5 Tips For Building An Eco-Friendly Home

While many people are buying homes, others are taking on the huge responsibility of building their own homes from scratch. If you’re building your own home, it’s a good idea to make your home eco-friendly given the constant changes in our environment. Making your home eco-friendly can also save you a lot of money. If you create a green home for you and your family, then you will be passing down the values of maintaining a green lifestyle to the rest of your family. Here are a few tips for building a green home:

Think about the location.
Of course location is one of the most important aspects of choosing a place to live. But while you may have checked out the safety of the area and what the schools are like, you may have forgotten to take into account the environmental implications of the area in which you live. Try not to build a home in an environmentally sensitive location such as an area that is prone to hurricanes, earthquakes or floods. You’ll also want to chose an area with easily accessible public transportation and a local grocery shop not too far away. This will reduce the amount of time you spend in your own vehicle. Lastly, you should avoid building a home that faces to the west. This way, your home will stay cool and will receive minimal sun exposure.

Make sure to properly insulate your home.
One of the most important things you need to consider when building an eco-friendly home is insulation. Heating and cooling typically account for 50% of your home’s energy consumption. The building loses heat via air leaks around windows, doors and duct work. If you don’t properly insulate your home, the heating and cooling will essentially go to waste. Proper insulation will bring down your electricity bills while also reducing your energy consumption.

Install solar panels.
Many people who are looking to go green are turning to solar energy. While the initial cost of solar panels may be high, the long-term savings are tremendous. The amount of power you can collect via the solar panels depends upon the location of your house and way you have constructed your solar panels. When you use solar power, you decrease your energy consumption while also supplying any excess energy to your utility company. Another benefit to using solar power in your home is that the government will often give you grants, incentives and tax breaks.

Use sustainable building materials.
If you want your home to be green, then you need to make sure that the materials you are using are eco-friendly. The building material, the roofing material, the flooring and every other part of your house should be environmentally friendly. It’s a good idea to use reclaimed lumber, or renewable materials like bamboo and linoleum.

Use energy efficient equipment.

Make sure every appliance you choose for your home has an “Energy Star” label. This label signifies that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has deemed that particular product energy efficient. Choosing an “Energy Star” appliance will allow you to save money while also saving the environment.

If you’re building a home, there are a number of ways that you can make sure your home is energy efficient. If you follow these steps, you’ll be helping to make the Earth a cleaner and greener place to live.

Tips to Make Your Construction Project “Greener”

Green building continues to be a hot topic in the construction industry. It’s hugely important for the health of our environment to try make as many eco-friendly decisions as possible when it comes to building a new structure. This may seem like a daunting tasks, but even a few eco-friendly changes are better than absolutely nothing. Use the following tips to make your next project more sustainable and green.

 

Pick the Right Location

When purchasing property, there are a few things to keep in mind before you commit to your new plot of land. If possible, try to avoid a space where you would have to build a west-facing property. If the front of your building faces west, you will have limited sun exposure and an increased need for more lighting (and heating depending on your region). To avoid having to rebuild or reconstruct, avoid areas that are prone to flooding, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc.

 

Build With Sustainable Materials

If you are truly dedicated to creating an energy friendly structure, invest in eco-friendly materials. I wrote a blog about eco-friendly flooring, but sustainable materials go far beyond flooring. Look for materials like repurposed lumber, recycled glass, recycled plastic, and other naturally sustainable products to make up your  cabinets, windows and doors within your structure.

 

Invest in Energy Efficient Appliances

This is one of the easier steps to take when attempting to build a more eco-friendly structure. Look for the “Energy Star” label on appliances. Energy Star equipment has passed the standards set out by the Environmental Protection Agency. Try not to be deterred if you see that the Energy Star is more costly than other options up front. Their energy efficiency will save you a significant amount of money down the line.

 

Be Mindful of Insulation

A poor insulation job can easily undo any other efforts at energy efficiency and green building. On average, about 50% of your building’s energy consumption will come from heating and cooling the structure. If temperature controlled air leaks out, or outdoor air is leaking out, your energy consumption will increase exponentially.

Pro Tip: Be sure to double check insulation near windows, ducts, and doors.

For more inspiration, look to this resource: here

The Do’s of Eco-Flooring

Whether you are renovating a residential or industrial space, deciding on the appropriate flooring is a huge part of the construction process. It’s important to consider the ecological impacts of both the construction you are doing as well as the materials that you are using.  There are a few things to consider when working towards an eco-friendly flooring decision:

Before you do anything, determine what the original flooring is. There has been a shift in the industry towards wood flooring (for eco and aesthetic purposes alike). Many times, especially in older buildings, wood floors already exist and have just been covered by other flooring materials. Help the environment by restoring the original wood flooring, instead of pulling everything up and starting from scratch

Remember that Linoleum is a natural material. Decision makers focused on eco-friendly design in the construction realm sometimes shy away from linoleum. But linoleum is made of organic substances (rosin, linseed oil, minerals, etc), and is naturally hypoallergenic, which makes it a great, eco-friendly choice. The only thing to be aware of, especially when laying commercial & industrial flooring is that linoleum is more flammable than it’s not-eco-friendly, synthetic counterpart, PVC.

Do Your Bamboo Research. Bamboo is a hot topic in the world of eco-flooring. It’s actively considered to be an eco-friendly flooring option because of how quickly bamboo can regenerate. However, there have been some issues with bamboo as an eco-option because bamboo is often treated with pesticides & fertilizers and may be an active threat to China’s biodiversity.

Consider Repurposed Wood. When doing a remodel/revamp, especially in a commercial and/or industrial space, it makes sense that the immediate desire would be to get new wood for the project. However, repurposed wood is a viable, extremely environmentally friendly  option. The repurposed wood is often claimed from demoed barns and warehouses and submerged timber. Using repurposed wood is ideal because it eliminates the production of greenhouse gases when unused building materials are incinerated.  

 

4 Most Popular Sustainable Flooring Options

Sustainable construction is becoming more and more important as our society becomes more environmentally conscious. Flooring is usually not the first thing that people think of when starting to design and plan for an eco friendly construction or renovation. But there are several popular sustainable flooring options that all people should consider when doing (or re-doing) the floors of their homes, offices, or industrial space.

Wood

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Wood Flooring is already one of the more popular flooring options, and properly manged wood is a renewable resource. There are dozens of wood flooring options that come from sustainably managed forests. In these forests, the trees are regenerated and the environment is preserved. Wood directly helps reduce carbon emissions, because carbon is absorbed into the wood when trees grow, and stays within the wood when it becomes flooring. When the wood is no longer suitable as flooring, it can be used for fuel.

Cork

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Cork flooring is technically a type of wood flooring but it is not similar to most standard hard wood flooring that many people are used to. Cork is both renewable and sustainable because it is removed from the Quercus Suber tree without doing any damage to the tree itself. It is also provides natural insulation in both the thermal and acoustic sense.

Linoleum

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Linoleum is both hypo-allergenic and biodegradable. It’s created via a mixture of processed flax seeds, pine resin, wood flour, ground cork, and jute. All of the materials are natural and all leftovers are reused. It also lasts for an incredibly long time (reducing the need for continuous replacement) and is naturally fire resistant.

Bamboo

Like wood, properly sourced bamboo is also a renewable resource. It’s harder than both maple and northern red oak, making it a durable and long term option. It also naturally repels water and bacteria. It’s possible to make bamboo less sustainable, if a non natural base adhesive is used, so one must be aware of that when installing bamboo flooring.

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