Unlike Katerra that simply plowed headfirst into the housing arena with a loud thud, two successful and established Pacific Northwest companies, Green Canopy and Node, have joined forces and will continue their goals of a greener future in offsite construction.
The merged business will incorporate the structural panels that NODE has developed into Green Canopy projects. The long-term plan is to engineer a system of modular panels that will assemble into an entire home. Chapin hopes to reach that goal within two years, and ultimately create a modular kit that anyone could order and hire an independent contractor to assemble.
Green Canopy and NODE recently merged to create Green Canopy NODE, SPC and have completed an initial close on a $10M round. The early-stage construction tech innovator, NODE, has come together within Green Canopy, an established, deep green, vertically integrated development, design, general contracting, and fund management company. By next year, the team should double in size to over 60 employees.
Green Canopy NODE brings together the appropriate verticals and expertise needed to make construction more sustainable, healthy, efficient, and less costly. Unleashing the talents of a new workforce will further drive down construction costs.
“There are some monumental synergies at play here, fueled by tech expertise and development know-how that can come together seamlessly to create scale,” stated Peter Orser, Board Chair of Green Canopy NODE. “This is exciting because you generally don’t find this combination in the market– it’s typically either one or the other.”
Green Canopy NODE will begin off-site manufacturing designed to develop a complete kit of parts for efficient, software-guided assembly by generalist construction workers. The goal is to ultimately create highly sustainable housing that is accessible to people of all income levels at scale.
“The construction industry is ripe for disruption and evolution. It’s a giant industry that has been losing productivity over decades and is not meeting our most crucial demands for housing,” said Bec Chapin, NODE co-founder and co-CEO of Green Canopy NODE. “For industry transformation to occur, solutions must be able to engage with existing stakeholders, workflows, and regulation. The bigger change we’re aiming at is an evolution of the industry to build more houses, faster that create greater health, wellbeing, and resiliency for people and communities now and in the future.”
“In the years to come, we expect that we will be designing, developing, and manufacturing all of our housing product offsite to help enable our partners and communities achieve their development objectives in the most cost-effective manner. By doing this, we can achieve not just better financial results, but better social and environmental results,” stated Aaron Fairchild, Green Canopy co-founder and co-CEO of Green Canopy NODE.
Green Canopy NODE believes that everyone deserves a high quality, sustainable, and healthy home. The company is actively working with Habitat for Humanity Seattle – King County, on the development of a 17-unit affordable and sustainable condominium development in Capitol Hill in Seattle.
“We are excited about the prospects of Green Canopy NODE being able to dramatically reduce construction costs. With a 4,500-person waitlist for our affordable homeownership program in King County alone, it’s clear something in the construction process needs to change,” says Patrick Sullivan, Habitat for Humanity King County.
Related Articles:
- Finish Werks Builds A Zero Energy Home For A Very Happy Family
- Katerra Files Bankruptcy
- As Mass Timber Takes Off, How Green Is This New Building Material?
Gary Fleisher is the Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source. Email at modc[email protected]
To begin receiving my twice-weekly free newsletter with offsite and modular construction news, views, polls and videos, simply subscribe to it in the form below.
