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Welcome to to the Endeavour blog! You will learn quickly that we love to share about the community, technology, techniques and all other areas that encompass sustainable architecture.
Enjoy browsing through our detailed project and material posts. And don’t forget to check out our free Resources section to assist you in your next project.
Trent University Forensic Crime Scene Building is a Zero Carbon Leader
Zero carbon building is a lofty goal that is often criticized as too difficult to achieve. But the new Forensic Crime Scene facility at Trent...
Just BioFiber Hempcrete Blocks for Zero Carbon Trent Forensics Facility
Trent University has a goal to store more carbon in the building materials of their new Forensics Facility than was emitted in making the materials....
Air Tightness at Trent Forensics Zero Carbon building
The Trent Forensics Zero Carbon project requires a net zero energy and carbon performance in order to be certified by the International Living...
Low Carbon Foundation for Trent University Forensics Building
In order for the Trent Forensics Facility to meet its Zero Carbon goals, choosing low-carbon foundation materials was important. Foundations are...
Trent University Zero Carbon Forensics Science Building
When Trent University set out to design a Forensics Crime Scene facility, the building would be the first of its kind on a Canadian university...
Everything you need to know to get your natural building off the ground – Abundant Edge Podcast
"In this interview Chris talks about how he fell in love with natural building as he aspired to build his own home. From there we go into detail...
Building Homes and Sinking Carbon – Possibility Podcast
Host Sarah Knight discusses building materials that could make our homes carbon sinks rather than carbon sources with sustainable building expert,...
Making Better Buildings for People & Planet – SEE-Change Podcast
Along the way, however, Chris ran into what he calls “the carbon elephant in the room”, embodied carbon, which measures the total greenhouse gas...
Innovations in Carbon Beneficial Building Materials—with Chris Magwood & Jacob Deva Racusin- NORI Reversing Climate Change Podcast
How to reduce the embodied carbon of your new home – House Planning Help Podcast
Chris Magwood, a director at the Endeavour Centre in Canada, explains the importance of embodied carbon and how building with plant-based materials...
Construction & Renovations – Practical(ly) Zero Waste Podcast
Geneva Park Sustainable Cabin
Endeavour's Sustainable New Construction program for 2019 is working with Geneva Park, a YMCA camp, to help them create Canada's greenest cottage...
Carbon drawdown now!
Carbon drawdown now! Endeavour's Chris Magwood began researching the embodied carbon of building materials while working on the book Making Better...
Healthy, zero carbon accessory dwelling unit
In 2018, we undertook an urban renovation project in downtown Peterborough, Ontario. The city had just adjusted its by-laws to allow for secondary...
Zero House Slide Show
Zero House was Endeavour's most ambitious project. Designed by students and faculty of the Architectural Science program at Ryerson University,...
Sustainable Renovations in Canadian Contractor magazine
Canadian Contractor magazine put Endeavour's Sustainable Renovations program on the cover of their November/December 2018 issue. The article gives a...
Building for climate drawdown
Endeavour Centre is committed to helping reverse climate change by creating buildings that are carbon capture and storage devices. Our buildings...
Waste wood structural columns
Waste wood structural columns There is an incredible amount of “waste” wood that is thrown into landfills or otherwise left to rot because it...
Tire pier foundation
Tire pier foundation Used car and truck tires are a waste dilemma in our society. Why not put these tires to use as structural elements in our...
Prefabricated straw bale wall panels
Prefabricated straw bale walls Endeavour has a long history of working with prefabricated straw bale wall panels. We were the first to make panels...
Round straw bale columns
Round straw bale columns Many people use small, square straw bales to make buildings, but we used the big round bales as load-bearing columns in a...
What Makes Zero House – BiPVco Solar Modules
This is one in a series of blog posts about the materials we’ve chosen to build our Zero House project… What are BiPVco Flextron solar modules?...
What Makes Zero House – 475 High Performance Building Supply
This is one in a series of blog posts about the materials we’ve chosen to build our Zero House project… What is 475 High Performance...
