The Green Building Learning Zone comes to the National Home Show!
I am very excited to announce that the Green Building Learning Zone (GBLZ) is coming to the National Home Show, March 8-10 and March 13-17 at the Enercare Centre, Exhibition Place.
What is the Green Building Learning Zone? It is the bringing together of Ontario’s best and brightest residential green building experts in a collaborative effort to share their knowledge with homeowners about the why and how-to of sustainable building. Greening Homes (my company) is one of the GBLZ’s founding members, and essentially a passion project. It is uniquely not a sales event. It is staffed by volunteer professionals with the intent to educate.
The GBLZ first came together in 2019 as part of the Green Living Show. The new, expanded 1200+ sqft space, now moved to the National Home Show, features a range of educational presentations and one-on-one consultations to inform homeowners on “Green Building 101.” From understanding what an energy audit is, to the consideration of embodied carbon in our renovation and building projects, the goal of the GBLZ is to help homeowners understand green renovations and building from a holistic perspective. Truly sustainable homes are: affordable to build, buy and operate; very energy efficient; made with materials that have low embodied carbon and minimal waste; healthy, comfortable and promotes the well-being of the occupants; and resilient, beautiful, accessible, and connected to community.
In March 2023, Blue Ant Media, the new showrunner of the National Home Show, reached out to long-time exhibitors (me included) for ideas on how to refresh and reboot Canada’s largest home show post pandemic. I was happy to provide my feedback that climate change and concerns about high energy bills are increasingly weighing on people’s minds. I pitched the idea of reviving the GBLZ, then without a home (the Green Living Show was a casualty of COVID), and creating a dedicated education space within the National Home Show to inform homeowners on green building best practices. I suggested that the GBLZ would add great value and relevance to the National Home Show – and they agreed!
You can call the GBLZ a No-Greenwashing Zone. Expect a series of panel presentations, run hourly throughout the show, by notable and award-winning architects, builders, educators and suppliers who will walk you through everything from the house-as-a-system approach and Passive Houses, to cost-effective minor home improvements. The GBLZ will also feature sample green building materials and resources to peruse and introduce exciting innovations that are coming down the pike.
The GBLZ is a fantastic opportunity for homeowners who are considering or planning a renovation, building a custom home, or for anyone just seeking real, expert green building advice – without a sales pitch. This is truly a special event that I am thrilled to be a part of. I can’t recommend it enough. Hope to see you there!
Learn more at greenbuildinglearningzone.org or follow the GBLZ on Instagram, #GreenBuildingLZ. Tickets to the National Home Show can be purchased at torontohomeshows.com/tbo or at the door.
Chris Phillips, Greening Homes’ founder and President, is an expert contributor of Neighbours of High Park Magazine. This article appeared in the March 2024 issue.