Eco-friendly homes are becoming increasingly popular as people become more environmentally conscious. These homes are designed to minimize their impact on the environment while providing a comfortable living space for their occupants. Proper insulation is essential for maintaining energy efficiency in your home.
Planning Your Sustainable Home Improvements
Building materials can also be reused if they are properly removed from their previous home and still intact. Generally, when items are dismantled or stripped from one construction, saving reusable parts and reselling has become a big business. These older machines consume much more water and/or energy to complete essential day-to-day functions. A vast network of planes, trains, and trucks provide goods throughout the country while also burning fuel and increasing emissions.
- The most common retrofits covered by these Canadian grants are installing more efficient windows and doors, air sealing, upgrading insulation, purchasing solar panels and installing heat pumps.
- Many homeowners don’t know that outfitting (or in some cases even building) a home with repurposed or reclaimed materials can offset a tremendous amount of waste while saving money in the process.
- As we slowly remove more turf lawn in our yard, we design pollinator gardens that not only utilize native plants but also attract more pollinators.
- Wood burning fireplaces and stoves may seem “old-fashioned,” but they’re still considered a sustainable way to create energy for your home as long as you follow a few guidelines.
- Installing just one double-pane window will not have much of an impact on reducing your energy bills or making your home more efficient.
Reduce your reliance on electricity
Adding a productive garden full of vegetables, fruits, and herbs is a great sustainable home improvement. Having a garden can give you fresh produce within walking distance helping to reduce its footprint in regards to transportation and water consumption. Depending on how you manage the garden, it can also help reduce the amount of pesticides on the food that you consume. There are several eco-friendly options for paints and finishes, including natural paints made from ingredients such as clay, lime, and milk protein. Other options include low-VOC paints and finishes that are manufactured using fewer harmful chemicals.
Fit an air heat pump
The modern consciousness about the need for sustainable architecture has increased with the rise in the number of people who want to live sustainably. It can be traced back over 50 years to the first Earth Day, the international environmental movement, and the ensuing legislation that it sparked across the globe. Sustainable architecture incorporates the use of renewable, regenerative, and eco-friendly materials, such as bamboo, hemp, cork, flax, soy, recycled and upcycled materials, and eco-friendly insulation. Replacement of conventional materials can be achieved with sustainable alternatives in both architecture and home decor. For example, concrete can be replaced with hempcrete (made from hemp, lime, and water). Conventional plastics can be replaced with innovative bioplastics made from algae.
- And if you aren’t able to find what you’re looking for, look for FSC wood products instead, which are third-party certified to have come from well-managed forests.
- However, a company can work to minimize and even offset those effects (which is called having a “negative carbon footprint”) through its policies and practices.
- However there are many products that contain an even higher recycled content.
- “In the north, we orient most of the living space (great room, kitchen, dining) to the southern exposure, with most windows on this side of the home,” says Homa.
- Still, some eco-friendly home improvements are naturally more costly than others, and affording the initial investment can be a struggle for homeowners, especially when the returns might not be seen for years.
Add Color With Eco-Friendly Paint
Still, their on-demand design is 8% to 34% more efficient than storage water heaters, according to the Department of Energy. Sustainable architecture defines a building designed and built to significantly reduce the damages inflicted on the health of its inhabitants and the environment. A sustainably designed building is important because it uses substantially less energy and water long-term and it’s built using fewer chemically toxic materials. There are also terms to note when looking for professionals to work with on green building projects.
Improve Your Home’s Water Conservation
The overall financial goal of eco-friendly home improvements is to save money on energy costs, but many homeowners still face a cost barrier when trying to come up with the initial investment required. Another aspect of sustainable architecture is the use of adaptable, modular spaces, many of which are made from natural materials that can be easily broken down and repurposed or recycled. Tiny houses, micro-apartments and other small structures that help address the appetite for more sustainable housing and use less land mass and energy are examples of this. Alternative housing solutions, such as homes and apartment buildings constructed from recycled shipping containers are also sustainable. Floating architecture on waterways around the world can help address housing shortages in dense coastal areas.
- Concrete holds its own as an industrial design choice and works well as either flooring or countertops.
- With Federal and state government grants, homeowners are able to get renewable energy equipment installed, such as solar, wind power, and even geothermal heating for a lower cost.
- These houses have an average size of 186 square feet and are extremely efficient, eco-friendly, and cost-effective.
- Your home’s structure is where it all begins, because without a solid structure – nothing else really matters.
Not only does it produce its own power, but it also has an incredibly robust building envelope and design intended to minimize required energy usage. Kristin Bartone, creative director and principal of Bartone Interiors, recommends finding Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) building products and furniture. While the initial costs and the process of finding skilled professionals familiar with green renovations can seem daunting, the long-term advantages far outweigh these challenges. By planning carefully and leveraging local incentives and expert advice, you can navigate these hurdles effectively.
Cabinets may be the largest expense of a kitchen renovation, these salvage shops often have high quality cabinets in fabulous condition. An added bonus is that if you’re preparing your home to go on the market, reusing materials and giving the home a facelift is a much better use of your time and dollars than doing a major renovation. You will very quickly recoup those costs when you quit buying how to make your home more environmentally friendly a 24-pack of water bottles every time you go to the grocery store. Seek out small businesses and local artisans with a transparent mission statement around sustainability. Those with a taste for brand names can check out The Local Vault, a high-end furniture and decor consignment marketplace with an edited collection of pre-owned luxury furnishings sourced from around the country.
If you’re looking to remodel with sustainability in mind, Homa recommends numerous smaller projects that can make your house more efficient. However, new, efficient windows make less of an impact if the rest of the home isn’t insulated, and the same is true for energy-efficient HVAC choices. This principle ensures the whole house is sealed so that climate control isn’t wasted by air leaking out of or into the home. Upgrading to double or triple-pane windows enhances your home’s insulation, keeping it warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Look for windows with low-E coatings and inert gas fills to improve energy conservation. These fixtures are easy to install and can save thousands of gallons of water each year, making them an ideal choice for eco-conscious homeowners.
These fixtures, which include low-flow toilets, showerheads, and faucets, are designed to use less water without compromising performance. When you make this switch, you can decrease your household’s water usage, leading to lower utility bills and a reduced eco-footprint. It’s not just about cost-saving; it’s about contributing to a cleaner environment. By harnessing renewable energy, you’re making a powerful commitment to sustainability and paving the way for an eco-friendly future. Perhaps you even have a crafty friend who might enjoy repainting and re-purposing it. Another great option for your chandelier, as well as other items like appliances and cabinets, is Habitat for Humanity.
