receive a ticket.

For more information, please call Karen Hudson at the Conservancy office at: 250-538-0318, by email: ssiconservancy@saltspring.com, or contact the Salt Spring Community Energy Strategy: Marion Pape 537-4567 or Elizabeth White 537-2616.

The energy used to operate Salt Spring homes accounts for about one third of the energy we consume on the island each year.

The Salt Spring Energy Strategy 2012 target is to reduce that amount by about one fifth. Here is how:

Retrofit one thousand existing homes for energy efficiency
Half of all new homes built super energy-efficient to EnerGuide 80 or better
One quarter of island woodstoves changed to high-efficiency models

Salt Spring is a pilot demonstration community with the Provincial Community Action on Energy Efficiency and Energy Savings Plan projects. EnerGuide for Houses energy improvement grants have been available on Salt Spring since 2003. EnerGuide for new homes, EGNH, is now available on Salt Spring too. BC Hydro Powersmart has incentives for some energy efficiency upgrades. Local trades people and contractors are supporting the Salt Spring Energy Strategy.

As of September 2006, 45 homes have been rated for energy efficiency under the EGH program and 456 households have signed onto the Salt Spring Challenge to reduce home energy use and GHG emissions. Over 500 people attended the Salt Spring Eco-home tour in 2006.

Planning a renovation or building a new house? Get a thermal analysis of your house and upgrade recommendations before you begin. Call 1-866-381-9995 to book an EGH visit or plans analysis and sign up for the Energy Savings Plan grant program. See www.citygreen.ca for more info.
Low-cost improvements and lifestyle changes are as important as building upgrades:

Install low-flow showerheads
Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lights and LEDs
Burn dry firewood in hot, clean fires
Unplug electronic equipment, or switch off at power bar, when not in use
Heat and light only the rooms you are using (but keep spaces warm enough to avoid mould)
Insulate hot water lines at tank, and ductwork in unheated spaces
Use shrink wrap film to double glaze single windows
Weatherstrip doors and windows
Look for Energy Star models when you replace equipment

Take the Salt Spring Challenge
Watch for Burn It Smart workshops
Review the available incentives for retrofitting your home.

Sustainable Building Forum and Eco-Home Tour 2006
Sponsored by the Salt Spring Island Conservancy and the Earth Festival Society

August 9, 2006 - The Driftwood

Eco-forum speakers stress more local action for global solutions
By SEAN MCINTYRE, Driftwood Reporter

An overwhelming response by more than 500 participants from Salt Spring and beyond may have made the second annual eco-home tour weekend a success, but speakers at a Saturday evening forum insist plenty of work remains ahead.

"You are the people who get it," said keynote speaker Helen Goodland, speaking to a crowd more than 200 eco-faithful at Meaden Hall Saturday evening. "I'm sorry to have to pour a bucket of cold water on all this exuberance and show you where the rest of the Lower Mainland is . . . While the vast majority of people may want to do the right thing, they still have no idea where to begin."

Aside from several higher profile projects, Goodland said, most existing and foreseeable residential, commercial and industrial projects do not follow sustainable living guidelines.

Goodland, executive director of the Sustainable Building Centre in Vancouver, listed a lack of time, knowledge and cost as common myths associated with integrating sustainable practices into home construction or renovation. She said events such as the eco-tour prove Salt Spring Island is at the cutting edge of sustainability and do a significant part to debunk the myths. By telling others about their successes and failures, owners and builders taking part in the tour are the role models of a movement that is still relatively new in other parts of the country.

"While many people would say sustainability is a good thing, many have trouble defining what a sustainable life actually is," she said. A common definition adopted by the United Nations defines the phenomenon as the ability to "meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."

While Goodland and speakers Elizabeth White, Peter Lamb and Marion Pape recognized they were preaching to the converted, each encouraged participants to do what they could to raise awareness about curbing energy use. "We are not into guilt-tripping people," said Pape, one of the event's organizers. "You don't have to live 'off the grid' because everyone can do something about it."

Pape and other representatives from the Earth Festival Society took advantage of Saturday evening's event to launch their campaign to reduce Salt Spring residents' overall energy use through the Salt Spring Energy Strategy. The Salt Spring Energy Strategy website, she said, offers residents information on how they can reduce their energy footprint and access government grants for eco-oriented home renovations. (See www.saltspringenergystrategy.org.)

