For the past seven years, University of B.C. PhD student J. Karen Parker has lived in basement suites. Some were gross, and some were half decent. But the computer scientist swears she’ll never live in one again.

“The last time we moved, we were looking in East Van, and they [the home- owners] wanted a massive amount of money because they had these huge mortgages,” Parker said. “Most of the suites were really weirdly organized. Their renovations took the path of least resistance, so you’d get kitchens right next to bathrooms, because that’s where all the plumbing was. In another one, the bedroom was huge—half the basement—and everything else was tiny.”

Suites promise much. They can make detached-home ownership affordable for the owner, and urban rents affordable for the tenant. Plus, secondary suites were the ultimate urban environmental solution—less driving and more housing—when Vancouver changed its zoning in 2004 to allow every house in the city to include one.

But in practice, as Parker’s experience demonstrates, suites can be atrocious. Some owners begrudge renting too much space out, leading to badly constructed suites that either deter would-be tenants or mean only short-term stays.

There can be a better way. According to Julie Hardy, the founder of JMH Home Environmental Solutions (www.jmhsolutions.ca/), an up-front green investment in a suite will see great returns down the road, for both owner and renter. Basement suites have three main issues, Hardy said: the natural light is usually limited; they can be damp, which contributes to mould and dust-mite growth; and the ventilation can be poor, especially if it was a quick retrofit and the owners chose baseboard heaters and a clunky bathroom fan.

Hardy, who also works with Light House Sustainable Building Centre (see feature on page 10), said owners should first of all invest in hard flooring such as laminate or wood. Remove carpets, which act as traps for dust and mould, and are also a source of unhealthy air if a renter has pets.

Paint and cabinetry are both sources of indoor air pollution, technically called volatile organic compounds, or outgassing or offgassing. Hardy suggested owners could invest in no–VOC paints and cabinets from stores such as GreenWorks Building Supply (386 West 8th Avenue, 604-685-3611).

Also consider faucets with aerators and a low-flow shower and toilet, plus Energy Star appliances that dramatically reduce the energy and water consumption of a suite. A retrofit, Hardy said, is a great time to invest in additional insulation in the floor between the upstairs and lower suites so noise is minimized.

Green doesn’t have to mean solar panels and windmills; just removing carpets cuts the risk of dust and mould.
Photo by Kevin Russ

Vancouver’s homes lag behind in going a deeper shade of green, according to Michael Driedger, a sustainability researcher with local architecture firm Busby Perkins+Will (www.busby.ca/). “I think people believe it [green] is about gadgets like solar panels and windmills,” he said. “The education is not there yet.”

True green, Driedger said, starts with the building itself. For bigger buildings such as schools and hospitals, LEED Canada sets the standard. It’s a rating system that

assesses projects in five categories: sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, and indoor environmental quality. The Canada Green Building Council administers the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system, which has a goal of certifying 100,000 buildings and one million homes by 2015. So far though, as Driedger points out, LEED Canada for homes does not exist. (Several smaller programs, such as Built Green, do. In the next year, it’s likely that LEED Canada for homes will emerge, and serve as an umbrella set of standards to the other programs.)

However, the bigger problem in getting renters and owners to behave in more efficient ways has nothing to do with standards, according to Driedger.

“Electricity is so damn cheap,” he said. “Because we pay so little for energy, and we don’t see how much water we use through a charge, there’s no incentive to retrofit with efficient water heaters or better windows. The incentives are so low.” Once the cost of energy and water in B.C. skyrockets, he said, we’ll see homeowners making more green choices both upstairs, and in their suites—especially if they are including utilities in rent.

Until then, both homeowners and their suite renters can make choices that, while not necessarily up to LEED Canada standards, will make for a better environment, inside and out.