CMHC呼吁更高密度市区兴建更环保的住宅
CMHC
urges greener homes in denser urban areas
LORI
MCLEOD Globe and Mail Update October 22, 2007 at 4:05 PM EDT
Building greener homes in highly populated urban areas is the key to
reducing the housing sector's impact on the environment, according to a
study by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
Road
transportation accounts for half of all household greenhouse gas emissions,
and downtown living could dramatically lower this by cutting down on car
use, the CMHC said in its 2007 Canadian Housing Observer.
Most
of Canada's population growth is taking place on the outskirts of major
cities, with outlying urban areas up 11.1 per cent in the five-year period
from 2001 to 2006 compared with 4.2 per cent for bigger cities.
In
2006, 81 per cent of Canadians lived in centres of 10,000 or more, compared
with 80 per cent in 2001, an increase of 1.6 million people in five years.
The
fastest growing metropolitan areas from 2001 to 2006 were Barrie, Ont.,
Calgary, Oshawa, Ont., and Edmonton, while the
fastest-growing small towns were mainly located around Vancouver, Toronto
and Montreal.
Building new homes closer to downtown cores and along transportation routes
would help cut down on the use of cars for commuting to work along with
other short-distance trips, the report says.
It
adds that Canadian residential developers are beginning to adopt green
building practices, which are more widespread in countries such as Japan,
Germany and the United States.
Use
of solar heating and low-flow appliances can help residences dramatically
reduce consumption of water and energy. Residential use currently makes up
60 per cent of the country's water consumption and 17 per cent of its energy
use.
Homes
can also recycle “grey water” from the shower and dishwasher for uses
including lawn watering. In its report the CMHC said this building niche is
expected to become the norm in Canada in the future.
Other
findings in the report: - The number of Canadians living in housing that
falls below adequacy, suitability or affordability
standards, has dropped slightly. In 2004, 13.6 per cent of the
population lived in such housing, a small decline from 13.9 per cent in
2002; - Housing-related spending increased by 6.1 per cent in 2006,
contributing $275-billion to the Canadian economy. But debt is also on the
rise, with total outstanding mortgage credit hitting $694-billion last year,
up 10.7 per cent from 2005; - Increased equity in real estate helped fuel an
increase of more than 4 per cent in the average net worth of Canadian
households in the years from 1999 to 2006. The number of households in
Canada that owned a second home or cottage hit 1.1 million in 2006, up
200,000 from 1999.