Jackson Wyatt has always had a thing for sustainability. His first company manufactured compostable alternatives to single-use plastic. The seven years he spent running it, before its sale in 2021, and the one year he spent stuck inside during the pandemic, helped spark his next big idea: sustainable affordable housing. “Everybody wants to do the environmental thing,” Wyatt says. “But, if it’s too complicated or expensive, they won’t stick with it.”

In 2021, he launched CABN, which builds net-zero homes that don’t come with astronomical price tags. The prefabricated houses are available in four sizes ranging from one to four bedrooms. Their smallest house measures 540 square feet and costs $219,000; their largest is 1,850 square feet and costs $549,000. All their models are move-in ready in five weeks, in part because their main component, cross-laminated timber, is easily transportable­—allowing the homes to be built in a weather-controlled facility and moved to a person’s lot once finished.

Related: Seven of Toronto’s most high-tech, sustainable and exciting new real estate developments

From the outside, the homes resemble elevated cottages—cabins, really—but behind their modest façades are layers of sustainable tech. Glazed windows and an airtight insulation system moderate temperature, keeping interiors between 21 and 24 degrees year-round. Solar panels—optimally angled to maximize absorption—generate the home’s electricity and could someday funnel surplus power into a community grid, creating entire net-zero towns. CABN’s first two-bedroom show home opened in Mallorytown, Ontario, in early April.

A weekly newsletter of unforgettable sagas, scoops and scandals from Toronto Life’s long-form archives

Email(Required)