Nexterra and LivingHomes have partnered to build 4 luxury eco-homes in a quiet setting on a ravine, close to the subway, restaurants and amenities. These homes are greener than your ordinary homes and if you’d like to read more, see an earlier post I wrote about the project.

Nexterra has been working tirelessly to find more suppliers for these wonderful homes. When I was at the Interior Design Show 2011, Nexterra invited a few of us on a tour of five new partners recently added to their list of suppliers. Nexterra has two requirements when selecting suppliers: that the products are designed with high style, and that they help preserve the environment whether that be by avoiding off-gassing of harmful chemicals into the built home, conserving water and/or energy, or choosing materials that have a lower impact on the environment than their traditional counterparts.

WETSTYLE: A Montreal-based company, makes beautiful sinks and tubs by hand. Each tub takes about 6 hours to finish and almost all the work in manufacturing the products is done by hand. All work takes place in the factory in Montreal. In addition to the lower energy use, the factory boasts a waste and scrap rate of less than 1%. Bath furnishings come from the Cube Collection, Be Collection and M Collection. (Note: for a list of retailers for WetStyle, see their website.)

Aqua Brass: Italian-designed faucets and shower heads that anyone would be proud to put in their homes. These faucets are beautiful contemporary pieces that belie their functionality. The Bridge Collection of faucets will be used in the powder room and second floor main bathroom, while the Hey Joe Collection will be used for the master bathroom. The faucets use 1.6 gallons per minute versus a standard flow rate faucet of 2.2 to 3.8 gpm. To find a dealer near you, visit their website.

Benjamin Moore: Natura is a line of zero VOC paints, even when colour tints are added. This last part is important because some paint retailers boast zero VOC paints — but only when the paints aren’t tinted. Natura 100% acrylic paints are water-based, fade resistant, have good coverage and come in finishes of flat, eggshell and semi-gloss. (To find a retailer near you, visit their website.)

CaesarStone: Quartz is the lowest maintenance, most durable of all the stone surfaces. The surface being used for the kitchen island, side gables and countertops also has recycled content which includes crushed quartz, post consumer mirror and windshield glass all of which is being diverted from landfill and reused in this product. Product is Quartz Reflections, #7141. To find a Caesarstone dealer near you visit their website.

Euroline Appliances: Euroline is providing all of the kitchen and laundry appliances for the homes.

• AEG is supplying a cooking tower that includes: A 24″ oven, steam oven, microwave and warming drawer, induction cooktop (induction boils water in under a minute) and dishwasher. The washer and dryer (Lavamat and Lavatherm) are also AEG appliances.
• Liebherr is supplying  24″ (each) refrigerator and freezer which stand side by side. Liebherr is one of the first companies to completely eliminate hazardous chemicals from its manufacturing process.
• Franke: A Swiss company providing the sink and faucet.

Euroline is located at 2278 Speers Road in Oakville, ON.

For more information on the Nexterra/LivingHomes collaboration, visit their website.