Although Jasper is an environmentally conscious community, there are few local resources available to homeowners looking to renovate or build energy efficient homes.
That鈥檚 one piece of feedback Janet Cooper, Jasper鈥檚 environmental stewardship coordinator, has often heard during consultations on the community鈥檚 yet-to-be written green building policy.
To remedy that lack of resources, Cooper is hoping to learn from locals who are already using sustainable materials and practises.
During the library鈥檚 community conversation on green building, July 4, Darwin Foley proved himself to be one of those valuable resources.
Foley is currently constructing a home on Pine Avenue using structural insulated panels for his exterior walls. The panels have an insulating layer of foam sandwiched between two layers of structural board.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a solid insulation with no air cavities,鈥� said Foley, who has also installed triple pane windows and thermal solar collectors that provide the hot water for his home. 鈥淩ight now I鈥檓 making more hot water than I can possibly use,鈥� he said.
Foley did all of his research online, as there isn鈥檛 much information available through Parks Canada or the municipality, nor are there many options for finding builders who specialize in green building practises. 鈥淭here really isn鈥檛 a path ahead of you where you can learn from someone else in town,鈥� said Foley.
As well as a lack of resources, Cooper noted that the architectural motif guidelines set out by Parks can also act as a hinderance for some green building features. For example, acceptable roof pitches aren鈥檛 always amenable to installing solar panels. According to Cooper, Parks is open to amending some of those guidelines, in recognition of the difficulty they present to homeowners attempting to build green homes.
Over the last year, there have been a number of public consultations on the green building policy, with the most recent taking place in April. At this point, Cooper said she鈥檚 ready to see a draft report written.
鈥淭here鈥檚 been a lot of talk, but no pen to paper yet because we鈥檙e trying to get a feel for what the community would be OK with.鈥�
Part of that is determining what should be mandatory and what should be incentive based.
Because there are so few new builds in Jasper, Cooper said the policy has to focus heavily on renovations, rather than new construction. 鈥淲e have a stock of old homes, so we have to focus on improving energy efficiency for those existing homes.鈥�
Cooper hopes to have a draft policy written within the next three or four months. Once that鈥檚 completed, it will go out to the community for public review and consultation.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not going to get people to pay attention until there鈥檚 something on paper,鈥� she said, noting that even if they come out 鈥渟creaming鈥� when the draft report is complete, at least they鈥檒l be engaged.
After that consultation is complete, Cooper figures a consultant will be contracted to take all of that information and put it together into a formal report that meets building codes and Parks regulations.
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