What Makes Zero House – Inline Fiberglass Windows
This is one in a series of posts about the materials we’ve chosen to build our Zero House project… What are Inline Fiberglass windows? Inline is a...
Zero House Goals – Zero Construction Waste
The making (and renovating) of buildings generates vast amounts of waste. The purchaser of a new home doesn't typically see the mess that's made,...
Zero House Goals – Zero Toxin Living Space
The toxicity of buildings is a subject that is not much discussed, but it is definitely one worth thinking about. Most homeowners seem to assume...
What Makes Zero House – GRK Fasteners
This is one in a series of blog posts about the materials we’ve chosen to build our Zero House project… What are GRK Fasteners? GRK makes a range...
What Makes Zero House – Applegate Cellulose Insulation
This is one in a series of blog posts about the materials we've chosen to build our Zero House project... What is Applegate Cellulose Insulation?...
Zero House Goals – Zero Utility Costs & Net Zero Energy
Key among the goals for Zero House are a pair of interconnected ideas: zero utility costs for the homeowner and net zero energy use for the building...
What Makes Zero House – SonoClimat Eco4 Fiberboard
This is one in a series of blog posts about the materials we've chosen to build our Zero House project... What is SonoClimat Eco4? SonoClimat is an...
What Makes Zero House – ReWall EssentialBoard
This is one in a series of blog posts about the materials we've chosen to build our Zero House project... What is ReWall EssentialBoard? ReWall is a...
Zero House Goals – Carbon Sequestration in Building Materials
The Zero House project has three key goals: zero net energy use, zero toxins and zero carbon footprint. This blog will look at the notion of zero...
Zero House prefab wall panels
The Zero House is designed to have zero net energy use, zero carbon footprint and zero toxins. But it is also designed to be completely...
Zero House: Innovative Green Building
The Zero House innovative green building project is based on four simple concepts: Zero net energy use Zero carbon footprint Zero toxins Zero...
Jumbo bales and hempcrete – together!
Fifth Wind Farms wanted to create a building that could reach the energy efficiency requirements of the Passive House standard without resorting to...
SNC Class of 2016
Endeavour's full time Sustainable New Construction program always attracts a diverse group of students, and 2016 is certainly no exception! People...
Building a roof on the ground
At Endeavour, we tackle some fairly large building projects with our Sustainable New Construction program. This means completing a entire building...
Light clay straw insulation
On April 10, a workshop at Endeavour led participants through the theory and practice of making wall insulation from light clay straw (also known as...
Hempcrete developments
On April 9, a workshop at Endeavour brought participants together to explore hempcrete insulation materials. The workshop looked at well-used...
Building Officials as Environmental Champions
After almost a decade of working with the "objective based" building code (introduced nationally in 2006), we have had many opportunities to explore...
Ecological Building: From Fringe to Almost-Mainstream, 1996-2016
Maybe the Weirdoes Weren’t So Weird After All 2016 marks the 20th year since the idea of building houses with straw bales completely transformed my...
Top 5 Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footrprint at Home
The climate talks in Paris have ended with an unprecedented climate agreement that saw 195 nations sign a commitment to make substantial greenhouse...
Repairing Clay Plaster (with toilet paper?…)
Questions concerning the durability of clay plaster - especially as an exterior plaster, and even more especially in cold and wet northern climates...
What Makes a Building Product “Green”?
The Green Glut The past 10 years have seen an explosion of building products being marketed to designers and builders as "green." As the immense...
Circle Organic Farm Tour
In 2013, Endeavour's Sustainable New Construction program undertook the building of a large farm building for Circle Organic Farm in Millbrook,...
Product Review: Allback Linseed Stain Wax
At Endeavour, we are kind of obsessed with finding good-quality, non-toxic finishes for common household surfaces. Many homes have a lot of wood...
Why We Love Earthen Floors
Take one step - especially with bare feet - on an earthen floor and chances are you will be sold on the idea. You will want an earthen floor of your...
