Do you have a green mortgage and a green home?

Hey everyone, hope Father's Day is off to a good start on this sunny day in Montreal. Today, I got inspired to write about having a green home. Often we all talk about being green by participating in our city's recycling and composting programs. I think we are all pretty green minded but post-recycling and car pooling we're not sure what next.

Personally, I don't think we do enough for the environment nor are living in a sustainable manner. As home owners or future home owners there are three ways you can help your pocket and help the environment, by: either buying an energy efficient home, making energy efficient renovations to your new home or renovate your existing home.

When buying an energy efficient home (or making energy efficient saving renovations), should you meet certain criteria both CMHC and Genworth will refund 10% of your insurance premium. On a mortgage of $200,000 you would save approximately $500 on your premium. According to the Quebec Government, by making these changes you'd save approximately 20% on your energy costs. Furthermore, through the Quebec Government's Novoclimat 2.0 Program you'd receive an additional $1000 in financial assistance. Is saving $1500 upfront and 20% on your energy bills enough? Let's take this discussion a bit further...

As many of your know I like Mike Holmes and the innovative ideas he shares. If you read his website you will see lots of green home ideas, which includes: roofing, heating and cooling, alternative lighting, power, and improving the building envelope. The aspect I find most interesting is water use. Mike talks about greywater, which is "used water that comes from sinks and drains, as well as reclaimed rainwater collected from a home’s roofs." The greywater is then held, filtered and sent back into the house for re-use. The water cannot be used for drinking, showering or bathing but definitely useful for watering the lawn, laundry, washing your car, and flushing toilets.

Mike states there are no Federal or Provincial building guidelines for greywater systems. In addition "Each individual municipality accepts or rejects proposed greywater systems that homeowners might want to install."

I am glad that Mike and people like him are sharing these ideas. I just wish our governments were a bit more ahead of the times by adopting more green building codes and help bring these topics into mainstream discussion.