With articles appearing in Victoria and Vancouver newspapers and a growing reputation as a "must-see" event among the ecologically conscious from the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, organizers are already planning a larger and broader eco-home tour and forum for next year. "When I first started working on this idea, I worried nobody would show up," said Salt Spring Conservancy executive director Karen Hudson. "Today we don't even have enough chairs for everyone."

As construction materials go, clay, straw, water and sand may not seem inspiring. But mix those earthy elements together, call them cob, and you'll find some eco-home builders who are mad for the mud.

They're known as cobbers and typically, they're 20- to 40-year-olds who have the desire, but not the cash, to buy a green home in B.C.'s red-hot housing market.

Their short-term goal is to build themselves affordable houses. Long-term, they want to revolutionize modern building in a "by the people, for the people and Mother Earth too" way.

The English have been building houses out of cob since the 13th century. The material was replaced by brick in the 1800s, but in the 1990s, enthusiasts like the Cob Cottage Company in Oregon led the modern cob revival.

Cob houses are sometimes called Tom Sawyer houses, because like Tom's white-washing friends, cobbers see their labour as a privilege, not a chore. They're learning skills and making connections that will enable their own building process.

For home-builders, the process usually starts with a cob-building workshop. Someone who is ready to build organizes a three-week workshop, led by a cob-building expert. Newbie cobbers pay $1,200 each to attend the workshop, where they learn cob construction by helping to build the organizer's house -- and ideally, some of them will show up after the workshop to finish the job.

That process often begins in a wheelbarrow, where the clay, straw, water and sand are mixed in batches. The cob is then shaped and layered into walls by hand. Some cobbers like to use "light clay" -- cedar chips mixed with clay slip, then packed into plywood forms -- because walls go up faster.

Interior wall options include cob plasters with a choice of coloured pigments, hand-sculpted reliefs and imbedded objects like sea shells. Cobbers are in fact not so much building as sculpting, and the resulting curvilinear spaces in cob homes create a characteristic fairy-tale cottage look.

Built by hand, cob houses are usually small. Not so Becky and Paul Niedziela's 1,700-square-foot cob house on Saltspring Island.

The house, occupied year-round by the couple and their two young children, will be open for viewing on Sunday as one of 10 homes built with sustainable, cutting-edge technologies featured in Saltspring's second annual day long Eco-Home Tour. The Salt Spring Island Conservancy has organized the tour to educate people about eco-homebuilding.

The Niedziela home isn't just any mud hut. Their five-acre forested property cost them $160,000 and Paul estimates they spent about $180,000 to build the house.

Why did the Niedzielas go with cob? "We weren't looking for the regular suburban house," says Paul, a 36-year-old software developer (Becky, 33, is a graphic designer). "We wanted our house to show our personality, to blend into the environment, and look natural, not prefabricated," he explains.

Paul Niedziela says cob building is environmentally friendly because it uses less trees, and it creates a healthier house because it eliminates synthetic materials like vinyl siding, fibreglass insulation, drywall and paint. He has even used recycled blue jeans for insulation in his house. The Niedziela home is actually a hybrid cob house. The upper storey is wood frame supported on a post and beam structure, then filled and coated with cob- a style referred to as cob infill. It's the first "fully permitted" cob house on Saltspring Island, and hybridizing was necessary to meet safety and livability requirements.

The house successfully melds the idealism of the cob cult with reality. Square corners and rectangular windows on the second storey blend with the main floor's curved and cordwood walls, porthole window, stone footing and unique, handmade finishing touches, like the stained pine front door that looks suitable for Gandalf's passage.

Inside, it's all about the colour brown, since the smooth walls and floors are plastered in the natural tones of cob. In the kitchen and bathroom, where lime has been added to the cob, there are white walls, decorated with pressed-in shells. There's a hand-sculpted arbutus tree on a wall in the front entry and alcoves have been built into several walls to hold ornaments.

Wood and stone are naturals for complementing cob decor. Peeled log pillars and beams from the Niedzielas' own trees are visible. Windows have large, handmade cedar sills. A huge fireplace is faced with stone and cob.

A curving staircase with fir log railings and cedar slab steps, made by Paul, leads up to the second storey, where there are three bedrooms, a bathroom with a claw-foot tub, a laundry room with a European-style combination washer/dryer that is easy on energy, and a central sitting/play area. Upstairs, pine covers walls, ceilings and floors.

