Three Little Pigs research facility gets new name

The research is being conducted at a one-of-a-kind facility now called The Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes (formerly the Three Little Pigs project). The facility is a typical 1,900 square foot, two-storey house enclosed within a corrugated steel shell, which enables studies of realistic damage to houses from wind, snow, rain and mould - all within a controlled environment. It is the first facility of its kind in the world.

"Canada's home, car and business insurers are very pleased to support the research taking place at The Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes at Western," says Stan Griffin, President and Chief Executive Office, IBC. "Insurers have long been concerned that we need to be better able as a society to deal with extreme weather and natural disasters."

Located at the London International Airport, the facility will allow researchers to subject houses to the destructive elements of nature, including simulated winds of up to a category five hurricane - or 200 miles per hour. Engineers will also be able to assess the structural integrity of houses and help develop cost-effective methods to retrofit existing homes and reduce human error during construction.

Insurer funding for the facility is in addition to the industry's long-standing support for research through the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) - a joint industry initiative with Western. The industry founded ICLR in 1998 to promote effective loss mitigation strategies by disseminating research results and influencing public policy change.

IBC's donation to The Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes will be matched four dollars to one by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

"We are grateful for IBC's support of this leading facility," says Ted Hewitt, Western's Vice-President (Research & International Relations). "This is a great example of industry and the research community coming together to improve living standards in Canada and around the world."