Earth Day 2023 Update - Normerica's Commitment to Sustainability

Earth Day Sustainability and One Tree Planted Update: Normerica Timber Homes' Commitment to Sustainability and Enhanced Partnership with Reforestation Non-Profit One Tree Planted

Last year, on Earth Day, we announced Normerica Timber Homes’ partnership with One Tree Planted, a non-profit organization focused on global reforestation. In 2022, Normerica committed to planting one tree in our client’s name for every 100-board foot of timber used in a project. We are proud to say in 2022 we donated 1,994 trees! These trees were planted in Ontario as part of the 50 Million Tree Program. This program increases forest cover by making tree planting easier and more affordable for landowners and municipalities. 

With the positive feedback on our One Tree Planted initiative, we are pleased to announce that in 2023 Normerica will double our commitment to One Tree Planted and helping global reforestation. We will plant one tree in the client’s name for every 50-board foot of timber used in a project. Also, you’ll now see that on each of the house plans on our website we’ve indicated how many trees we would plant for each of our house plan designs.

Planting trees is consistently identified as one of the best ways to combat the damaging effects of climate change. Trees help clean the air we breathe, filter the water we drink, and provide habitat to over 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. Trees also provide lasting social impact by providing jobs to over 1.6 billion people, empowering women in underdeveloped nations, and supporting communities devastated by environmental damage.

One Tree Planted has reforestation projects all over the world, including five active projects here in Canada. These projects include planting native trees in Alberta to prevent soil erosion in the boreal forest, replanting trees in British Columbia after the devastating summer 2017 wildfires, and planting trees in Ontario forests that are being pressured by natural resource extraction, encroaching agriculture development, and reduced government funding for its tree-planting program.

Normerica’s commitment to sustainability doesn’t end with our efforts around reforestation and replacing the natural resources we are using to build our houses. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our company’s sustainability whether it’s through improving our product or making improvements around the office. We are regularly engaged with the building science community as we are committed to building high performing buildings. As an example, we have a current initiative of performing blower door tests (a way to measure air tightness in a home) at various build stages of a sampling of our projects to determine areas of improvement in our designs and assemblies. These performance improvements result in a longer last building, a healthier building for the people living it in, and a building that's less expensive to heat and cool. A win for the homeowners and the environment.

Around the office we continue to look at our everyday impact, even in small ways such as a centralized garbage sorting system (no garbage cans at desks to discourage mindless tossing!), thoughtful practices in how many drawings are printed for projects, and the creation of our internal Corporate Social Responsibility team who keeps us thinking about all aspects of sustainability within our organization. We know that social impact is an important facet of sustainability. Normerica remains committed to supporting our employee-led food drives by matching a dollar for each pound of food donated by employees. In 2022 Normerica employees donate 791 pounds of food which resulted in Normerica donating $791 to our local food bank. Normerica employees also organized to sponsor families at Christmas last year. This program supports local families going through difficult times by providing them with a special Christmas in the form of gifts and food. Normerica employees generously raised $1,260. Normerica matched the employee contributions resulting in our team being able to provide $2,520 to deliver Christmases for five families. We are very proud of the generosity of our employees, not only in terms of monetary contribution but in organizing these events and their care for our community.

Are you interested in building a green home? Have a look at this blog post to understand the elements to consider in building a green, sustainable home.

Get inspired by checking out this net zero project featured on Build with Matt Risinger that Normerica participated in bringing to life.

About One Tree Planted

One Tree Planted is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit on a mission to make it simple for anyone to help the environment by planting trees. Their projects span the globe and are done in partnership with local communities and knowledgeable experts to create an impact for nature, people, and wildlife. Reforestation helps to rebuild forests after fires and floods, provide jobs for social impact, and restore biodiversity. Many projects have overlapping objectives, creating a combination of benefits that contribute to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. To learn more, visit onetreeplanted.org.