For Paul and Becky, this cob house is dream green house come true. "I love it, not just because there's nothing toxic in this house, but also because of the look and feel of the house," says Paul. But he's truthful about the frustrations of building with cob.

"Cob contractors are no different than any other contractors," says Paul. "They act like they don't take on a contractor persona, but they do. It's the volunteers who are extremely open. My contractor was opposed to our one cordwood wall and it was a battle getting him to do it."

Tradesmen like electricians and plumbers will likely still have to be hired, and cobber volunteer labour can be sporadic. "Some days you might get eight people helping. On other days, there might be zero."

Getting cob's raw materials, and coping with the fact that no two soils are exactly the same, can be challenging. The Niedzielas' five acres had clay, but an excavator at $100 an hour had to be employed to dig it. And sand, at $400 a load, had to be trucked in.

Sometimes, you have to wing it. To determine the best mix for the floors' finish coat, Paul and one of his cobbers made up 20 samples of cob plaster and kept a notebook on the mixtures to see how they'd stand up.

But perhaps the greatest hurdle for cobbers and other alternative builders is in the area Paul calls "the building envelope, where technologies come together." It's the place where cobber meets code.

The Niedzielas' doors are a case in point. Paul built them himself since, he says, "the store doesn't have anything to match a house like this." Then a building inspector said he'd have to send them to the Canadian Standards Association for certification, a procedure that usually involves having multiple doors made and tested. Paul managed to get on-site approval instead.

The Niedziela home may prove that for now, cob building is more evolution than revolution. If you're tempted to join the evolution, Paul will be on hand to answer questions in his Saltspring cob house on Sunday.

The Salt Spring Island Conservancy and the Earth Festival Society will run their second Eco-Home Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, August 6.

Following the success of last year's event, organizers promise an information-packed day of guided tours to 10 unique ecological and sustainable homes on Salt Spring.

With a reputation for environmental awareness, creativity and concern about sustainability, many islanders have developed innovative housing solutions and Salt Spring has an abundance of eco-friendly homes to fuel the tour.

"Many of Salt Spring's residents moved here for the natural beauty and eclectic community," notes a press release. "In recent years, many residents concerned about sustainablilty have put their ideas into action by building homes that reflect their values."

Islanders and visitors can view sustainable home technologies such as windmill power, rammed earth, hemp straw bale, cob, water-catchment, masonry heating, solar and grey water systems.

Tour participants will hear about these technologies from the homeowners themselves, many of whom built their own homes. The tour features an organic farm with solar water heating, a masonry heater with built-in bake oven and plumbing for hot water, I-WOOD construction that uses 30 per cent less lumber and less waste, the island's first legally permitted cob dwelling, which has walls made from sand, clay and straw, and insulation made from recycled blue jeans, and a hemp straw bale home. Other technologies include an energy retrofit of a 1950s cottage with a solar hot water system and several water catchment systems. "The homes are packed with ideas to reduce energy and water usage and associated operating costs," state tour organizers.

Tour maps and tickets can be picked up at Salt Spring Books in Ganges, Morningside Organic Bakery and Cafe in Fulford, and the Salt Spring Island Conservancy office, Suite #201 in Upper Ganges Centre. Tickets cost $25 each or two for $45. Same-day tickets may be available, but advance purchase is recommended.

Organizers highly encourage carpooling and cycling, and several homes are clustered together for ease of access. "You may wish to form carpools with neighbours and friends," suggest organizers. "You can also meet at Gulf Islands Secondary School to park your car and form carpools at 9:30 a.m. This year volunteers will assist people to link at individual houses wherever possible. All proceeds go to support the operations of the Conservancy to educate schoolchildren, the public, and landholders about land and water stewardship."

The tour will be launched with a Sustainable Building Forum on August 5, featuring architect Helen Goodland, executive director of B.C.'s Sustainable Building Centre. The event takes place at Meaden Hall at 120 Blain Road, with exhibits open at 6:30 p.m. and the program at 7.

