Building Buzz

Left to right: Toolbx co-founder/ president/CFO Chris Stringer, founder/CEO Erik Bornstein and co-founder/COO Mark Hinnen.

SUPPLIES IN DEMAND

Toronto’s Toolbx expands into Ottawa

At a time when the supply chain has never been more strained for the residential construction industry, Toolbx, a facilitator in navigating that ponderous chain, has expanded into Ottawa.

Toolbx is an all-in-one construction material procurement platform for residential and commercial contractors that delivers materials directly to the jobsite the same day they are ordered while providing price transparency and bulk buying solutions. The company was founded in Toronto in 2018 by Erik Bornstein, whose 15 years in the home building industry includes pivotal roles with OHBA members Mazenga Building group (partner), Core Development Group (co-founder) and Sherwood Custom Homes (Project Manager).

“Toolbox is an essential tech platform purposely designed for builders,” explains Ottawa-born home builder and Toolbx Ottawa City Manager, Harrison da Costa. “We’re helping them save time and money, and that’s good news for Ottawa homeowners too.”

Available on mobile or desktop, Toolbx digitizes and simplifies the notoriously time-consuming and paper-driven procurement of construction materials that has become even more challenging with the pandemic. It also empowers small businesses to bring their brick and mortar inventory online and offer same-day delivery.

From Rona to Lowes, to Home Hardware and beyond, a builder’s favourite large or local specialty retailers can be shopped all in one place. This does away with researching and comparing costs for days, da Costa notes. In fact, using the platform adds up to significant savings, considering that a contractor sources from up to 15 different suppliers per job on average, and in a week drives to a minimum of three retailers and spends at least 20 hours on receipts and paperwork.

And at a time when costs of essential building materials like lumber, drywall and insulation are skyrocketing, the company’s Toolbx Pro provides bulkbuying discounts on larger orders. It all serves to keep skilled tradespeople on the job and out of lineups or waiting days for curbside pickup.

There’s also a back office component, since it enables the seamless management of spending across job sites and crews, as well as providing real-time tracking of orders and the digitization of receipts.

ANNIVERSARIES GOLDEN WINDOWS CELEBRATES 60 YEARS

From its roots as Golden Triangle Windows, a humble Kitchener millwork plant producing woodframed windows in 1961, Golden Windows is celebrating its diamond anniversary this year.

Still a family-owned and operated organization in its third generation, the company owes its growth into a noted Canadian window and door manufacturer to a pretty basic principle, notes owner and president Paul Kreutner.

“We respect people—including our customers and vendors—as a core value,” says Kreutner, whose company now has retail locations in Kitchener, London and Kanata.

It’s also exemplified in the longstanding tenure of the company’s employees. “For 60 years our people have been the framework of our success,” says V.P. of Sales and Marketing J.R. Rapoza. “Although family-run businesses tend to struggle as the generations pass, we’ve continued to grow exponentially, with three generations of the Kreutner family providing strong leadership.”

Rapoza believes the company’s participation in ISO 9001 quality management certification has spurred growth in recent years.

“We’re one of only a few window and door companies that have obtained that designation,” Rapoza says. “It brought us to a new level of understanding of how to create and repeat processes and procedures to provide quality products and services to our served markets on a consistent basis.”

AWARDS JELD-WEN, PANASONIC EARN ENERGY STAR AWARD

Jeld-Wen of Canada has been named the Energy Star Manufacturer of the Year in the category of Windows and Doors for 2021. Panasonic Canada’s ongoing contributions to environmental protection and energy conservation, meanwhile, helped that company claim the Manufacturer of the Year for Heating and Cooling Equipment.

The Energy Star Canada Awards recognize organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy achievements. While it marked the first such award for Panasonic Canada, and the first times in North America for heating and cooling, this is the fifth time JeldWen has picked up the honour in the past seven years, bringing their total Energy Star award count to eight.

“Jeld-Wen team members are being recognized today for the innovation and quality they build into every window and door we manufacture,” said Robert Conway, V.P. and G.M. of Jeld-Wen of Canada. “I’m proud of my team. With more than 26 years of success in Canada, we still have an exciting future ahead of us.”

Early in 2020, Jeld-Wen demonstrated its commitment to energy efficiency by launching Keep Outside Out, a comprehensive awareness campaign used to market their specialized Northern TriPane Collection windows across Canada. The company also introduced an energy efficiency calculator to help consumers understand the potential cost savings they could achieve by installing Energy Star-certified window products.

CLIENT INCENTIVES GOVERNMENT GRANT WILL ENCOURAGE RETROFITS

In May, the Canadian government. announced the Canada Greener Homes Grant, a new grant that will help homeowners across the country make energy-efficient retrofits.

The grant will help up to 700,000 Canadians across the country improve the energy efficiency of their homes through an investment of $2.6 billion over seven years.

Homeowners will be able to receive grants of up to $5,000 to make energy-efficient retrofits, and up to $600 to help with the cost of home energy evaluations. Eligible home improvements and upgrades include replacing windows and doors, adding insulation, sealing air leaks, improving heating and cooling systems—such as with heat pumps— and purchasing renewable energy systems like solar panels.

To support this new initiative, the federal government has committed to recruit and train up to 2,000 new energy advisors to help provide guidance, advice and timely evaluations to Canadians.

Retroactive to December 1, 2020, the grant requires that a homeowner’s primary residence be at least six months old, from the date of occupancy by the first homeowner, and eligible for an EnerGuide evaluation. Residences include single and semi-detached houses, row housing, townhomes, mobile homes on a permanent foundation, permanently moored floating homes, small multi-unit residential buildings (up to three storeys with a footprint of up to 600m2) and mixed-use buildings (residential portion only).

Retrofits that help protect homes from weather events, such as floods, wind damage and power outages, are also eligible if they are done in combination with measures that improve energy efficiency.