Greening Homes Winter Retreat 2016
More than ten years ago I had a vision to offer homeowners quality design renovations with minimal environmental and health impacts – delivered by an exceptional team.
Flash forward to a weekend in January this year, that team – 21 in total – gathered at the Ecology Retreat Centre in Hockley Valley to take stock of our successes and challenges, bond as a team and plan for the exciting year ahead.
It made me realize that in nine years, we really have come a long way.
A great deal of that success is due to the staff – from operations to crew. This is why I invest in them – whether by sending a construction manager to an important conference that covers the latest in non-toxic building materials or inviting everyone – and their families – to our annual winter retreat.
This investment pays off. At the retreat just two years ago the team wanted to lead a cutting edge deep energy retrofit and we delivered, winning the prestigious Canadian Green Building Award for our Beechwood project just last June!
When everyone wasn’t compiling best building practices and sharing how to advance our mandate throughout all of our projects, we were hitting the toboggan hill and skating with our families, and enjoying delicious vegetation meals. We even braved the snowy woods to have a bonfire (and some of us braved the entire weekend with the sniffles).
Tim and Allison review Greening Homes’ Employee Handbook.
Rogelio makes an earnest point.
Steven and his daughter, Sydney take time out for a photo.
As we weaved between work and play I was reminded, once again, of the talent, insightfulness and passion of our team. Placing them in one room to share ideas is invaluable.
Greening Homes is confronted with a wonderful challenge. The demand for our services is growing, which is building our team. Many of us are spread out over eight to ten projects at a given time, and as a result we don’t see one another often. While re-grouping at monthly socials helps, taking the time to escape the city for a weekend to connect is special and important.
Greening Homes’ annual retreat helps us navigate through changes, challenges and opportunities, always rooting us in our core pillars to ensure that we offer our clients the very best in home renovation that is beautiful, healthy and efficient.
Eben and Pat at the resources table.
Testing best practices for healthy demo.
Little ones on the toboggan hill .
