We want to talk about the different steps that you can take to perform eco-friendly home remodeling projects and live sustainably in other ways. Keep reading to learn more.

Eco-Friendly Home Remodeling and Green Living Ideas to Lower Your Carbon Footprint

Climate change is at the front of many people’s minds because they are wondering how they can live a more eco-friendly lifestyle, while also enjoying many modern amenities. It all seems daunting, but one person can make a big difference even with small changes over time. Fighting climate change involves being aware of what you buy, where you drive, and even how you pay for your purchases.

Green building practices can do a lot to help lower your carbon footprint. Other changes might not make as much of a difference on their own, but are easy to implement and are worth doing to help the planet.

By making small changes, you have the power to reduce your carbon footprint and fight back against global warming. These eco-friendly remodeling and green living tips will help you fight climate change in your day-to-day life.

Use Recycled Materials for Home Improvement Projects

When you are working on home improvement projects, you need to take the necessary steps to reduce your impact on the planet. One of the best ways to do this is by using recycled materials. Recycled building materials are going to minimize the need to waste scare natural resources. We have a list of great eco-friendly building materials that are worth using.

Use the Right Amount of Insulation

Insulation will also reduce energy loss. You will want to make sure that you use enough when renovating your home.

Use LEDs or Solar Lights to Reduce Energy Needed for Lighting

When you are creating eco-friendly buildings, you also want to pay attention to the lighting. Solar lights can help make your property eco-friendlier. You may also want to invest in LEDs to improve energy efficiency.

Choose a Better Credit Card

Did you know you can choose the right debit and credit cards to help offset your personal carbon footprint? Credit cards are linked to companies that make money each time you use your card.  What if those fees went into projects and causes that helped to improve the environment, instead of harming it? By choosing a more eco-friendly alternative – such as green credit cards – consumers can make a significant difference with their spending. Proceeds can benefit companies that are funding projects that help improve the environment, instead of contributing to more pollution.

Buy Local

Buying local food, goods and products is a great way to combat climate change. It reduces the amount of carbon emissions that would be created by transporting your purchases across long distances. Local businesses also tend to be more environmentally friendly, so you’re doing your part for the environment while supporting other small businesses in your community. Buying local can also help strengthen the economy of your community by supporting local jobs and helping create more opportunities for growth.

Shop in Bulk

You can help reduce your carbon footprint by buying in bulk. By doing so, you’ll be able to save money and have fewer trash bags thrown away. You can also use reusable containers for things like food storage, toilet paper, and paper towels—anything that you might typically buy in a package can be purchased in bulk at places such as Costco or Sam’s Club. Buying bulk saves you trips to the store and also reduces the amount of packaging that you waste.

Make Your Own Cleaning Supplies

Making your own cleaning supplies is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. Natural ingredients are gentler on the environment, and they’re often cheaper than store-bought cleaners. Plus, you can recycle containers that were already being used for something else, instead of buying plastic bottles or jugs.

You can make small batches of cleaning supplies by filling a container with any combination of these ingredients: vinegar, lemons or limes, castile soap, and even hydrogen peroxide and water. These cleaning supplies are not only better for you, but they are better for the environment and contribute to less waste overall. Additionally, these more natural solutions won’t pollute the local water the same way that chemical cleaners do.

Use Cloth Shopping Bags

Reusable shopping bags are a great way to fight climate change. Plastic bags create a lot of pollution; from being produced in factories to getting thrown away, these bags create a lot of waste. Use reusable shopping bags or cloth bags instead. If you don’t already have a set of reusable shopping bags, it’s easy to find them online or at your local grocery store. You can also repurpose old t-shirts into reusable shopping totes by cutting off one sleeve and sewing it together with two other shirts that are similar in size and color.

Turn Off Electronics When Not in Use

Electronics waste a lot of energy when they aren’t in use. From the red light on your television to the computer in sleep mode instead of being turned off, energy waste is a big contributor to climate change. Turn off your computer at night and keep the monitor turned off when you’re not using it. Unplug your cell phone charger from the wall when it’s not charging. Unplug your electronics when they aren’t in use so you don’t lose energy to their vampire-draining tendencies. By turning off these technologies you can help reduce climate change and in the process save money on your electric bill.

Use These Eco-Friendly Home Remodeling and Green Living Tips to Lower Your Carbon Footprint

If you are truly committed to living a sustainable lifestyle, then you need to practice green living in every way. This includes practicing tips that go beyond using the best green building practices. The guidelines listed above can make a huge difference as you strive to lower your carbon footprint.

