A Celebration of Life: Happy International Day of Happiness!

Image:  Momentification. A celebration of Life: 8 days of growing a new leaf.

A new leaf arrivals in our office EcoSystem.

Photos: wobuilt @ 2014

On the first day of spring which is also the International Day of Happiness: a celebration of life.

As we had such a cold winter, there are no buds on trees and bushes outside yet; but we have timely leaf arrivals in our office EcoSystem.


This plant has not produced any leafs for about a year.

It was a potted plant rooted in soil, but once transplanted into our hydroponic EcoSystem (which by the way also cleans the turtle tank) it started growing again.

So we welcome spring with our EcoSystem, a happy occasion.

Martina Ernst
President/CEO and Co-founder of Wo-Built Inc
416-402-2679

Momentification. A celebration of Life: 8 days of growing a new leaf.

A new leaf arrivals in our office EcoSystem.

Photos: @wobuilt

One-Stop Shop for Home Buying and Renovation Seven Issues You Face and the Solution to Your Dream Home

Image: Wo-Built & Casavant Make Your Home Renovation & Buying Process Easy

Image Credit: Microsoft Office.com: Hands passing model house

We know all too well having the home of your dreams is no simple matter:  whether you’re buying a new home, renovating your existing home, or plan to purchase and renovate a resale home.

Here are 7 issues to consider when it comes to buying/renovating an existing home:

1. 1. Can you afford it, really?
2. 2. How will you find it?
3. 3. How will you know that the home that is being sold to you is the one you’re actually buying? (That is, what aren’t you being told about it? And don’t think a home inspector is the answer.)
4. 4. What about the renovations? How much are they REALLY going to cost?
5. 5. What is lurking behind the walls, in the attic, underneath the basement that no one has bargained for, and that no self-respecting contractor will “let slide?”
6. 6. Are you planning on making a basement apartment? Do you have the funds to, as Mike Holmes would say, “make it right?” Or, will you fall into the trap as so many homeowners do, and get a cheap contractor in to do a cut-rate half-ass job resulting in yet another illegal second suite?
7. 7. Do you want to have an indoor rainforest ecosystem from PeapodLife, complete with a fully integrated suite of sustainable home management and green technologies? Would you like your indoor ecosystem to connect with landscaping, eco-pond, and permaculture garden?

The Solution:

Wo-Built has joined the Casavant group of top-tier Realtors, Financial Institutions, Insurance Companies, and Grade-A Contractors to deliver you, the consumer, the world’s first fully integrated home buying, financing, renovation and ownership system.

Casavant’s program offers advantages to each stakeholder group mentioned above. Its vertically integrated system means:

• Consumers like you have a one-stop, no-haggle, no-fuss, headache-free home ownership experience. No more hunting endlessly for homes and financing; no stress guessing quality of homes and costs of renovations; no more dealing with cut-rate and half-baked contractors.
• Realtors have business sent to them and get to participate in revolutionary programs which help alleviate the dire need for affordable home ownership and available social housing units.
• Contractors have business sent to them, get to help more people become home owners responsibly (NO SUB-PRIME MORTGAGE SCHEMES HERE!), build/convert/upgrade desperately needed affordable rental inventory, all without dealing with emotional home owners, and potentially volatile disputes, thanks to professional third-party verification by certified Architectural Engineers.
• Financial Institution and Insurance Companies are able to get more high-quality homes and home-owners on their books.
• The Government gets more tax revenues and alleviates pressures on the rental and affordable housing markets.
• IN SHORT, EVERYONE WINS.

For more information, visit http://www.casavantcorp.com

Wo-Built is proud to be a part of Casavant’s revolutionary paradigm shift. And, we are happy that through this program, our revolutionary new paradigm in buildings, PeapodLife becomes INSTANTLY AFFORDABLE and ACCESSIBLE to almost EVERYONE.

Win-win-WIN, indeed.

Toronto Talk: Trees Inside - Indoor Ecosystems: November 7

Screenshot: Meetup: Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems;
Thursday, November 7, 2013 at The Inner Garden of 401 Richmond;
Unit 384, Third floor, 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 1R8
Credit: meetup.com: My Personal Tree - Tree Planting Events - Toronto, GTA, ON

We would like to invite everybody to attend this exiting talk about ecosystems:

Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems

When: Thursday, November 7, 2013

Time: 6:30 PM

Where: The Inner Garden of 401 Richmond

Location: Unit 384, Third floor, 401 Richmond Street W, Toronto, ON M5V 1R8 (Location/Map)
401 Richmond Street West is located on Richmond just east of Spadina Avenue.

Come out and hear from speakers Martina Ernst and Attila Lendvai on the topic of indoor ecosystems.

