What does it actually mean to be a “Net Zero Community”? The idea is simple enough, produce the same amount of energy that you actually use. Those are the building standards of the future, and it’s been proven that Net Zero Communities will be instrumental in curbing and even reversing climate change. It’s about creating sustainability for our children, their children, their children’s children. It’s how we live in harmony with our environment. It’s probably the most important thing we can do to help save our planet.
As a Net Zero Community, West 5 has been successfully implementing solar panels, rainwater harvesting and SMART technology in residential and commercial buildings. Our building, Helio, is the first Canadian residential high-rise apartment ever built to target Net Zero.
West 5 is already the community of the future – unique in its progressiveness and ideals; and one that is already making a real-world impact.
So, in terms of the impact on our daily lives, what does it really mean to be a Net Zero Community?
For West 5: It means offsetting 105,000 kg of greenhouse gas.
To put that in context, it would take 453 acres of full grown forests to offset the same amount of carbon.
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- That’s like removing 82 vehicles from the road for an entire year
- Or taking 67 homes off the electricity grid
- Or completing a whopping 49,000,000 cell phone charges
It also means massive energy savings.
Between what we produce, and the amount we save, West 5 will save nearly 4,000,000 kWh of energy this year.
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- That’s the same amount of energy used by 487 conventional homes
- It could power 4,509 computers for one year
- That same energy would power an electric vehicle for 187,000 km – which would take it halfway to the moon, or about 15 trips around the Earth’s equator.
That’s what it means to live at West 5, and that’s what it means to be a Net Zero Community. We’ve already made a huge impact, and we’ve only just begun.
