Your Complete Guide to Sustainable Home Design: How to Create an Environmentally Friendly House
For the past few years, catchphrases like sustainable, green, net zero, environmentally friendly and energy efficient are at the forefront of everyone’s mind—and for good reason, too. There really is no argument against being a responsible steward of resources.
In fact, Springhouse Architects guides many of our clients through these issues at the earliest stage of a custom home project. Sustainability should be a high priority for any architect, and should be intertwined with the homeowner’s design objectives. Case in point: The built environment in the U.S. produces nearly 60% of our global carbon footprint!
Regardless of your house being custom-built or not, there are many ways to make your existing home more environmentally friendly. In fact, many of these changes can be done as a DIY project over the weekend, or even after a short trip to your local home improvement store. Let’s take a closer look…
Choosing Sustainable Floors
Porcelain tile is most commonly used for both bathroom and kitchen flooring, partially because it’s low maintenance. Sustainably speaking, it's more of a natural product that doesn't take as much energy to produce—but it’s not your only option. Take reclaimed wood, for example. Although you’ll have some knots, nail and screw holes, you can fill them in with an epoxy or a resin. Although less typical, cork is also an extremely renewable material with a very unique aesthetic. We’ve also been seeing a lot of people switching to polished or stained concrete.
One of my favorite things about manufacturers these days is that they're finding out how to use recycled content for their products. There are also places where you can purchase salvaged or recycled tiles from old projects or renovation projects. Be aware, you might have to do a little bit of searching to find a place in your area that sells these items.
Lastly, if you’re currently renovating your bathroom, you may choose to keep its original tile—or maybe you’d like to repurpose tile found in a different part of your home. These are all great sustainable options!
You’ll also want to consider where you're purchasing your flooring. If you’re buying overseas, that's a lot of embodied energy when it comes to transportation back to the United States. Keep this in mind!
Choosing Sustainable Cabinets & Vanities
Aside from bamboo, if you’re looking for a sustainable cabinet option at a reasonable price point, a hardwood box construction is the way to go. However, tropical hardwoods are not always the best option—although they’re beautiful, not all of them are sustainably obtained.
A cheaper, more sustainable option for your cabinets is to have the box be constructed out of MDF, or medium-density fiberboard, and then coated in a melamine, plastic laminate or wood veneer finish. MDF is more economical—however, it comes with some health concerns. There could be high levels of formaldehyde and other off-gassing chemicals. So, if you're going with an MDF cabinet, you want to choose something formaldehyde-free.
If you're not sure what’s considered sustainable, look for cabinets that are certified with the Forest Stewardship Council, or FSC.
As far as bathroom vanities are concerned, if you're interested in a mid-century modern or Victorian aesthetic, head to an antique store in your area and find an old dresser to repurpose! You can still install a stone countertop on top and have it fabricated to fit plumbing fixtures, as well.
Choosing Sustainable Showers & Bathtubs
When it comes to sustainable showers and bath design, we tend to forget about water usage. Showers have been known to use less water than baths, unless you're someone who takes a 30-minute shower.
If you opt for a standing shower, or a standalone shower, you can now clad your shower walls in new recycled glass tile products, which is just gorgeous. If you’re looking to install a shower-tub combo, and you’d rather use a shower curtain, we suggest an organic shower curtain.
In terms of bathtubs, we’re used to seeing ones made of fiberglass or an acrylic material. More sustainable options are available, such as cast iron tubs. If vintage isn’t your thing, bio resin and even ceramic tubs are available.
Choosing Sustainable Plumbing Fixtures
The biggest issue for sustainability in bathrooms and kitchens alike comes from your plumbing fixtures—yep, we’re talking water usage again! The amount of water used comes from the toilet, shower, bath and sink—so you better believe a lot of plumbing manufacturers have recognized this issue and are creating fixtures that aid in water usage reduction. For instance, there are companies like Grohe that have made an app that tracks your water usage, even allowing you to set temperature maximum to create a more customizable, sustainable shower experience.
In the past, sinks have been made from a molded ceramic or an integral kind of cultured marble—but there are many other options available. Take Native Trails, for instance: they create sinks, vanities, mirrors and other home decor accessories out of sustainable stone, glass and metal materials.
Choosing Sustainable Ventilation
When it comes to your kitchen, you want to think about ventilating your appliances to the exterior of your home, making sure your range hood has the proper amount of CFMs, or cubic feet per minute. In a nutshell, cubic feet per minute determines how much air your range hood moves from the interior to the exterior. You want to aim for a nice high CFM—especially if you have a gas range. Gas can let off a lot of extra chemicals and smells into the air. However, that needs to be balanced with how much conditioned air you are evacuating. Use the hood fan as needed but remember to turn it off!
(Psst…in terms of noise, some range hood fans are pretty loud. If you want it to be a little quieter, look for something that’s about 1.5 sones or lower.)
Similar to your kitchen, you want to have an exhaust fan that removes the steam and hot air from your bathroom to the exterior of your home. In older homes, you'll see that exhaust fans are vented to the attic—unfortunately, that's not the best solution, unless you want mold and other bacteria growing up there!
Choosing Sustainable Toilets
Last but not least, let’s talk about your porcelain throne. In the past, toilets have used up to seven gallons of water with every single flush. These days, toilets now use probably less than two gallons of water per flush. The latest innovation? Rimless toilets. Not only are they more energy efficient, they’re easier to clean, too. Rimless toilets use a flushing system that shoots water out toward the edge and all the way around the bowl. Some even offer a bidet attachment, which eliminates the use of toilet paper (your body and sewage system will thank you!).
