The Board of Governors of the Alberta Real Estate Foundation approved $520,000 in community investment projects at their recent meeting.

The Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) supports initiatives that enhance the real estate industry and benefit the communities of Alberta. AREF was established in 1991 under the Alberta Real Estate Act. Since then, it has awarded over 17.5 million dollars in community and industry grants to nearly 550 projects across Alberta.

Projects approved at the June meeting include:

CREB Charitable Foundation– Building Affordable Homes in Bowness

Together as funding partners, the Alberta Real Estate Foundation and CREB® Charitable Foundation will help low-income working families build strength, stability and independence through affordable home ownership. This project will create 10 affordable housing units for low-income working families with two units being fully accessible.

Green Energy Futures – Green Energy Futures Smart Homes Series

Green Energy Futures will produce a four part series of stories called “Smart Homes on greening your home.” It will focus on providing homeowners with current information on energy efficiency in the home and how to produce energy on your own home in this innovative green energy series. These stories will be useful for Alberta homeowners who are both looking to buy an energy efficient home and want to make their home a greener more energy efficient place to live. The stories will be developed to tie to energy efficiency and renewable energy programs being launched in Alberta in April 2017.

University of Alberta – Alberta School of Business– WellWiki Alberta

WellWiki.org is a groundbreaking solution to the problem of information access and transparency related to data on oil and gas development. While in many cases some data on wells is publicly available, interested parties face an arcane and obscure process for accessing it which deters many from pursing the information they need. WellWiki.org solves this problem, providing access to information in an easy to use format available to all and has been successful across North America. This project will launch of WellWiki as a comprehensive resource for Alberta stakeholders.

University of Calgary – Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute– The Alberta Solution to Reducing Radon Exposure in Homes

Radon gas is a radioactive but invisible danger that poses serious lung cancer risks if homes contain high levels inhaled over the long term. Scientists from the Institute recently published a landmark study indicating that a shocking 1 in 8 Southern Alberta homes exceed Health Canada’s maximum acceptable radon guideline. Surprisingly, they also found that newer homes had significantly higher radon compared to older properties. The gold standard for a radon test takes 90+ days, which is not feasible during the < 1 week typically seen in a real estate transaction involving a home inspection. So how can buyers and sellers accurately determine if a house is ‘radon safe’? The Institute will determine whether short term radon tests can be used to inform home radon levels with sufficient accuracy to ‘stand up in court’.

University of Calgary – Haskayne School of Business – Westman Centre for Real Estate Studies: Housing Affordability Research

Typically individual social service agencies have addressed housing and affordability issues specific to the population they serve. The missed opportunity is understanding the ways in which housing affordability as a whole could offer a positive collective impact for all Calgarians. To facilitate a more collaborative and effective way to tackle housing affordability, the Westman Centre is an active partner on Calgary’s Community Housing Affordability Collective (CHAC). CHAC is a joint initiative that was formed between the public, private and social sectors to address housing issues in a collaborative manner. The Westman Centre’s role is to provide applied research oversight and leadership for key deliverables outlined in the CHAC strategic plan, thereby enhancing housing affordability along all points of the housing spectrum

University of Calgary – School of Public Policy– Urban Policy Program

The School of Public Policy’s Urban Policy Program provides urban policymakers with original, in-depth and impartial research. The Program explores key issues that impact urban Canada as well as the political arenas in which these issues unfold.

Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative– ‘Love Your Headwaters’: Protecting Alberta’s Water Sources and Natural Resources

2017-2018 represents a critical phase in Y2Y’s collaborative ‘Love Your Headwaters’ campaign, with the aim of securing a provincial announcement on permanent protection for the Bighorn, which supplies ~90% of Edmonton’s water, in early 2018. Additional, Y2Y will also start priming the campaign for protection of Calgary’s remaining unprotected headwaters.