About the Speakers

Martina Ernst is the President and Co-Founder of PeapodLife, www.peapodlife.com, a Division of Wo-Built Inc and a director of Genesis Eco Fund. She is a design & build specialist who helps businesses improve the quality of their work spaces. Her education, both in architecture and business, and her 25-year building industry expertise give her a unique approach to designing spaces with a balanced emphasis on aesthetics, practicality and profitability. Featured on Extraordinary Women TV, the radio shows Small Business Big Ideas Show and From a Woman's Perspective, Martina's passion is to provide the healthiest indoor environment possible for her clients.

Attila Lendvai is the Co-Founder and Project Director of PeapodLife, www.peapodlife.com, a Division of Wo-Built Inc and a director of Genesis Eco Fund.  He's a passionate social entrepreneur with one eye on the big-picture; the other on the bottom-line. Atilla has 20 years of international experience as a consultant and manager of both for-profit and non-profit ventures, working with companies such as IBM, ABB, Gas de France, Nova Scotia Power, Georgian Bancorp and Emilio & Coco. A seasoned speaker and emcee, Attila is also a blogger and author of The Attlas Project - SEE the World in a New Light, and contributing author of Competitive Intelligence and Global Business. Attila was recently interviewed on AllTalkTV.com with David Grossman and is a regular contributor to Greenaddition.blogspot.ca. Attila has made PeapodLife his life's mission to bring clean air indoors to serve humanity in a deep and meaningful way.

This is a pay what you can event. Proceeds go to the Genesis Eco Fund and upcoming tree-planting Meetup events.

About the Meetup Group

My Personal Tree - Tree Planting Events - Toronto, GTA, ON
This is a group for anyone interested in meeting people and making a difference in protecting the natural environment for the future. All skill levels welcome. We started this group to connect with people interested in attending tree-planting events in Toronto and around Ontario.

Through these reforestation projects, and using tree saplings and seeds contributed by people/organizations from all walks of life, we make our best possible use of resources, people and knowledge to proactively protect the environment and offset carbon emissions.

This Meetup is run by a co-counder of My Personal Tree, a new Toronto start-up. Find out more about us at www.mypersonaltree.com.

Want to attend? Please RSVP here: meetup.com: Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems

Photo: PeapodLife's Booth at The Property Show

Martina Ernst, President and Co-Founder of PeapodLife and

Attila Lendvai, Co-Founder and Project Director of PeapodLife

PeapodLife (www.peapodlife.com), a Division of Wo-Built Inc (www.wobuilt.com)

2013 @ wobuilt.com

Come out and get some insight from PeapodLife Social Entrepreneurs and GenesisEcoFund.org Directors Martina Ernst and Attila Lendvai on things that you have never thought of before, and get some knowledge of ecosystems in the company of a high-order rainforest ecosystem!

links:

blogTO: Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems
genesisecofund/blog: Trees Inside: Talk + Meet n’ Greet a Real Indoor Ecosystem In Person
greenaddition/blog: 3 Secrets to Using Nature to Grow Your Business: Amazing New Keynote for Green Business Associations!

"Bringing the outdoors in" is Our Kind of Language!

Image Montage by Wo-Built: Wo-Built and PeapodLife Logos + “pPodLite” Rainforest Ecosystem alongside Full-page Article from The Toronto Sun’s New Homes and Condos Section: “Bringing the outdoors in” by Erica Geldman, “Condo Chic.” 

Source: virtual.homes-extra.ca: Toronto Sun: New Homes & Condos: Condo Living

"Bringing the outdoors in" - The Toronto Sun Lives up to its Name

"The Light which shines in the eye is really the Light of the heart."

~ Rumi, Ancient Sufi Poet

Source: allgreatquotes.com: Love Poems of Jalal ad-Din Rumi

We love light. Natural, full-spectrum, warm, inviting, comforting, Vitamin-D-enriching, plant-nourishing, soul-rejuvenating, glorious light.

So here’s a shout-out to Erica Gelman of The Toronto Sun. Her recent “Condo Chic” column in the paper’s New Homes & Condos section (Friday July 19th & Sunday July 21st, 2013), simply entitled: “Bringing the outdoors in” was right up Wo-Built’s alley.

Erica’s argument in a nutshell?...

“...we can’t always rely on Mother Nature to provide us with ideal outdoor weather. … Why not design spaces that allow you to bring the outdoors in and enjoy summer living all year round [and]…rejuvenate in your own oasis all year long.” 

~ Erica Gelman, “Bringing the outdoors in, ” Toronto Sun

Wo-Built couldn’t agree with you more, Erica!  That’s why we began PeapodLife Building EcoSystems & Technology: to create Advanced Human Habitat that makes your home literally feel like it’s situated, not just in the woods, but in a rainforest!