Getting Rid of Radon
Those of you who follow Endeavour's work will know that we take indoor environment quality very seriously. Every material that comes into one of our...
Root Cellar Reports
In 2012, Endeavour helped to build a subterranean earthbag root cellar for the The Seasoned Spoon Cafe at Trent University. It was a fascinating...
All About Natural Paint
There is no easier or better place to shift away from toxic petrochemicals and move to using natural, non-toxic options than with the paint we put...
A PassiveHouse Heating System
Passive House is a building certification program that focuses on dramatically improving the energy efficiency of new and renovated buildings....
Net metering PV now functional
The use of photovoltaics (PV) to generate electricity has been a common element on most of our projects. PV is affordable, easy to install, nearly...
Final “Report Card” for Canada’s Greenest Home
In 2012, we had a vision of creating a spec-home on an urban infill lot in central Peterborough, a home that would aspire to the very highest...
Thatch roof update
In 2009, we undertook the first permitted thatch roof in Ontario as part of the Camp Kawartha Environment Centre on the nature preserve grounds at...
Canada’s Greenest Home Lowers Embodied Energy by 50%
In an Endeavour post about a year ago, I examined the concept of embodied energy in buildings. You can see that post here. To quote the summary of...
Building bottle wall features
Many natural buildings feature bottles incorporated into walls. Bottle walls add colourful light and whimsy to a wall and open up all kinds of great...
Canada’s Greenest Home uses 71% less energy!
We set out with some pretty lofty goals for our Canada's Greenest Home project. The idea was to use only the healthiest, most ecologically friendly...
How to build with earthbag
Earthbag building is one of Endeavour's favourite building techniques. We've used it for foundations on many projects, and have built an entire...
Thinking about sustainable building
There is a remarkable paradox when it comes to introducing new technologies, in construction or any other field. We expect new ideas or technologies...
Building with Hempcrete or Hemp-Lime
A group of lucky participants was treated to an excellent weekend workshop on building with hempcrete (or hemp-lime), led by UK architect and...
Finishing the straw-cell wall system
Our office building project for the Trillium Lakelands Teachers' Union features a straw bale wall system that combines conventional wood stud...
Air tightness details for straw bale walls
Straw bale wall systems have been touted for 20+ years now as a way to achieve higher insulation values with lower environmental impacts. And,...
Stop motion straw bale and earth plastering
Sustainable New Construction 2014 student Ben Bowman set up his camera and took some great sequences of the construction process at our teachers'...
High-straw earthen plaster recipe
It's no secret that we love clay plasters at Endeavour, and the best case scenario is being able to use a clay soil right from the building site. It...
New system for straw bale walls
Over 20 years of building with straw bales, I have constantly experimented with new ways to integrate bale walls into buildings that are simple,...
Craning a Finished Roof
Building a roof can be intimidating, and statistically the most dangerous element of making a building. The heights involved add risk, time and a...
Paperstone countertops at Canada’s Greenest Home
We spent a lot of time considering our countertop choices for Canada's Greenest Home. It's an area with many options, and many factors to weigh when...
Framing systems for teachers’ union office
Wood framing is a conventional building practice that we use quite frequently at Endeavour. For the teachers' union project, we are using wood...
Earthbag foundation for floor system
In addition to the Durisol stem wall foundation, our project for the teachers' union office includes two long sections of earthbag foundation to...
Helical pier foundation
The timber frame portion of our project for the teachers' union rests outside the walls of the building, requiring individual foundation piers for...
A Durisol stem wall foundation
Over the past few years, we have turned to Durisol (now Nexcem) insulated concrete forms (ICFs) several times. They offer an attractive blend of...
Off-grid job site power system
Many sustainable building projects are built in places where it is difficult or impossible to access electrical grid power, and this necessitates...
Timber frame for teachers’ union
Timber framing is an important building system for any sustainable builders' palette of options, and we always try to include a timber framing...
Natural Finishes for Canada’s Greenest Home
One of the goals of the Canada's Greenest Home project is to show that a very green home can be built by any contractor with the desire to do so. As...
