Save Money, Live Better: Building Healthier Homes

SustainLane
Last Updated: Monday, March 03, 2008

Building or remodeling a home is a perfect opportunity to use sustainable alternatives in the construction process.

 “Greening” your new house—or new kitchen—does not necessarily add to the long-term cost of the project; it can, in fact, reduce operating and maintenance costs over the life of the building. It’s always a good idea to hire a builder that is familiar with green building techniques, but here are some basic principles of green building to get you started in thinking about your project.

Energy Efficiency

Conventional energy prices are likely to rise over the next few decades as reserves of fossil fuels are depleted, so reducing the heating and cooling loads in your home is likely to turn out to be a very sound investment.

Increasing insulation levels and tightening the building envelope are the two most cost-effective strategies for maximizing energy efficiency. Well-planned landscaping can also improve the energy efficiency of your home by regulating energy flows from the sun and the wind. Planting trees and bushes as windbreaks or shading devices is an effective and aesthetically pleasing energy-efficiency strategy.

Water Conservation

Building or remodeling a house offers many opportunities to minimize water use. Here are a few suggestions that will also save you money on water bills and conserve this precious resource:

• Purchase the most water-efficient toilets you can afford, and consider installing water-saving urinals.
• Choose a water- and energy-efficient dishwasher and clothes washer.
• Install low-flow showerheads and low-flow faucet aerators throughout the house, and skip the in-sink garbage disposal, which requires a lot of water to operate.
• Plumb for grey water separation and design for rainwater collection for landscape watering.
• If you must have one, design water-wise lawns. Make it small and easy to maintain, and plant climate-appropriate turf grass.
• Use xeriscaping (planting drought resistant species) when landscaping to reduce water requirements.
• For landscape watering systems, consider micro-irrigation, drip irrigation, and soaker hose systems rather than sprinklers.

Indoor Air Quality

To assure good air quality in your home, design for pollution source control and adequate ventilation. Sources of indoor air pollutants include building materials and furnishings that offgas toxins, as well as occupant-caused pollution sources (tobacco smoke, nail polish remover, etc.).

Choose building materials and furnishings that do not offgas pollutants, avoid materials made with urea formaldehyde and paints and sealants containing high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and choose floor coverings that are easy to keep clean and dry and that don’t offgas toxins. Use natural cleaning products and solvents whenever possible, and choose nontoxic products to keep your houseplants healthy and your home pest-free.

Low-Impact Site Design

Minimize the impact of your house on its site by:

• Protecting existing trees during the construction process.
• Using porous paving systems that mitigate drainage problems and recharge the water table.
• Saving the topsoil from excavation for landscaping.
• Preserving wildlife habitats and protecting natural landscapes.
• Using only native and adapted plants and xeriscaping techniques in your landscape plan.

Resource Efficiency

Here are some ways to improve the resource efficiency of your house:

• Think about how much space you actually require to live comfortably in your home. A smaller house uses fewer resources to build and maintain while covering less open space.
• Use materials that take the least amount of energy to manufacture. The “embodied energy” in the materials used to build a typical new home is equal to the energy it takes to heat the house for eight or nine years!
• Use precut and pre-assembled building components when possible, and ask your builder to use advanced framing techniques to reduce waste.
• Use salvaged and recycled materials whenever possible.
• Use materials manufactured from readily renewable resources such as agricultural waste and bamboo, and only use wood that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to be from a sustainably managed forest.
• Use local, indigenous materials.
• To determine the environmental burden of materials and products you plan to use, perform a life cycle analysis on your project.

Minimize Waste

Minimize waste on your project by:

• Specifying building materials in sizes that require little cutting.
• Recycling as much construction debris as you can.
• You can participate in this important part of your build, and earn “sweat equity” by appointing yourself construction cleanup guru and master recycler. Check with local waste management sites to see what types of materials they accept for recycling.
• If you’re remodeling, contact a local salvage operation to see if anything you are removing is of use to them. Contacting them prior to demolition is important to ensure the content is removed intact and with as little damage as possible.
• If the project of sorting yourself is too daunting, consider contacting EcoHaul, a socially and environmentally responsible waste management company that will sort and haul your debris and recycle whatever materials it can.

Operation, Maintenance & Homeowner Education

To ensure that your home lives up to its green ambitions, try to be as familiar as possible with all of the technology and techniques used in the building process. If you understand how they are supposed to work, it will be easier to pinpoint problems and keep up with proper maintenance.

Learn More

Visit the Building Green website to keep up on green building news.

Go to the EPA’s website for more information on water conservation and indoor air quality.

Check out GreenBuilder.com’s Sourcebook and information on construction waste.

 

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