Erica suggests “choosing pieces that reflect the outdoors will automatically refresh your home,” even if it means simply “having fresh flowers on your kitchen table.” (Erica Gelman, “Bringing the outdoors in, ” Toronto Star) PeapodLife Rainforest EcoSystems do much more than that! Just look at a smaller “pPodLite” systems:

Image: PeapodLife Composite photo rendering: “pPodLite” Rainforest EcoSystem spruces up drab interior.

Bromeliads, orchids, and lush moss leap from the one-of-a-kind Living Wall Ecosystem, filling your senses with a symphony of colour while trickling waterfalls gently fill your ears with the sounds of life.

All the while, the high-order ecosystem scrubs the air of toxins, allergens, VOC’s and those nasty “I’m stuck inside a building” aromas that can ruin your outdoors-indoors experience. Ecosystems produce air naturally, and can make your indoor air quality up to 10 times fresher and cleaner than outside!

If you’ve got the budget and are looking for something a little more dramatic, an addition or complete re-design and re-build of your home is no problem for Wo-Built. We specialize in taking older Toronto properties and giving them spectacular contemporary overhauls: 

Image: Complete Overhaul & Second Storey Addition Before & After by Wo-Built

As you can see from the before and after photos, above, Wo-Built is known for delivering:

• High ceilings
• Lots of natural light
• Plenty of practical, useable space
• Innovative designs (no cookie-cutter approach here)
• Pleasant design & build experience with a woman-owned company

Image: Kitchen Makeover Before & After by Wo-Built

For more information on how Wo-Built can help you get more outdoors, indoors, visit our website.

To literally get the best of nature into your home, office, spa, etc., visit peapodlife.com today.

Livegreen Toronto Festival 2013 Offer

Montage: Live Green Toronto Festival

Image Credit: livegreentoronto.ca

It is this time of year again: the LiveGreen Toronto Festival is back. At Yonge-Dundas Square on July 27 between 11am and 9pm.

There will be a street market, kids zone, BEER GARDEN!!! And lots of free concerts.

Last year was a great turnout and we had a lot of interest for our PeapodLife idea.

Sadly, this year we are unable to participate, but we have a great offer.

Image: Ppodlite units: Muro and Angolo Rainforest Ecosystems

2013 @ peapodlife.com

Until the end of August we have a special pricing for our Ppodlite units: Muro and Angolo Rainforest Ecosystems. LiveGreen Toronto Members get two year of Biocare included in the price, a value of $10,000.

Have a great day at the festival!

Martina Ernst

Poster: Live Green Toronto Festival

Yonge-Dundas Square, July 27, 2013; 11 am - 9 pm

livegreentoronto.ca

Image Credit:  City of Toronto: Live Green Toronto Festival

Practical Steps to Create a Small Indoor Ecosystem: Lunch and Learn Workshop, July 9

Poster: Luncheon: Practical Steps to Create Small Indoor Ecosystem

When: Tuesday, July 9, 2013, 12-2 pm

Where: Chef of India Restaurant

Location: 1415 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4T 1Y7

Attend: http://2013jul9-eorg.eventbrite.ca/

We would like to invite everybody to attend this exiting lunch and learn workshop.

Luncheon: Practical Steps to Create a Small Indoor Ecosystem

Tuesday, July 9, 2013, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Chef of India Restaurant

1415 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario M4T 1Y7

Here is some event details from Eventbrite site:

The Lunch & Learn: Hydroponics Plants for House Ecosystem (cost $20)

Due to great interest following the June 11 presentation by PeapodLife, we are bringing back Wolfgang Amelung, Indoor Rainforest Ecosystem Inventor, to elaborate on the practical steps needed to create small indoor ecosystem projects.

Learn easy-to-implement tips to begin transforming the potted plants in your home from generators of harmful VOC’s into little engines of living air purification.

Please register at no charge, we are not charging for the workshop but only for lunch expenses.

Menu: All you can eat from large Buffet of Indian vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. Exclusive items, such as whole-wheat tandoori Nan, bean sprout salads and no-chili lentil curry.

Cost: $20 inclusive of taxes and service charges.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me:

Max Haroon
Founder, Life Transformation Institute
info@life-transformation-institute.org
Tel: 416-891-4937

Partners in Project Green: Reaching New Heights in Sustainable Value Creation

Collage: GTAA Partners in Project Green 2013 & Strategies for The Green Economy

Image Credits: GTAA Partners in Project Green: Partners in Project Green 2013 AGM - Beyond low hanging fruit: reaching new heights in sustainable value creation 

Joel Makower: Strategies for the Green Economy

"A growing number of companies are finding pathways to a more sustainable future. No one tells this story better than Joel Makower, whose Strategies for the Green Economy charts the course for a new era of business, one in which forward-looking companies are creating products and services that aren't just greener, but serve their customers better. This is critical reading for anyone who seeks to understand where tomorrow's economic winners are going."

