As individual contribution to protecting the planet and solving the climate change crisis, the most important change you can make is at your home.
If you’re looking to make a significant change, take a holistic approach to a green lifestyle. By holistic, everything should work together flawlessly for a sustainable system.
To do this, start with your home. Invest in a green home or renovate your home to be sustainable.
Green Home Building
A green home is a structure that is environmentally friendly and energy efficient. It makes good use of resources and has a near-to-zero carbon imprint. From the time of its construction to daily activities, everything or almost all aspects of the green home should incorporate sustainable living.
Considerations When Building a Green Home
To make your home sustainable, here are several factors to consider:
- Environment-friendly building construction materials
- Energy-efficient heating and cooling systems
- Energy generation using solar and wind power
- High-performance doors and windows
- Smart home appliances and lighting
- Highly efficient plumbing fixtures
- Reuse and recycle methods
- Smart drip irrigation system
A good example of what a sustainable home should be like is Unika Stenhus. A leader in sustainability, one of Sweden’s most unique stone villas, Unika Stenhus is unique, flexible, and designed with energy-efficient features at the top of mind.
This home design by architect SAR Ola Torrång can be scaled easily depending on your family’s size. It can be upsized conveniently when the need arises, and it can be downsized too. All this you can do without any massive renovation projects that can cost an arm and a leg.
Unika Stenhus features excellent insulation. It has a passive design that is oriented to take optimal advantage of solar energy for heating during the colder season and cooling during the warmer season. With its concrete construction, it can last up to a 100-year lifetime with very minimal maintenance requirements.
The ultimate goal of a sustainable home is to create a living space that improves energy and water efficiency with reduced carbon and energy waste.
Guide Books for Sustainable Home Building
When undertaking sustainable home construction, careful consideration and planning are required. Seek out a sustainability expert to jumpstart the sustainability process of your home.
In addition, you can check out these bestseller books on sustainable house designs to get information and inspiration:
- 150 Best Eco House Ideas by Marta Serrats
If you’re looking for inspiration for new sustainable home construction, then this book by Marta Serrats is perfect. It features an extensive collection of green homes and designs complete with drawings, floor plans, and tons of photographs.
- Sustainable Home Design – A Complete Guide to Goals, Options, and the Planning Process by Chris Magwood
This comprehensive guide on sustainable home design by Chris Magwood is worth a read whether you’re self-building or hiring a contractor. An interesting feature of this book is its end-chapter grading system for sustainability to give you more insights if you’re on the right track.
- Sustainable Home Refurbishment: The Earthscan Expert Guide to Retrofitting Homes for Efficiency by David Thorpe
For an authoritative reference that’s also practical, this book by David Thorpe is a good guide. It is simple and well researched, complete with references. The information provided in this book is ideal for the UK demographics.
- Green Home Building: Money-Saving Strategies for an Affordable, Healthy, High-Performance Home by Miki Cook and Dough Garrett
The go-to guide to achieving an energy-efficient home, this book debunks the common myth that a sustainable home is expensive. The authors’ expertise in eco-green building and applied building science allow them to give money-saving strategies and techniques for building a green home.
- Eco House Book by Terrence Conran
This book focuses on retrofitting an existing home to become more sustainable. Although the author’s insights are applicable to home construction, this book provides an extensive variety of small and large-scale sustainable changes.
Advantages of a Green Home
A sustainable home helps reduce carbon footprints. It’s a step towards recovering from the climate change crisis. Having a green home also poses a lot of advantages for you as a homeowner, and these include:
- Higher property market value
- Cost-effective energy bills
- Increased lifetime structure durability
- Comfortable and healthier living for the entire family
- Tax credits and incentives from the government
Building a sustainable home or retrofitting an existing home has multifaceted advantages. On the one hand, you are contributing to the planet’s healing, and you’re also reaping economic and comfort living benefits. To get started on this journey, make sure to explore your options and get a feel of what works for you and your family.