What is Green Real Estate?

What Is a Green Home?

A green home can be defined as: A home that uses less energy, water and natural resources; create less waste; and is healthier for the people living inside.

The motivation for building – or remodeling — to create greener homes is the desire to live more lightly on the earth, “do the right thing” and, in fact, live more comfortable, cost-effective and healthier lives.

As we become more conscious of the fact that the degradation of our environment is compromising not only our species’ survival but the survival of life on earth, we cannot ignore the impact we have on our planet’s ecosystems.

The way we live and the choices we make in providing for our needs – even the very definition of “our needs” — have an enormous influence on the quality of our lives, and on future generations. Greening our homes is about taking responsibility for the consequences of our life styles.

When a house is designed and built green, considerations are given to a number of issues. A primary consideration is energy use, which addresses how much energy is embodied in the building materials themselves, their transportation and assembling and then, once the house is built, how much energy it consumes to keep its inhabitants comfortable. Consumption of energy has a direct influence on environmental quality because of the inherent pollution through greenhouse gasses and other emissions.

Other environmental considerations are healthy materials and products, site orientation, resource/water management and the impact of the structure to the surrounding ecosystems.

At GreenRoads, we source existing Green-Built homes and also help you choose land and a qualified architect/designer and builder should you decide to create your own new green home.

However, despite the growing awareness, demand and new building codes for Green Homes, the vast majority of existing homes were not built with these considerations in mind and therefore require an examination of what can be done to make them “greener”?

Read about what you can do to green your existing home, also subscribe to our free e-zine, blogs, and newsletters (see the left column, and our Blogs and News page) where we will continue to provide you with cost-saving tips and keep you up to date with changing technologies, regulations, rebates and innovations.

by Aysha Griffin