Congratulations Warrior Home team, US Department of Energy Competition second-place winner

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

The School of Planning congratulates the Warrior Home team on their achievements with the US Department of Energy Competition!

New home on Indigenous Researve
The Warrior Home team has been working with the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nations and Habitat for Humanity Grey Bruce for the past 3 years to design and build Canada’s first net-zero energy Habitat for Humanity built house on an Indigenous reserve. The house is located on the Chippewas of Nawash’s Neyaashiinigmiing Reserve and in December of 2019 a family of 5 was able to move into their new home. The Warrior Home team entered their design into the US Department of Energy’s 2020 Solar Decathlon Build Challenge student competition (the competition event was delayed for 1 year due to the pandemic) and on April 18th, the team placed 2nd overall at the final competition event. US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm presented the team with our 2ndplace trophy in a virtual award ceremony (https://youtu.be/C4YWps_AADw?t=5499). 

 

In addition to the 2nd place finish overall, Warrior Home also picked up 5 more trophies for the 10 individual contests of the decathlon throughout the weekend; these included:

  • 1st place for the Financial Feasibility and Affordability Contest
  • 2nd place for the Comfort and Environmental Quality Contest
  • 2nd place for the Resilience Contest
  • 3rd place for the Market Potential Contest
  • 3rd place for the Innovation Contest

A member of the Warrior Home team, Jeffrey Ren, states:

 

Our project aimed to tackle the pressing need for affordable and adequate housing on Indigenous reserves; while we have only housed one family so far, we believe that our internationally recognized design demonstrates that not only is it possible to provide affordable and adequate housing on reserves, it is also possible to do so sustainably.

 

You can find more information and media articles on the project below: