Last week, Century Group was thrilled to learn that our first cluster of townhomes at The Ridge achieved Built Green® Gold certification. This is great news, as we have strived to achieve Built Green status throughout the building process of our townhomes and it aligns with our vision and commitment to create Nanaimo’s first liveable and sustainable community. 

Built Green is a national third-party certification program for residential homes that are constructed in an environmentally-responsible way. It’s similar to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) with its tiered approach to grading building performance with levels of Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum. The purpose of Built Green is to encourage homebuilders to construct quality homes with lasting value that are better for the environment and better for human health. The program’s checklist of criteria prioritizes energy efficiency, indoor air quality, resource conservation, and durability. As a result, the Built Green program is helping to clean up the construction industry and encouraging builds that are more efficient and sustainable.

The process of obtaining Built Green certification requires applicants to complete an extensive checklist of “green” criteria relating to the building. To achieve Gold status, we had to satisfy the following requirements:

• Homes had to be EnerGuide rated
• Score a minimum of 35 points in Envelope & Energy section of the checklist
• Earn a total of 115 points from the Built Green® checklist, and meet the minimum point thresholds for each category

Click here to see our completed Built Green application checklist for The Ridge townhomes.
 
Currently Built Green is a voluntary program, but we look forward to the day when the measures put forward by this program become mandatory for all new residential buildings. Building without the environment in mind is definitely a thing of the past.

We would like to acknowledge our building partner, Westmark Construction Ltd., whose exceptional work and commitment to helping us achieve Built Green status through greener construction practices made our vision a reality. 

For more information on Built Green, visit the website: BuiltGreenCanada.ca

For more information on The Ridge, visit the website: RidgeLiving.ca