July 26, 2006 - The Driftwood

Forum and Eco-home Tour Launch Climate Change Action
By Elizabeth White

The feds may have abandoned Kyoto, cancelled the One Tonne Challenge, and shelved the EnerGuide for Houses homeowner grant program, but Salt Spring has not! Salt Springers are about to become more energy efficient, save money and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As part of our Community Energy Strategy, Salt Spring is participating in a provincial pilot demonstration to increase the energy efficiency of buildings.

Extra impetus for the local Climate Change Action comes, ironically, from a very welcome grant from Environment Canada's EcoAction program, which is providing $36,000 over two years to help implement Salt Spring's Energy Strategy.

This weekend sees the launch of the Salt Spring pilot demonstration and the Climate Change Action project at the Sustainable Building Forum at Meaden Hall on Saturday night. Helen Goodland RIBA LEEDap, Executive Director of the BC Sustainable Building Centre, will talk about making sustainable building choices, emphasizing that everyone can do something to improve their environmental footprint. She will share practical tips for renovation and new building strategies. She will explain how she retrofitted her own small house, and show us what other communities are doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Information about the Salt Spring energy efficiency initiatives will be available, along with several displays.

Among the incentives offered on Salt Spring are Energy Savings Plan (ESP) homeowner grants for upgrading home energy efficiency. These grants require an EnerGuide for Houses home assessment, available through City Green Solutions. ESP provides one-stop-shop access to financial grants and rebates to pay for windows, insulation, heating systems, doors, and air sealing. Homeowners can receive up to $2,100 in grants and rebates and save up to 50% on future energy bills after implementing the recommended home performance improvements.

Affordable housing projects are also eligible for grants for efficiency upgrades, up to $20,000 per building. The Salt Spring Land Bank, with Grandma's House, is the first to sign up for the new program. Information about these and other incentives for homeowners and building managers is available by calling 1-866-381-9995. ESP is administered by a three-way partnership comprised of City Green Solutions, Sustainable Building Centre, and HomeWorks Services. ESP representatives will be on hand at Meaden Hall on Saturday night.

Sunday Aug 6 is the second annual Eco-home tour. Ten homes are on the tour this year, but there is so much to see at each house it is virtually impossible to visit them all. Almost every green building technology imaginable is demonstrated somewhere on the tour, from a complete energy retrofit of a 1950s bungalow to an off-grid insulated rammed earth home. Tour participants are challenged to pick at least one idea or technology to implement at home. Advance ticket purchase is highly recommended, along with some pre-planning. Please carpool for energy efficiency.

The Energy Strategy Task Force, chaired by Bob Weeden, will oversee the implementation of the Community Energy Strategy, which involves meeting aggressive energy reduction targets by 2012. We are now seeking additional members to the Task Force and invite you to contact Marion Pape at 537-4567 to discuss your interest. One of the first orders of business will be to review the Official Community Plan for energy measures, as part of the OCP review process.

An exciting addition to the Climate Change Action project is the hiring of Fiona and Heather Munro as Youth Coordinators. They will bring awareness about everyday energy use to the forefront of school and home activities. Stay tuned for reports from Fiona and Heather.

Reducing home energy use is an immediate focus of the Energy Strategy, but other tasks are underway. Task Force members will be working with Island Natural Growers, the Farmers Institute, and the Area Farm Plan to increase local organic food production. A Transportation Options Fair is planned for next year.

The Salt Spring Community Energy Strategy is coordinated by the Earth Festival Society, with input and funding assistance from the Islands Trust, and the CRD Regional Director.

The Sustainable Building Forum and Eco-home tour are co-sponsored by the Salt Spring Island Conservancy and the Earth Festival Society. Tickets for the Eco-home tour are on sale at Salt Spring Books and Morningside Organic Bakery & Café. For maps and carpooling, meet between 9:00 and 10:00 am on Aug 6 at Gulf Island Secondary School, 112 Rainbow Road, Ganges.

Admission to the Sustainable Building Forum, 6:30 pm Sat. Aug 5 at Meaden Hall (Blain Rd. behind the RCMP on Lower Ganges Rd) is by donation.

For information about the Salt Spring Community Energy Strategy and the Salt Spring Energy Task Force contact Marion Pape 537-4567 or Elizabeth White 537-2616. See also www.saltspringenergystrategy.org.

Energuide for Houses The EnerGuide for Houses service is developed and subsidized by Natural Resources Canada. By using energy more efficiently, Canadians can significantly reduce their home operating costs while increasing their home comfort.