The Sustainable Home

Sustainable Home is a stylish, inspirational and practical guidebook to maintaining a more environmentally friendly household. Sustainable lifestyle blogger and professional Christine Liu takes you on a tour through the rooms of your home – the living area, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom – offering tips, tricks and 18 step-by-step projects designed to help you lead a more low-impact lifestyle. Whether its by making your own toothpaste, converting to renewable energy sources, reducing your consumption of plastic, growing your own herb garden or upcycling old pieces of furniture, there are numerous ways – both big and small – to make a difference. With environmental issues at the forefront of global politics, the desire to make small changes on an individual level is on the rise; this book will guide anyone hoping to make a difference, but who perhaps don’t know where to begin.

Design your own sustainable home Many people dream of building a beautiful, environmentally friendly home. But until now there has been no systematic guide to help potential builders work through the complete process of imagining, planning, designing, and building their ideal, sustainable home. Essential Sustainable Home Design walks potential homebuilders through the process starting with key concepts, principles, and a project vision that will guide the house to completion. Coverage includes: How to clarify your ideas and create a practical pathway to achieving your dream A criteria matrix to guide design, material, and systems decisions Creating a strong, integrated design team and working with professionals and code officials to keep the project on track from start to finish. Key building science concepts that make for a high-performance, durable building Primer on building logistics, material sourcing, and protocols to ensure that the initial vision for the project comes to fruition. One-page summaries and ratings of popular sustainable building materials and system options. Ideal for owner-builders and sustainable building contractors working with clients aiming to design and build a sustainable home. Chris Magwood has designed and built some of the most innovative, sustainable buildings in North America, including the first off-grid, straw bale home in Ontario. He is co-founder and director the Endeavour Centre for Innovative Building and Living and co-editor of the Sustainable Building Essentials series. Chris is the author of Essential Prefab Straw Bale Construction, Essential Hempcrete Construction, Straw Bale Details, More Straw Bale Building , and Making Better Buildings .

The Sustainable House Handbook is your comprehensive guide to building an affordable, eco-friendly and energy- plus water-efficient green home for the future. In this book, sustainability expert and Gardening Australia presenter Josh Byrne takes takes readers through the process of planning a 10-Star rated high-performance home according to the Australian Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS), and outlines how it is possible to build with conventional materials, in an accessible and cost-effective way. Josh shows how to create a family home that is comfortable year-round, without the need for air conditioning or additional heating, how to integrate solar power to cover household needs, and how to reduce water usage by integrating rainwater tanks and greywater recycling systems. He also discusses how to cleverly incorporate organic food production in the garden while maintaining a highly attractive space that improves health and wellbeing. Illustrated throughout with photos, plans, charts, diagrams and useful statistics and measurements, The Sustainable House Handbook is an accessible, easy-to-follow resource for anyone planning their dream house, or thinking about how to live more sustainably.

Including Australian and internal examples of sustainable building, this book is packed with practical information to help every home renovator or builder. ---back cover.

The green building movement has produced hundreds of “how-to” books and websites that are filled with tips about green building and what homeowners should do to go green. While helpful and informative, when it comes to making actual purchasing and installation decisions, these books do not make it any easier for a homeowner to prioritize against a budget. Here, Schifman shares her knowledge and experience for others to use in their journey toward a greener way of living. Whether the reader is building a new home or doing a minor remodel, a homeowner needs a framework by which to guide their decisions. These decisions are based on values, and the author posits that there are really only three reasons to go green: For Our Health: By building more sustainably, we reduce our exposure to harmful chemicals and toxins. For Our Wealth: By building a more durable home and being more efficient with resources like water and electricity, we reduce our monthly utility bills and ongoing maintenance expenses. For Our Soul: Collectively doing the right thing for our planet does make a difference—and that is soul-nourishing. Learn the logistics of choosing windows, insulation, appliances, and lighting. Find out about FSC certified wood and about using reclaimed materials. Here is everything you need to make your home sustainable.

"Green construction is the building trend of the decade. In direct response to the growing demand for sustainable, healthy, and energy-efficient homes, David Johnston and Scott Gibson present the most forward-thinking theories and the best proven methods of new and remodeled green construction. They begin with down-to-earth explanations of green building basics and move on to site planning, materials selection, energy efficiency, and indoor air quality -- detailing along the way every step in design and construction, from framing to finishes" -- back cover.

Natural buildings not only bring satisfaction to their makers and joy to their occupants, they also leave the gentlest footprint on the environment. In this complete reference to natural building philosophy, design, and technique, Jacob Deva Racusin and Ace McArleton walk builders through planning and construction, offering step-by-step instructions on: siting and site analysis choosing materials integrating basic structural considerations into a design strategies for heating/cooling efficiency and moisture management planning for acoustics developing an integrative design navigating budgeting, code compliance, and project management creating the foundation, wall system, roof, and floors selecting and making plasters and paints evaluating options for mechanical and utility systems protecting against fire and insects integrating structures within landscape, climate, and human communities ...and more Applicable to building in climates that are cold and wet, hot and dry, or somewhere in-between, The Natural Building Companion provides the tools necessary to understand basic principles of building science, including structural and thermal engineering, and hydrodynamics. This guide offers thorough, up-to-date, and advanced installation details and performance characteristics of straw-bale, straw-clay, woodchip-clay, and cellulose wall systems, as well as earthen and stone wall systems and a variety of framing, roofing, flooring, mechanical system, and finishing options. This fully-illustrated volume informs professionals making the transition from conventional building, homeowners embarking on their own construction, or green builders who want comprehensive guidance on natural-building options. A State-of-the-Art Resource for Natural Builders The Natural Building Companion is a part of The Yestermorrow Design/Build Library and includes an instructional DVD.

How to build community, reduce waste, and create affordable, unique homes. Housing is a fundamental human right. For most of human history, our homes were built by hand from whatever local materials were available. However, since the Industrial Revolution, most housing has become little more than quickly constructed, mass-produced, uniform boxes. At the same time, the invention and standardization of the thirty-year mortgage and our ever-increasing reliance on credit has come to mean that most of us never own our homes outright. Housing Reclaimed is a call to arms for nonconventional home builders. It examines how technological advances, design evolution, and resourceful, out-of-the-box thinking about materials and efficiency can help us meet the challenge of building affordable, environmentally friendly, beautiful, and unique homes. Focusing on the use of salvaged and reclaimed materials, this inspirational volume is packed with case studies of innovative projects including: Phoenix Commotion—working together towards low-income home ownership through sweat equity and 100 percent recycled materials HabeRae—revitalizing neighborhoods by creating urban infill using modern technology and sustainable and reclaimed materials Builders of Hope—rescuing and rehabilitating whole houses slated for demolition These projects and others like them demonstrate that building one's own home does not have to be an unattainable dream. This beautifully illustrated guide is a must-read for anyone interested in creating quality zero- or low-debt housing, reducing landfill waste, and creating stronger communities. Jessica Kellner is the editor of Natural Home and Garden magazine and a passionate advocate of using architectural salvage to create aesthetically beautiful, low-cost housing.