I cringe whenever I hear someone boast about how “green” their 5,000-plus-square-foot home is. I say your home can’t be environmentally friendly when it gobbles up that so much space, and when it requires so much raw material to build.
A new report from the American Institute of Architects found that the buyers of custom homes are now more interested in energy-saving “green” features such as extra insulation, tankless water heaters and sustainable flooring than they are in extra rooms.
I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating: You can’t really call a home environmentally friendly if it’s the size of a small country.
I’ve seen far too many “green” houses that are anything but friendly to the environment.
For years, the size of the average U.S. house has grown. But a story by Stephen Gandel on CNNMoney.com, which you can read here, says that a combination of rising fuel costs, an aging population and a growing environmental movement may result in the opposite: Our average homes may soon be getting smaller.
Doesn’t building a mansion automatically leave a big impact on the environment?
Maybe I’m old-fashioned, or maybe I expect too much out of green building, but to me, green doesn’t mean you can build the largest house possible as long as it has Energy Star-rated windows.
Crossroads, in Oakland, is perhaps the nation’s first green homeless shelter built from scratch.
When it comes to green building, I always ask one question: Does building environmentally friendly residences and commercial properties bring any benefits to developers and builders? There’s more evidence than ever suggesting that yes, it does.
A 711-acre redevelopment of an old municipal airport in Austin, Texas, ranks as the top green housing development by Natural Home magazine.
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Written by Dan Rafter [email] for b5media.
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