Choosing Sustainable Countertops
When it comes to kitchen counters, a lot of our clients are moving towards natural stones, quartz and marbles. Although they’re beautiful pieces, one of the biggest issues we run into with quartz, or any other natural stone, is that they have an embodied energy—this means that the action it takes to obtain these materials is a lot of work that’s not sustainable for the environment. Not to mention, the transportation of these materials costs a lot (it requires many diesel trucks!).
If you’re looking for a more sustainable option, I’ve recently discovered a new manufacturer called Ice Stone that takes recycled products, like plastic bottles, paper, or other stones, and creates quartz and marble-like materials. Cambria also offers a countertop line made out of recycled stone, where they break it down into a powder and then form a new stone. It may be a bit more expensive, but it’s a beautiful, fantastic option!
Choosing Sustainable Appliances
When it comes to sustainable appliances, there are many products on the market that are now certified through Energy Star, which help with your overall energy use.
By now, I'm sure a lot of you have heard that hand washing your dishes uses more water than a dishwasher does. Ergo, if you have an Energy Star dishwasher, it's going to use a lot less water! It also saves your hands from getting dried out from scrubbing food particles off of your plates.
What about your countertop appliances? Many of us (myself included) love coffee—and one of the most sustainable ways to make your coffee is to use a French press or slow drip versus a coffee maker with a plug (it uses energy, after all). Don’t be afraid to come up with different ways to enjoy your food and drinks without having to use countertop electrical appliances.
Choosing Sustainable Lighting
Make sure you have the proper lighting for the task at hand—whether pendants over the kitchen island or recessed can lights above your work surfaces. Many of us are moving towards LEDs, which is a fantastic option. They last a lot longer and use less energy, making it quite sustainable for the environment. You also don't have to change your light bulbs nearly as much!
Let’s Talk Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency should be a priority for you, especially if you’re building a custom home from scratch. Once your house gets designed—and especially once you detail all the specifications—it’s difficult to go backwards and catch up. Let’s take a look at a few options to consider…
Interior Insulation
If building a custom home, let’s talk about interior insulation. Ceiling insulation is something you absolutely need. It also happens to be the easiest and least expensive place to bulk up your insulation value. You'll also want to consider Flash & Batt, which is a wall insulation system. For example, if you have two by six walls, you do two inches of Spray Foam Insulation and then you do batt insulation on top, which gives you the best of both worlds. The spray foam insulation seals everything and it's a really high R value. But keep in mind, spray insulation is very expensive, so only doing a two-inch layer is less expensive than filling the entire cavity. Many people don’t take me up on this, but insulation under your basement slab is so important. Ground temperature is a constant 50 degrees. Above the slab is your home temperature at 70 degrees. With all of these layers, your home is trying to find its “normal” temperature. So, if your house is set to 70, it’ll keep getting colder until it reaches 50 degrees. The bottom line? That slab is a continuous suck on your home room temperature, constantly draining heat out. By putting a two-inch rigid insulation under the slab, it's going to keep more heat on the top side and keep more cold on the bottom side. And it's not super expensive either (possibly a few thousand dollars). It's an investment that you’ll hopefully never have to touch again.
Exterior Envelope
Next, let’s talk about exterior materials, especially an exterior insulation finish system, or EIFS. You'll see it when you go past construction sites, where it looks like they put sheets of rigid insulation up on the side of your house, and then they stucco over it. This is a great system because it's a continuous barrier. If you think of your stud walls, you have studs every 16 inches. That stud is a bridge for thermal transmission, and that means your heat is going from inside your house to outside of your house. Walls are not a huge heat loss place, but if you've already addressed sealing the attic space, then the walls are a good place for additional insulation.
Energy-Efficient Windows
You’ll also want to research your windows thoroughly. Windows are a big number for energy efficiency, so it’s worth every penny. But it's also a balancing act: Do you save money now and sacrifice the R value over the long term? Or do you put the money in now? Take your time to decide. It's not just what the windows look like or what color they are, but what their insulation value is—which is readily available on Google!
Home Systems: Water Heaters, Geothermal Energy & Solar Power
The final thing to consider are systems like your water heater, which wastes a lot of energy by simply keeping water hot all the time, and geothermal energy. The government is up and down and back and forth about whether they should give tax credits for this or not. So, do your research and know your deadlines. Sometimes your entire geothermal system has to be installed by the end of the year for you to get the tax credit, and if you miss that deadline, you don't get money. In fact, it may be 15 to 30 years before you recoup that money, because studies are still up in the air around maintenance costs. So, be careful with geothermal.
Lastly, you’ll most likely consider solar power, which doesn't work when snow is on top of the panels or when you don’t have the correct sun orientation. So, sometimes solar can be dicey, but definitely worth researching. When all else fails, hire a specialist to hammer out all of the details and see what's right for you!
Have any questions?
Although we covered a lot in this post, you may still have some other questions about creating a more sustainable and energy efficient home. Whether you’re involved in the custom home process now, or even just considering it, join our free Facebook group—we’ll help you answer any questions you might have! Also, feel free to invite anyone that you think would benefit from this collaborative. You’ll not only get advice from me, but from other people who have been through this, too.
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When it comes to designing and building a custom home, nothing beats having a trusted, experienced team of architects on your side. Let’s set up a call to meet, discuss your goals, answer your questions, and settle your fears. We can’t wait to meet you!