Why build a Sustainable house?

Oh gosh! I have so much to say on this subject.

Let’s quickly go back to my childhood to truly understand. I was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. As most of you know, Istanbul is a beautiful historical city with around 15 million of human and probably half as much stray population of cats and dogs. Because of this, growing up I often witnessed cruelty towards animals and became very conscious about it. As I grew up, I spent more and more time concerning myself with the environmentalist and animal rights movements. I volunteered and supported various organizations and dreamt of a life close to nature where I would find peace. So when we started thinking about buying a property around Toronto, I wanted to be away, far away from the city that I spent all my life in.

I’m not against urbanization by any means, especially when the new buildings are becoming more and more green. I think there is beauty and comfort in city life where everything is thought of and designed for human convenience. In fact, I’m highly interested in urban design that integrates ethical and environmental values. Like many others, I also believe that our planet is facing a critical future. With our current lifestyle choises, we continue to loose more of our rainforests, contaminate our waters, loose fertile lands and wild life population. This saddens me more than anything and I take responsibility for my own actions. So when Ivan suggested that we should build our own house, I said we should make it sustainable.

With this decision we started researching and learning all about net-zero homes and passive house principles. We watched videos about earth-ships around the world and started thinking about what kind of a sustainable home we would like to live in. I started sketching immediately and went through five or six different design ideas while we were searching for a land.

There were three things that was important to me, the first one being obviously the design. I wanted simple, modern and rustic look. So we chose natural wood as the main building material. This way we can build the entire house ourselves without requiring heavy equipments and special tradesman. The second was sufficiency. This meant if and when necessary we should be able to live-off the land. And the third was sustainability. This meant we should be able to recycle or process all our waste, supply our own electricity and live with no cost by making the land pay for its own expenses. Tis is how the idea of a retreat was born.

With the help of our architects our home is designed with the net-zero principles, south facing, thick walls, efficient windows and concrete floors. But even though, we invest so much in the efficiency of our house, we have to account for the climate we live in. Turns our in Canada, we must have a heating source by law and a back-up heating source because we’re off the grid. The reason for that is because no sustainable energy source is 100% reliable. After doing our research we decided to have a small gasification boiler, so that we can utilize our own woods, and a propane back-up with a hope that we’d rarely need to use it. We also decided to go with solar panels as source of electricity. You know, I never understood why people build their homes so close to the rode in rural areas, until I learn how much getting connected to the grid cost. It is as expensive to pull a cable deeper in the land, where we want to build our home, as to invest in a solar system.

Unfortunately the more we learn about the green construction, the more we realize that there are so many gaps, blown-up prices and misleading information. Looks like as long as we choose to live a modern lifestyle, we end up leaving a footprint. The best thing we can do is to learn to moderate our consumption, increase the efficiency of our home and recycle as much as we can. After this experience we really hope to have a good understanding of building sustainably on a budget and help others who are trying to do the same. Maybe, together we can find better solutions on our journey to becoming zero footprint.

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Namaste!