The post 6 Home Renovation and Lifestyle Ideas To Fight Climate Change appeared first on Green Building Insider.

However, sustainability obviously shouldn’t end with owning and managing green buildings or living in a green home. You have to find other ways to lower your carbon footprint as well. We will cover some of the ideas to consider in this article.

Ways to Be Eco-Friendlier

Whether you’re an environmentalist or not, the truth is that there are plenty of eco-friendly choices that can benefit you. Not only can they improve your quality of life, but many of them can save you money as well. While you may not have thought about them, these are some of the best eco-friendly choices to make when you want more money in your pocket. We will cover both building and non-building related ideas.

Building Related Ways to Lower Your Carbon Footprint

There are a number of ways that you can change your home to be eco-friendlier. Some ideas are listed below.

Upgrade Home Insulation

Insulation is one of the most important eco-friendly features of any home. Data from the EPA shows that you can reduce energy costs by 15% by adding insulation to your attic and basement alone.

When you upgrade your home insulation, you’ll also be upgrading its energy efficiency. This can mean keeping your home cool during summer and warm during winter, which will help reduce the amount of money that you spend on utilities. Insulation is a big part of how we keep our homes comfortable, but it has other benefits besides those related to temperature control.

Insulating helps reduce noise pollution in our living spaces by preventing sound waves from traveling through walls and ceilings easily. It can also help keep dust and pollen out which improves air quality, especially for those with breathing problems. Search for insulation contractors near me to find someone who can help improve your home insulation.

Automate Your Thermostat

The most obvious way to save money by using an eco-friendly thermostat is to set the temperature at a level that suits you and your family. This can be anything from 68 degrees while you’re sleeping, to 75 degrees when the whole family is awake and home. This is one of the reasons why many people are choosing smart thermostats for their homes as well.

Install an Energy-Efficient Showerhead

If you’re looking to save water while showering, installing an energy-efficient showerhead is a great way to start. They spit out fewer gallons of water but still have good water pressure. It should also have a flow restrictor, which limits the amount of water flowing through the device and helps prevent damage from high pressure.

Non-Building Related Ways to Lower Your Carbon Footprint

Since this blog is obviously focused on green buildings, we wanted to start off talking about ways to change your home to be eco-friendlier. However, there are some other ways that you can lower your carbon footprint. These ideas are detailed below.

Buy a Used Car

One of the most overlooked ways to save money on a car is by buying a used one. A new car loses value immediately, and over time is not a good asset. Buying used can help you not only save cash, but it means that fewer new cars need to be made. This helps the environment, and the price tag helps your wallet. Sometimes you can even find good hybrid cars that are pre-owned at a great price. While buying from a dealership is one option, another option is finding an individual seller who owns a great used car they want to sell privately rather than having it go through channels and come with inflated prices from commissions on both ends of the transaction.

Eat Out Less

Eating at home is a great way to save money, but it’s also good for the environment. Cooking at home means less packaging and fewer restaurant visits, which all help reduce waste. If you eat out a lot, consider cutting back on that habit. It might be tempting to grab food from a nearby eatery when you’re tired or busy, but this can add up quickly—plus restaurants are often less efficient with their energy use than homes are. You’ll help the environment and save big money in your wallet.

Air Dry Your Clothes

There are a lot of reasons to air dry your clothes. It saves energy, money, and time. But did you know it also helps the environment? Drying your laundry in an electric or gas dryer uses a lot of energy—so much so that it’s considered one of the most expensive household expenses. And with today’s high cost of living, every little bit counts. So why not save some cash by letting Mother Nature do her thing? Even if you don’t have a yard, you can set up racks to dry your clothes in your living room.

The average person spends $1,000 per year on electricity for their clothes dryer. If you hang-dry just half of your laundry, then over the course of a year you could save up to $500 on electricity costs. Not only does this help keep your monthly power bill down; but when those savings are compounded over years and decades, they add up quickly.

Use Public Transportation More Often

Using public transportation is a great way to save money on gas, car maintenance, and the time spent driving. It also helps the environment by reducing carbon emissions and decreasing traffic congestion. Even taking the bus one day a week can make a big difference.

Lower Your Carbon Footprint Both by Crating an Eco-Friendly Home and Living More Sustainably

There are a lot of environmental benefits of using green building practices. However, it is also important to follow other sustainable living tips to reduce your carbon footprint. The guidelines listed above can help immensely.

The post Sustainable Living Shouldn’t End with Owning a Green Home appeared first on Green Building Insider.

