Recipe for success

The combination of a philosophy built on a team approach with longstanding dedication to the environment, the community and superior quality is obviously a recipe for success. Innovation Building Group, a company based in Whistler, British Columbia, with a focus on sustainable building practices, has expanded its horizons to Golden.

Ned Johnson, founding and managing partner of Innovation Building Group, oversees Innovation's projects there.

A little bit of history

“Throughout my summers at school I fuelled my love of working with my hands by working with a home builder,” said Johnson. “After two years of doing this, I started my own summer business, Summerwood Decks, building just that—decks and fences.”

Johnson graduated from the University of Western Ontario with an economics degree, and he said he couldn't imagine doing anything but carpentry and building. After a few years of working with a builder in Toronto, Johnson combined his desire for a new environment and his love for mountain biking by moving to Whistler. 

“Upon arriving in Whistler, I started working with Nadeau & Sons (Contracting), a fine home builder,” said Johnson. “Rod Nadeau and I soon became partners in the business, eventually changing our name to Innovation Building Group, and we are partners to this day.”

Johnson enjoyed life in Whistler for 12 years, but he and his wife, Rachelle, found themselves yearning for some country life. Rachelle wanted to start a dog rescue venture and have some horses. He said that his partner purchased a piece of land at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort where they were planning on building a lodge, and they needed someone to oversee the project.

“We had travelled to many places across B.C. looking for places to settle and Golden fit the bill perfectly,” said Johnson. “There was work and affordable land, but most of all there were the mountains where we love to bike, hike, ski and now horseback ride.”

About Innovation Building Group

Johnson said that energy efficiency is what Innovation is all about.

“The single most important thing you can do when building a new home is to make it energy-efficient,” said Johnson. “Energy is becoming too expensive and scarce to rely on to heat our homes, so we need to reduce our dependency on energy to make homes comfortable.”

Johnson said that his company builds homes with very high insulation levels, triple-pane windows and less construction materials, using advanced framing techniques; this creates less thermal bridging. In addition, focusing on high-quality indoor air via heat-recovery ventilators reduces reliance on expensive energy.

“Geo exchange and solar power are also great technologies, but their current payback times without bigger rebate incentives can be prohibitive to most pocketbooks,” said Johnson. “The core of what we do is about making the home a sound building envelope that costs less to run (from) the moment you move in.”   

In Golden

“We now live in the Blaeberry Valley west of Golden, at the base of Rogers Pass,” said Johnson. "Five minutes from our home any which way, you feel like you are deep in the wilderness but still close enough to lots of great neighbours and a super friendly town.”

Johnson said it is really the people of Golden that make it so great. After seven years there, Johnson continues to run his construction company and Rachelle has started the Spotted Dog Rescue.

“In the first five years in Golden we built the 48-unit Palliser Lodge, then The Aspens Town Homes,” said Johnson. “During that time we employed up to 35 full-time workers—all from Golden.”

Johnson said since the completion of The Aspens in 2009, Innovation Building Group has scaled back as a reflection of the economy; however, it is continuing to work on some great renovations at the ski hill.

Innovation built Mountains Edge, the first R2000 condominium community in Pemberton, British Columbia. Palliser Lodge also far exceeded the requirements of the R2000 program—the standard used to create the current BuiltGreen checklist. R2000 is how the Canadian Home Builders' Association rates new-home construction. 

“We are getting ready to start a few homes this summer, which we are very excited about,” said Johnson. "Our Whistler business has stayed quite busy developing the Rainbow subdivision, which is a 40-acre land development comprised of single- and multi-family homes.”

Johnson considers Golden to be special because it is a real mountain town filled with down-to-earth, friendly people.

“We are 'Champion' sponsors to Kicking Horse Culture,” said Johnson. “I spent the last two years volunteering on the Civic Centre Redevelopment Committee with a group of locals helping with the renovation of the heritage building,”

Johnson is the local co-ordinator for the Special Olympics in Golden, and Rachelle’s dog rescue, The Spotted Dog, is the only rescue organization in Golden as there is no SPCA for the community.