INTRODUCTION

Station Pointe Greens, a proposed 219-unit residential and commercial development, promises to be one of the most leading edge Passive House Certified Developments in North America. However, an innovative project such as this requires much time and research, and this project being no exception, it is still in its research and design phase. Its story began in 2008 when the City of Edmonton issued a request for proposals from developers regarding improvement of a brownfield site in Belvedere. This was done as part of the City's redevelopment initiative for an area which was in dire need of revitalization. The Communitas Group saw a huge opportunity to develop a large-scale multi-family project immediately adjacent to a light rail transit and bus hub. And so the vision of an affordable and sustainable housing project began to take shape. Communitas had already tested the ‘green' construction waters on previous projects, most notably Grandin Green, a 15-storey high-rise which was the first Canadian project to qualify for the Federal CBIP grant (25% more energy efficient than required by the Model National Energy Code for Buildings). However, they had never attempted anything as bold and leading edge as Station Pointe Greens. Their goal from the outset was to build one of the greenest multi-family housing cooperative complexes in North America. And like most developers, Communitas wanted to build it with as little ‘green' premium as possible. This was, after all, to be affordable housing.

In the beginning, the vision was to see how close the project could get to being a net-zero energy, zero carbon emissions project and still remain affordable. It evolved, through the assistance of grant research financing received from the EQuilibrium Communities Initiative (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Natural Resources Canada), to an affordable development seeking Passive House Certification, including an on-site waste water treatment facility. And furthermore, the need to research ‘green financing' arose. How would Communitas best fund the green premium so that the units could stay affordable? So even though this project is still in the research and design phase, the evolution of the design process, the waste water treatment plant, and the green financing research has yielded some interesting information worth sharing.