Saskatoon’s first LEED certified private dwelling, dubbed the Shift Home, ushers in a new era.  With modern green features, chosen with affordability in mind, and constructed in one of Saskatoon’s core neighbourhoods, Curtis Olson and Darren McLean have forced local construction companies and builders to take another look at the potential for, and the marketability of, green in Saskatchewan.

While the Shift Home fails to offer some of the features die hard greens would have hoped (like dry composting toilets, grey water systems, and passive solar heat) it has still earned the right to boast.  With double walls and r60 roof insulation it provides exceptional heat conservation in the Winter.  Passive solar design takes advantage of the natural tilt of the Earth, while it’s solar ready roof sits waiting for it’s new owners to install panels.  The list of green features finishes out with drain water heat recovery, low flow faucets, dual flush toilets, and triple glazed argon filled low-E windows.  Still, Olson, one of the innovators behind the project claims “The greenest thing about it is the location: existing infrastructure, roads, parks, schools, retails, etc.  It’s location minimizes automobile dependance considerably.”

“An urban act of renewal” this house heralds of things to come.  As home buyers demand greener alternatives it’s clear that some in the industry are listening.  And we can ensure they continue to listen by making our collective voices clear and precise by demanding green options.  Olson and McLean have taken the first steps, by making green accessible and understandable to the folks involved in the building industry on the Prairie.  With the Shift Home, they’ve proven that green can work here.

If Olson and McLean continue to push the envelope with such innovative projects, theirs will be the names to watch in the future of home building here in Saskatoon.  Let’s hope they continue to strive for more than the status quo - forcing the rest of the industry to do so as well.

Learn more about the Shift Home, and the unusual way this house came to be, at http://www.theshifthome.com/

Tobi-Dawne Smith

President of the Green Party of Saskatchewan,

and Editor in Chief of Pure Greenius.