What makes a home green? Are recycled materials enough? How about locating the home on reclaimed land? Or, what if the homeowners have energy bills significantly lower than those for a similar-sized conventional home?
Green building, also called sustainable design and development, is the practice of using healthier and more resource-efficient land planning, construction, renovation, operation, maintenance, and demolition. Today, it’s much more than the original understanding of simply incorporating recycled materials into a home. Green building focuses on five key areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.
It’s important to build green to minimize the huge impact that the construction, operation, and maintenance of homes has on the environment. There are more than 120 million homes in the United States and about 2 million new homes are constructed each year. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the residential sector accounts for 22% of the total energy consumed in the U.S. and 74% of the water. In addition, 21% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions are contributed by the residential sector. Building green can reduce these negative impacts on the environment by requiring less resource consumption throughout the home’s lifecycle. In addition to environmental benefits, green building has potential economic and social benefits such as reduced operating costs, improved occupant productivity, minimized strain on local infrastructure, and improved overall quality of life.
All homebuilding industry professionals from site planners, to architects, to general contractors have the ability to increase the use of green building practices as they select locations, design buildings, and specify materials and construction methods. Additionally, homebuyers can drive green building by requesting or requiring green building practices. It’s important for industry professionals to inform homebuyers about the benefits of green building and make green options available to them. (More information on economic benefits can be found in our related article “The Dollars and Sense of Green Building.”)
As a builder, educating yourself on green building practices is an important first step to begin building green. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers extensive programs and information on green building and can serve as a gateway to additional resources. Incorporating all the practices of green building into every construction project, however, may rarely be possible because of time, money, or homebuyer constraints. Instead, it’s more practical to focus on the practices with the most positive environmental impact for a given project. Consider the following priorities:
Design and build energy-efficient homes.
Reuse existing homes and infrastructure instead of developing open space.
Design communities that foster a sense of community and reduce dependence on cars.
Optimize designs to use smaller spaces and to use materials more efficiently.
Preserve or restore local ecosystems and biodiversity.
Specify materials that are resource-efficient and have low environmental impact.
Design for durability and adaptability.
Design water-efficient homes and landscapes.
Provide a safe and comfortable indoor environment.
Return, reuse, and recycle jobsite waste.
Finally, green building practices can be integrated at any stage of a home; however, beginning the home with an integrated design and construction approach to green building yields the most significant benefits. For more information about green building, visit the EPA’s website or review our related articles: “Educating Homebuyers on Green Building” and “The Dollars and Sense of Green Building.”
