April Newsletter

April 
Newsletter

It finally feels like Spring is upon us. Spending time on location at the Aspen Grove site this weekend allowed me to experience this first hand: the birds were singing and the buds on the deciduous trees were just about emerging. We are seeing new life and new ideas during this phase of pause. Aspen Grove is reflecting and exploring ways to enhance our development going forward. We are using this breathing space to our advantage by taking this opportunity to dig deeper into our environmental strategy and to make a number of design modifications. 
 
One of the major changes involves the building foundation. Essentially, the new design works more appropriately with the slope of the land and has numerous benefits. Without getting too technical, the redesign has improved both space utility and energy efficiency while reducing the amount of concrete and steel required, both energy intensive materials to manufacture. We believe these changes will lower overall costs, lower the carbon footprint of the building and provide the units with an even better layout. Win, win, win! 
 
We will be officially launching these changes by updating floor plans on the website, and as subscribers you will be the first to know! Stay tuned.

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Spring is a special time for aspen as in the spring it is evident which aspen trees are the same plant. If you look at our aspen stands you will see some groups of trees, have no leaves while others leaves are almost fully leafed out, this is an easy way to see quite how large some aspen clones are. The aspen flower are now done their part in reproduction and feeding hungry pollinators and now the female flowers are busy producing seed with each cluster producing around a thousand seeds! Aspen seeds are one of life's miracles, if you have the opportunity to collect some of its fluff, place it on moist soil and watch it germinate in as little as one hour. Many native plants take close to a year for their seeds to germinate but aspen and willows (both closely related) germinate under a short watch. These seeds readily colonise burnt out forests and other disturbances and serve a huge role in fixing carbon after these often massive disturbances. Aspen stands are known by firefighters anecdotal as 'natural asbestos' as they tend not to burn in wildfires - this makes trembling aspen an ideal tree to have growing near your home.
 
Image: 'Aspen with catkins' Mike Keefer

COVID-19 has seen a dramatic switch in many elements of daily life, with work life seeing one of the biggest. Our team at Aspen Grove has shifted to working remotely like so many other businesses worldwide and we feel lucky to do so with minimal impact on our day to day business operations and productivity. Lucky businesses in the professional sectors are successfully adapting to these new virtual times and it provides evidence that many teams can continue this shift of remote work once the pandemic is finally over. Virtual workers produce far fewer emissions, live safer lives and such work is ideally suited for Aspen Grove's elegant and energy efficient homes in beautiful Rossland.
 
Please read our article exploring how Aspen Grove could support healthy work and personal life going forward. 
 
Image: 'Daily commute in Rossland' Don Conway

Future Trends

We care about the ecology of the environment, not only of the land outside, but inside your home as well. For this reason, Aspen Grove is including the installation of HRVs (Heat Recovery Ventilators) to provide a healthy indoor environment. 
 
A HRV acts like lungs of your home, pulling in fresh air and expelling stale air. The process drastically improves indoor air quality, especially important to allergy sufferers, but also manages poor quality air entering the building during wildfire season for example. With an air tight building envelope, it is easy to control the air that moves in and out of your home. Circulating air can be humidity monitored and filtered, allowing the elimination of harmful particles such as smoke or allergens. HRVs therefore protect homes against pollutants and condensation, keeping the body and the home healthy and free of potential health problems related to mould and rot.
 
HRVs benefit your wallet and the environment. Not only do they capture and recycle heat from other sources, in our case from a heat pump, HRVs are also designed to be economic, running constantly using very little energy.  
 
Aspen Grove believes HRVs are an important addition to a happy and healthy home. If you really want to get to know HRVs, check out this in depth guide provided by BC Housing. 
 
Image: Huckleberry Suite

HRV Guide

With these strange and economic uncertain times, we feel the need to protect both potential Aspen Grove buyers and investors. We will continue to finalise plans while we wait for a more secure economy to release pricing. We thank you for your patience and understanding. We hope for normality in the not so distant future.
 
Image: Aerial shot of Aspen Grove

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