Eco-friendly Building & Houses

Environmentally conscious builders from Sustainable Housing Design describe eco-friendly or “green” building design as “applied common sense.” Eco-friendly buildings focus on reusable and recycled materials, reduced waste materials, minimized energy costs and nontoxic site and facility maintenance. Eco-friendly building design eliminates wasteful, unneeded spaces, resulting in more compact and multi-use spaces. At the community level, eco-friendly building often anticipates a reduced dependence on automobiles and encourages foot, bike and small bus traffic.

Background

Building in the industrial era was largely fueled by cheap energy, ample undeveloped land and mass extraction of natural resources on a global scale. A period of eco-consciousness in the late 1960s and 1970s—as America's oil/energy production dominance peaked--succumbed to intense counter-pressures by industries and interests whose profits depended on continual growth and resource extraction and consumption. A generation later, as resource depletion and global warming once again grab headlines, many people are reviving eco-friendly lifestyles in their homes and communities.

Why Be Eco-Friendly?

Eco-friendly building “is more energy-efficient, more resource-conserving, healthier for occupants and more affordable to create, operate and maintain,” according to authors David Johnston and Kim Master in their book “Green Remodeling.” Billions of people in the world are competing every day for a share of a dwindling resource base. The imbalance in supply and demand indicates that either resource shortages will emerge, prices for scarce resources will skyrocket or some combination of those two conditions will face future generations. Eco-friendly building may help support increased population while slowing environmental destruction.

Eco-Friendly Building Planning

You can plan ahead to build a home or facility that's eco-friendly. Homes should be placed on a site to allow them to maximize use of solar panels and wind turbines to collect and store energy. The U.S. Green Building Council offers a long list of recommendations that give builders and homeowners eco-friendly alternatives to standard, resource-consuming building designs and materials. Less resource consumption usually means more residential density, more shared or common spaces and more use of solar and wind energy.

Eco-Friendly Building Features

Today's eco-friendly buildings use largely recycled or renewable materials, such as wood from managed forests and bamboo flooring. Water collection systems, such as rain barrels, green roofs and rain chains are often designed into the building. Eco-friendly builders avoid petroleum-based paints, varnishes, finishes, rugs and wall coverings. They opt instead for natural, renewable woods and fibers. You can reduce your heating and cooling consumption and costs by using ceiling fans and planting trees to provide shade in summer heat. Trees will also block wind to help preserve winter warmth.

Types of Eco-Friendly Buildings

Almost any building can be constructed or remodeled to incorporate eco-friendly design. Smaller lots and denser living in eco-friendly neighborhoods often incorporate southern-facing greenhouse additions to homes. The greenhouse can act as a vestibule, a year-round garden and a passive solar heater. Solar panels and water cachement systems can be added to existing homes, as well as to commercial and industrial buildings. Schools, libraries and other public buildings now often incorporate eco-friendly design into remodeling projects.

Eco-Friendly Communities

Eco-friendly communities are being designed to re-establish the dominance of the pedestrian, encourage walking and reduce automobile traffic. Localism is a key theme of these communities. Clustered housing reduces energy-wasting private spaces in favor of common recreation and play areas. New zoning patterns allow for more diversity in the neighborhood, returning the corner grocery and shoe repair shop to their former positions in the typical neighborhood. Mass transit, such as electric-powered vans or light rail, carries commuters to workplaces outside the community.