Green Homes – Save Money In The Long Run
More and more companies are beginning to see the benefits of having energy efficient buildings and physical plants. Cleaner, more efficient office buildings and work spaces not only help the environment but also save the company money. One organization helps the companies to realize the benefits of greener building.
The Green Building and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating systems were developed and implemented by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). This nonprofit organization’s stated purpose is to support and advance buildings that are environmentally friendly and also profitable and healthy for its inhabitants. This system grades existing buildings on their capability for sustainable operations.
LEED is awarded to buildings that have been planned, developed and built to be high-performance, environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work. Leed charlotte has rated many buildings as environmental friendly. LEED is an environmental performance benchmark used by many developers in comparing their buildings relative to others.
More than 5,500 companies and organizations are members of this council, which had certified more than 200 million sq. ft. of commercial space as LEED certified. Companies that are certified by USGBC are then able to flaunt their environmental stewardship, and also will save money in the long run for having built cleaner operating, more energy efficient buildings.
Green homes incorporates smart design, technology, construction and maintenance elements to significantly reduce the negative impact of the home on the environment and improve the health of the people who live inside. No matter your location or living situation, the opportunities for living a greener life at home are restricted only by your imagination.
Turning your home into a greener place is a commitment you make, not just to yourself and your family, but to your community and the world. Moreover, it is also a learning process. Keeping abreast of new developments and scientific breakthroughs in technologies and products for green homes will ensure that you obtain the most benefit out of your efforts.
Less water, energy and natural resources are used in a green home where there is less of waste. It is healthier for those people who live in a green home as compared to those living in a standard home. While constructing a home it can be made green or can be converted green later on. The green process can be done at one time or can be made as a continuing process. The home can be made green from front to back, top to bottom, inside and outside and an energy efficient kitchen. A person can be guided as there are several green developers.
The benefits of residing in a green home are numerous. Eco-friendly homes are better for your health, sturdier, and affordable. In addition, people can qualify for rebates, tax breaks and other incentives from the government, utility companies and other nationwide sources when they choose to live in a more eco-friendly manner.
Green Washing And Your Real Estate Carbon Footprint
As an internet platform for green, energy efficient and sustainable homes, we have reviewed some interesting and creative verbiage used by some sellers in the real estate marketplace. In the environmental business we call this “green washing”.
Green washing is when someone uses “green” terminology to help drive more interest to an otherwise typical (in this case) home for sale, in a currently flat and bloated real estate market.
This “green” terminology could be words such as:
- Solar
- Stewardship
- Eco-friendly
- Environmental
- Healthy environment
We’ve seen ads that would say “a solar home”, when all they really had was a wall that faced south.
Or maybe the home just has CFL’s (compact florescent lighting) and not much else in the home. Although minimal improvements help the environment in a small way, there are cool innovative green homes out there that are making heads really turn in a BIG way. includes ( loves to promote) innovative building technologies that we believe will make the quickest (and the biggest) change in the environment regarding the way we live, the homes we live in and the way we build them.
Listed Green
Things we take for granted every day, do have a direct impact on global warming. The toilets we flush, the indoor air we breathe, the utility bills we pay; all these everyday duties affect the environment and our health.
There currently are so many new technologies in sustainable home building, that we could make a huge impact right now, not years later. We can currently heat most of our water with thermal solar and not the black stuff you see on roofs, but innovative glass tubes that absorb UV rays year-round; recycle all our grey water (sinks and showers) and redirect that water to flush our toilets; building design and orientation to take advantage of the natural heating and cooling effects in a particular location; construct living environments utilizing innovative building materials that may come from recycled or renewable sources that also offer a tremendous R-factor.
A one-two punch in not only saving our limited building material resources, but also less requirement from fossil fuels and the like, to heat and cool our homes everyday.