The high costs of building green

No new News here. For the last 18 months we have been attempting to deal with the Ontario government to build a plant which will employ at capacity 546 individuals. Our system is literally the greenest wall system in the world with over 70,000 projects completed worldwide. Our 5.5" wall is an EFFECTIVE R-VALUE of 36 at 0 Celsius compared to your new R2000 homes which are an EFFECTIVE R VALUE of 4 at the same temperature. Oh and cost less than wood to build. Mold and Mildew cannot form in our system. The cost to heat and cool a 1500 sq ft home is $300 per year.

We are as the song goes Off to Buffalo.

Minister Bradley and Premier Mcguinty thanks for doing absolutely NOTHING

Peter Smith

Lenta Enterprises Inc.

Shut up you dirty commie. The green movement is the new red movement ; there is no environmental crisis, and global warming is a hoax. You're trying to cash in on the last 6 months of this gravy train. The end of the tracks are in sight.,

Well Peter, Mr. McGinty doesn't have the money to give you. Sorry. We are already being taxed WAYYY beyond our measures. I would love the opportunity to go green...however...why does going green have to cost ME more money...through the Ontario government.
If you can do it...meet the regulations and do it without any help...sounds like you could.

Right on, Joel! Stand-up to the man!

To Peter
It is unfortunate that the Ontario gov't does not encourage more innovative company as yours. As the Germans figured out well over a decade ago, going green can be a win-win situation. Less reliance on foreign oil, whose price is certain to go way up in the future, less green-house gases and more exports of green technology and more jobs for the German worker.

To Joel
Assinine deniers like you remind me of dinosaurs. Unfortunately, there are too many easily dubbed people like youself around, that your kind might very well drive us all into extinction. The PR firms and their oil industries CEOs and lobbiests are laughing all the way to the bank. Do some research and you will find that the same PR/marketing firms that handled the dossiers of the tobacco industry are now working feverishly away to manufacture phoney research and fund dubious "scientists". But maybe I am being too opinionated and just maybe 95% of the world's climatologists could be dead wrong and you could be right. As far as end of the track, you ain't seen nothun' yet. For openers expect to see severe drought in mid-west Canada and US and hundreds of millions of environmental refugees creating social chaos through out the globe. Even the US Pentagon, CIA and British security service see environmental crisis and its aftermath as the biggest security threat to their countries. But of course, they must be wrong as well.

I often wonder why people jump on the bandwagon to get the newst of the new. In British Columbia, Vancouver and Victoria in particular, we still havent figured out how to make condominiums water tight, right in the middle of the rain forest. it is a topic that isnt even on the radar screen anymore. everything was fine until the early 80's when the building code changed and anything built since then leaks, or will leak. Even 30 storey concrete towers are covered in blue tarps across the city. No level of government takes responsibilty for this disaster. BILLIONS have been spent by homeowners rebuilding their homes, money which could have been spent in other areas of the economy, like cars, trips, furniture etc. If you buy a condo in these areas, be prepared to spend at least 50-100 thousand more at sometime to get rid of the rot. Who knows what is going to happen down the road when untried "green" techology. And a word to the now wiser, never buy anything with tress and grass on the roof, it just doesnt belong there, believe me.................

even if i gave a rat's arse about global warming, i would not be able to argue with the cheaper cost of heating a home.
which makes me wonder a number of things. are some of the posters here just sh!t-disturbing trolls? or are they mentally handicapped??
OR do they stand to gain somehow from sticking to older, inefficient technologies???

do not stop, peter!!! keep going, sir! the more vocal and forceful the old guard become, the less intelligent their defensive reactions grow. and by shooting themselves in the foot, they will unwittingly bring clarity to the rest of us.

the ONLY difference i see between 'green' renovations and 'non-green' renovations is that the couple were told a figure for gov't rebates...and it didn't come through.

otherwise, it's the same old story. more expensive than expected, and unexpected mistakes. let's face it, this is a pretty thin story at best. holmes has had a burgeoning career adressing these issues for quite some time (long before the green movement). it's nothing new, and certainly not exclusive to green building or renovating.
the same questionable builders and businesses that ripped people off before have just continued.
so why the emphasis on 'green'?
one can wonder, but not really.

Doesn't matter if there is a human factor to global warming, or if there really is any appreciable global warming. We live in Canada, and it is going to be COLD sometime!
I don't agree with trying to "fix" what might be wrong, I simply want to live with as little impact on Mother Nature as possible. If new ideas can convincingly address that, then I am willing to try; if we don't try "new" then we wouldn't be where we are today, or thirty years ago, we would be where we were 500,000 years ago.
As for GOVERNMENT input, if the product is as good as portrayed, the producer doesn't need public money, it just needs public.

If 'going green' is truly saving money than there should be no need for people who can barely make ends meet on their own subsidizing it for someone else. AFTER ALL, if it was such a tried/tested/proven method any smart loan officer would happily loan the money knowing that the savings would quickly eclipse the cost. But what we have here is same old, same old: shoddy workmanship and very poor business research. What sane person makes an investment on the 'future offer' of money that is supposed to come from person B (the gov't) paid for by person C (the public in this case). If memory serves VW didn't get any Gov't money to introduce the Diesel Rabbit in the 1980's yet Toyota etc do now for their 'green' cars. What kind of a welfare society have we turned into??? What a crock.

the answer is not to subsidize anything that the public comes up with. the answer is to continue subsidizing the largest of corporations whose industry truely does not need help(thru massive tax breaks and other incentives).
we should do our best not to invest in that part of the population where taxes actually come from. that way, more of the money goes to government for further mismanagement and self-appointed raises.
why break the cycle, and risk becoming commie b@stards?

Whatever happened to private innovation? We are human, yes? Able to think for ourselves, I hope. Forget the government, "green" companies, over priced so called green cars and everything that goes along with it. Think for yourself and yourself only! If you think that it costs to much to heat your home or to much for whatever else, do something about it yourself. Build a house with double 2x4 exterior walls instead of 2x6. Insulate the outside 2x4 wall 100% and vapor barrier it and run your wires and whatever in the interior 2x4 wall but still insulate it well. Some area building codes do not allow that because as a thumb of rule, if you save to much energy the monopoly companies selling you the utility will not survive and our lovely government will do whatever it takes to keep them afloat. In my case, I had to build a 2x6 exterior wall get the inspection and then added a 2x4 interior wall for more R value. I pay 60 bucks a month at 30 below to heat my home with natural gas.Thinking for myself!! I call it. For around 1000 bucks you can run most every electrical component in your house. Take a Car altenator, mount a prop on it and point it into the wind charging atleat 6 batteries. Get a descent inverter and run your most used appliances on it. Look it up on google. It is amazing what a little innovation can do for you.
This way you can do as the last comment says a become a "commie bastard", but on your own terms.