How Sustainability Design Can Make a Difference in Your Home
A sustainable design makes homes easier to operate and helps reduce carbon emissions and other environmental impacts. These are some of the many reasons why sustainable homes are the most sought out with current home buyers. These sustainable features can both be implemented into newer and older homes. Sustainability within comes can include windows and insulation; Water efficiency and install low-cost window treatments; solar; and LED lights.
According to WTop News, there are many different definitions of sustainable design, but they all share similar characteristics. When it comes to real estate, sustainable design means creating efficiencies that persist for the long term on a property.
“At the highest level, sustainable design touches every part of how we, as a species, inhabit our planet. While obviously true, this can be a daunting mental model,” says Tim Gorter, founder and principal architect of Tim Gorter Architect in Santa Barbara, California. “Architects and homeowners will benefit from thinking about sustainability in categorical terms that provide the greatest impact: site strategies, water conservation, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality and material resource preservation.”
This means considering how different systems and items around a home can be designed to reduce their negative environmental impact, but sustainability isn’t just about improvements in efficiency on paper.
“Sustainable design choices can also improve the aesthetics and functionality of living spaces,” says Boyd Rudy, associate broker at Dwellings Michigan in Plymouth, Michigan. “For example, choosing materials that are locally sourced and recycled can add beauty and character to a home. Practical considerations such as passive solar orientation can also lead to improved heating and cooling performance, reduced energy costs and increased comfort. In short, sustainable design is not only good for the environment — it’s also good for the people who live in these spaces.”
It can seem like a huge undertaking to create a home that’s optimally sustainable, but sometimes the goal is just doing less harm. That can be a good step in the right direction and one that’s attainable for many homeowners. This generally doesn’t mean drastic changes that cost tens of thousands of dollars, but smaller steps in the right direction.