~ William K. Reilly, founding partner, Aqua International Partners, and former administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Source: Joel Makower: Strategies for the Green Economy

Partners in Project Green to Announce New Strategic Direction at 2013 Annual General Meeting

Partners in Project Green 2013 AGM

Beyond low hanging fruit: reaching new heights in sustainable value creation 

Thursday, June 6, 2013, 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Location: Hilton Garden Inn Toronto Airport - Built Green from the Bottom Up!
Address: 3311 Caroga Drive, Mississauga, ON L4V 1A3

JOIN PARTNERS IN PROJECT GREEN FOR ITS ANNUAL COCKTAIL RECEPTION TO:

Network with fellow business leaders
Launch Partners in Project Green into the future with its new strategic direction
Reach new heights in business excellence

Partners in Project Green invites you to join us as we celebrate the achievements of companies in the Pearson Eco-Business Zone during 2012 and learn about the new direction Partners in Project Green is taking with the completed Strategy Update.

Keynote Address: Joel Makower
Chairman and Executive Editor of GreenBiz Group Inc.
Author, Strategies for the Green Economy

Joel Makower provides insight and inspiration about how companies — and their customers and stakeholders — are shifting their view of how sustainability fits in the business agenda.

Sustainable business has come a long way, from "doing well by doing good" and "doing the right thing" to addressing risk, increasing resilience in a dynamic world, and serving as a platform for innovation. At the same time, a convergence of technologies is enabling companies and industries to accelerate efficiencies while creating new products and services.

For more information, please contact Alexandra Papaiconomou at apapaiconomou@trca.on.ca or by phone at 416-661-6600 ext. 5930.

GTAA Partners in Project Green

About Partners in Project Green
Partners in Project Green is a growing community of businesses working together to green their bottom line by creating an internationally-recognized Eco-Business Zone around Toronto Pearson.  Through new forms of business to business collaboration, Partners in Project Green delivers programming that helps businesses reduce energy and resource costs, uncover new business opportunities, and address everyday operational challenges in a green and cost effective manner. www.partnersinprojectgreen.com


About Joel Makower
For 25 years, Joel has been a well-respected voice on business, the environment, and the bottom line. The Associated Press has called him "The guru of green business practices." In addition to to his role in GreenBiz Group Inc., Joel also serves as a senior strategist for GreenOrder, a sustainability management consultancy, and is co-founder of Clean Edge, a cleantech research firm. He is author of more than a dozen books, including Strategies for the Green Economy. He also writes “Two Steps Forward” (readjoel.com), a popular blog on green business.

Photo: Launching Partners in Project Green

Members of the Partners in Project Green Steering Committee launch Partners in Project Green.

From right to left – Eric Lange (Lange Transportation), Neil Lacheur (Bentall Real Estate), Ernie Springolo (Bayer Inc.), Anne Tennier (Maple Leaf Foods), John Coyne (Unilever), Bob Delaney (MPP Mississauga Streetsville), Fergie Devins (Molson), Maria Augimeri (City of Toronto), John Gerretsen (Ontario Minister of the Environment), Susan Fennell (City of Brampton Mayor), Emil Kolb (Region of Peel Chair), Brian Denney (TRCA), Lloyd McCoomb (GTAA), Carman McClelland (Brampton Board of Trade), Sheldon Leiba (Mississauga Board of Trade), Mark O’Connor (Kuehne and Nagel) and Toby Lennox (GTAA).

Image Credit: Partners in Project Green

links:
wobuilt.com/blog: Gala Salutes Green Innovation and Inspires Consumer Education - Keynote Speaker Raises the Importance of Greening Consumers "in the Home"
Wo-Built attended the annual gala awards ceremony of Partners in Project Green (PPG). This networking organization helps businesses reduce energy and resource costs, uncover new business opportunities, and address everyday operational challenges in a green and cost-effective manner.

wobuilt.com/blog: Carbon Neutral Neighbourhood Project Launch in Toronto

trca.on.ca: Partners in Project Green to Announce New Strategic Direction at 2013 Annual General Meeting
Toronto and Region Conservation for The Living City: New Sustainable Business Leaders Emerge from the Pearson Eco-Business Zone
Media Advisory June 04, 2013

newswire.ca: Media Advisory - Partners in Project Green to Announce New Strategic Direction at 2013 Annual General Meeting

GTAA Partners in Project Green: Partners in Project Green 2013 AGM - Beyond low hanging fruit: reaching new heights in sustainable value creation