Last fall, Rodeo Fine Homes broke ground on a Newmarket development, touting it as “Cana­da’s Greenest Homes.” A collection of 34 houses on 40-, 45- and 60-foot lots, they will be built to LEED platinum standards, the highest available environmental certification for new construction. Top-end models—like the 3,500-square-foot Rainforest, complete with a three-car garage—will list for up to $800,000. After Rodeo launched its ad campaign, the company received almost 1,000 expressions of interest.

LEED, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, may be the source of some of the fervour. It’s gaining a reputation not just for reducing carbon footprints, but also for ensuring better building practices. And let’s be realistic: the world is never going to be populated by eco-activists alone, so an association with quality construction may be LEED’s key to widespread adoption. Thus, the sudden greening of the 905. Menkes Developments has a residential project in East Gwillimbury with 126 Energy Star–qualified homes, which means they’re about 30 per cent more energy efficient than the average. Also in Newmarket, Mattamy, Canada’s largest residential builder, is putting up 300 homes that exceed Energy Star standards.

Newmarket councillor John Taylor was one of the callers who expressed interest in the Rodeo development. He compares the new homes to a hybrid car: “You’re paying a premium to be an early adopter,” he says, “but you’re also helping move things that are largely marginal at this point into the mainstream.”

He’s right; green homes cost more than their LEED-free cousins, roughly 10 per cent more, but on hybrid cars you’ll pay a premium of closer to 20 per cent. And, unlike cars, houses appreciate in value (assuming the market doesn’t tank), so you’ll likely get your investment back on resale­.

If eco-suburbia sounds counterintuitive, that’s because it is. By definition, suburban subdivisions contribute to sprawl. Most require new infrastructure. All necessitate the extensive use of automobiles and building on land that used to grow crops or trees. For all its guilt-reducing glories, LEED can be misleading. Because it’s based on a points system, developments can score high and even receive platinum approval without adhering to traditionally held eco-tenets like densification and proximity to public transit.

Gord Perks, who was a full-time environmental activist before being elected to Toronto council, has watched the green market closely. “One of the dangerous trends in the huge environmental excitement of the past two years,” he says, “is the idea that buying a sustainable fill-in-the-blank—car, house, lifestyle—is a similar decision to changing from fall colours to spring colours. It’s not. You can’t consume your way out of an environmental crisis.”