Using an Induction Range
When it came to choosing a cooking appliance for Canada's Greenest Home, we were faced with a conflict in approach. Most homes that aim for net zero...
Project Update: A large, low-energy root cellar
Our 2013 project at Circle Organic farm involved constructing a large, root cellar-style vegetable storage facility attached to the vegetable...
Waste Wood Structural Columns
There is an incredible amount of “waste” wood that is thrown into landfills or otherwise left to rot because it is not long enough to be used...
Home-made hydraulic lime plaster
One of the most exciting elements of the Circle Organic farm project is the home-made hydraulic lime plaster we successfully used on the interior...
Framing and Bales for the Farm
We do a lot of straw bale work at Endeavour, but it's such a normal part of what we do that there haven't been any posts that show us putting in...
First Ever Poraver Foundation
Followers of the Endeavour blog may remember that last year we used an innovative new insulation based on Poraver expanded glass beads as our sub...
Making a Rubble Trench Foundation
Rubble trench foundations offer a means by which to connect a building to frost-free ground in cold climates without resorting to the use of a...
Hypar Roof Workshop with George Nez
On July 3rd, the students at Endeavour's Sustainable New Construction program took part in a day long workshop focused on building hyper-parabolic...
The Da Vinci Roof
Inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's self-supporting bridge we decided to build a roof shelter for our work area to protect us from the elements. The...
Another Cord In The Wall
A cordwood wall is made of mortar (in this case a clay-based cob) and cord wood. We began with a rock wall foundation to secure the cordwood and cob...
Solar Hot Water Shower
Solar Hot Water System Our outdoor shower makes excellent use of a handmade solar hot water system. This is a simple system that will supply hot...
Reciprocal Roof
What is a reciprocal roof? 'Reciprocal frames consist of linear members which are mutually supported and interlocking, forming either a flat,...
Did We Build Canada’s Greenest Home?
Canada’s Greenest Home is about to go on the market, and as we switch out of construction mode and into the process of selling the home on its...
Managing Job Site “Waste” a Sustainable Building Necessity
In the province of Ontario in 2002, "1.2 million tones of solid waste were generated from the construction and demolition sector" (Development of...
Clay Finish Plasters
Natural clay finish plasters add an unparalleled beauty to any home, and it was exciting to apply these plasters to Canada's Greenest Home this...
FSC Hardwood Flooring
One of the great difficulties of building a sustainable home is figuring out what products are really "green" and which are just greenwashed...
Natural Whitewash is the First Finish at CGH
One of the most important features of Canada's Greenest Home will be the use of nothing but non-toxic finishes for every surface in the home. Many...
Why it’s hard to make a really energy efficient house…
Those of you following this blog will know that a lot of time and energy has gone into making Canada's Greenest Home as air tight and energy...
“Breaking” the Air (tightness) Barrier
After our somewhat disappointing blower door test last week, we threw some mud at the walls (well, we placed it carefully around the edges of the...
Blower Door Test #1
As those of you who've been reading this blog will know, we've worked hard to make Canada's Greenest Home as air tight as possible. In fact, we're...
Siga Tapes Make Things Airtight
As those who have followed the progress of Canada’s Greenest Home will know, we are taking the air tightness of this house very seriously. A great...
Air Source Heat Pump
Among the many challenges involved in meeting the Living Building Challenge standard for Canada's Greenest Home, one of the biggest was how to heat...
Solar Hot Water Installation
The south facing roof surface of Canada's Greenest Home just got busier capturing the energy of the sun with the installation of our solar hot water...
“Smart” Vapour Barriers?
One of the most important – but least glamorous – of the features of Canada’s Greenest Home (and most natural and sustainable buildings) is the...
Triple pane windows installed
Choosing high quality windows is a very important part of our strategy to make Canada's Greenest Home as energy efficient as possible. There is a...
Electric Vehicle Future?
The pace of change in buildings and building design has been rapid over the past decade, and the changes are likely to be more dramatic in the near...