52 Ways to Reduce Your Eco Footprint – 18. The Green House, Green Living

When you create a sustainable house for green living, you are creating a house that is healthy, light and inviting. A sustainable house should compliment the environment and utilise the many free gifts available.

Below are some of the best tips and guidelines available,  for creating a house that is safer and more sustainable.


Design

A sustainable house makes effective use of resources and the energy available to the site by;

  • Collecting rain that falls, to be used efficiently throughout the house and garden.
  • Using the sun to warm the house in the winter, heat water and generate power.
  • Channelling the prevailing breezes to cool in summer.
  • Taking advantage of the mass of the earth on which it sits to maintain a regular temperature.
  • Recycling its own waste.
  • Using the land to provide native habitat and human nourishment.

Energy

Housing is responsible for 1/5 of all carbon emissions globally.

Take a look at where the most energy is used in a typical house.

  • Heating & Cooling – 54%
  • Water Heating – 18%
  • Washing Clothes – 3%
  • Cooking – 4%
  • Refrigeration – 4%
  • Lighting – 6%
  • Electronics – 6%
  • Others – 5%

You need to make sure to concentrate your efforts and investment in the area’s responsible for the highest energy usage which is heating and cooling. This is where the biggest impact can be made.

Green living doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive. With some thought and planning it can help save you money and increase your health.

For more tips on healthy living, check out the One Brown Planet Sustainable Green Home Living toolkit.


There are so many ways in which we can help reduce our environmental footprint but with so much going on it is hard sometimes to remember. Rather than remember, the best way is to form a habit and the best way to form a habit is by utilising the 3 R’s:

  1. Reminder (the trigger that initiates the behaviour)
  2. Routine (the behaviour itself; the action you take)
  3. Reward (the benefit you gain from doing the behaviour)

Each week, for 52 weeks, we will post a new idea to help you reduce your waste and work towards a cleaner less polluted lifestyle. Hopefully, by the end, some of the idea’s will become habitual and stick with you forever. Consider this to be your gift to the world.