Empire Communities a double winner for the 2019
February 13, 2019
Empire Communities, one of North America’s largest homebuilders, has just been named a double Cross Border Builder Challenge winner of the Canadian Production Builder award for the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) and Canadian Residential Services Network (CRESNET) President’s Award.
RESNET sets the standards for quality for the HERS (Home Energy Rating System) rating industry and to date, more than 2.4 million homes in North America are HERS-rated through its efforts.
The two awards Empire Communities picked up were for its Discovery Home pilot program at the Riverland community in Breslau, Ontario.
The Empire Discovery Home pilot includes two homes in Breslau that are designed with some of the most energy-saving and environmentally conscious innovations being tested today. The homes’ construction is not only an exercise in sustainability, but also an experiment in research and development that will have a large impact on how Empire will build homes in the future.
Essential to the success of the project are Empire’s industry partners, Dow Building Solutions, Rockwool and George Brown College who provided the materials and monitoring expertise for the homes.
“Sustainable construction and energy efficiency have long been part of our culture,” says Paul Golini, Executive Vice President, Industry Relations at Empire Communities. “A challenge that comes with this commitment is finding new ways to continuously raise the bar as building code changes and efficiency standards are elevated. We innovate by piloting our ideal energy-saving technologies and building solutions into experiments that can potentially be applied to all of our new homes,” added Golini.
Empire strives to continuously grow and become leaders in their industry, and they are committed to doing this by constantly testing and experimenting in order to ensure they build Building Solutions to standards above both Energy Star and the Ontario Building Code. Empire plans to ‘future-proof’ all of their homes and communities to come.
These homes were given a HERS score of 38, awarding Empire with the Canadian Production Builder lowest score. To be considered for this award, builders need to have more than 49 homes HERS rated each year. Additionally, Empire won the CRESNET President’s Award with a HERS average fleet score of 44. This award typically goes to the Production Builder with the highest percentage of homes rated less than 52 over the course of one year (2018-2019).
The HERS Index is a North American industry standard by which a home’s energy efficiency is measured. It’s also the nationally recognized system for inspecting and calculating a home’s energy performance. The lower the score, the more energy efficient the home is deemed.
The Cross Border Builder Challenge promotes the utilization of the HERS Index and energy efficient home building in the U.S. and Canada. The RESNET and CRESNET Cross Border Challenge is a friendly competition between American and Canadian builders to determine just how energy efficient builders can be in their homes. Past winners have included Heathwood Homes, Brookfield Residential and Geranium Homes.