However, you might not be living as much of an eco-friendly lifestyle at home. You are going to want to take the right steps to lower the carbon footprint in your own life. You will do even more for the planet than you did running an eco-friendly contracting business.

Ways Eco-Friendly Contractors Can Reduce their Environmental Impact at Home

With pollution of our air and land continuing to become a greater problem every day, many people are looking for ways they can help the environment. Sustainable contractors are among those looking to put their money where their mouth is and help the planet when they are off the clock.

Government regulations on factories and automobiles play a big role in cleaning up the Earth, but individuals are not powerless in the fight. Most of the power to help comes from the choices you make in your everyday life.

You could try building a smart home that is eco-friendlier. However, there are simpler changes that you can make to help the planet.

Here are a few ways you could do your part. You can also find more green living tips from this article by Columbia University.

Choose Local

Instead of going to big box stores or running to Amazon with every purchase, consider the mom-and-pop stores in your area. Shopping locally not only helps reduce emissions but supports your community at the same time. If you have the luxury of walking or riding a bike to shop, that will reduce your carbon footprint even more. Studies have shown that shopping local can lower your total carbon footprint by up to 5%.

Green Closet Choices

While sticking close to the area where you live for all possible shopping needs, keep the environment in mind when choosing products to buy. For instance, filling your closet with clothes using natural fibers like cotton, hemp, and linen can go a long way to reducing pesticides and plastics that find their way into the water we drink.

Polyester is simply short for polyethylene terephthalate, which is a synthetic polymer and the same material found in plastic. In order to produce the plastic, companies must use oil, an industry labeled as dirty for its negative impact on the earth in the form of global warming.

Natural fibers are renewable and better for the planet. Consider adding everything from sustainable sneakers to 100% cotton tees to your wardrobe.

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

Reducing what you use, reusing what you have, and recycling what you no longer need is one of the best three-pronged approaches to assist in the fight against climate change and pollution.

The art of reducing refers to the overall trash every human creates simply by living their lives. Instead of throwing things out when you’re done with them, figure out if there is a way to keep that waste out of a landfill. For food and other organic items, that may mean starting a compost pile in your yard.

There are two components to composting: green and brown scraps. Green refers to plant matter, including apple cores, banana peels, coffee grounds, grass clippings, flowers, vegetable scraps, egg shells, and trimmings from house plants. These additions will break down quickly into soil and usually hold an element of moisture.

To even out the process, you also need brown elements like shredded newspaper, fall leaves, pinecones, toilet paper tubes, nut shells, and torn-up brown paper bags. These are necessary to aerate the pile, so it’s not so dense. The ratio of browns to greens you want to shoot for is four to one.

For anything you can’t compost, ask yourself if you can reuse the item. Is it a broken toaster? Try and fix it before throwing it out and buying a new one. Is it a television that works, but you just don’t want it anymore? Consider offering it to a neighbor or a friend to extend its life.

If you must throw away items, at least recycle as much as possible. Add plastics, glass, old tires, electronics, and metal to your list of recyclables. Contact your local center to find out how to complete this important task in your area. Basically, it boils down to separating out your trash into different bins so they can be reused in a different way. Doing so reduces the number of raw materials needed for products, helping preserve the resources the earth has to offer.

Do Your Part to Help the Planet on Your Free Time as an Eco-Friendly Contractor

You might feel like one person can’t make a difference in saving the planet, but everyone has a part to play in the future. As an eco-friendly contractor, you should try lowering your carbon footprint at home as well as at work. Although it might not seem like much, every little bit of effort gets us close to a brighter tomorrow — together.

The post 3 Easy Eco-Friendly Changes Contractors Can Make at Home appeared first on Green Building Insider.

However, you will eventually no longer be able to do this job. The contracting profession takes a huge toll on your body. You might need to retire sooner than many other professionals. You will also face some mental health issues even if you follow these tips.

How do you plan to retire? You are going to have to save for retirement and practice eco-friendly habits that save money.

Preparing to Retire as a Green Building Professional

Retirement is a time in your life when you have the opportunity to do more of the things you enjoy. This can involve anything from taking up a new hobby, spending more time with friends and family, or travelling and enjoying evenings out. Unfortunately, these activities can cost money. You are going to find that funding your new-found freedom requires some careful planning.

Eco-friendly contractors often make decent money during their lifetime. They might make more than traditional contractors in some areas, since people concerned about sustainability will often pay a premium. However, they don’t make enough to afford a highly affluent lifestyle that some people would like.

You’ll need to think about the type of lifestyle you want to have in retirement in order to be able to afford it and live comfortably. Here are some tips on post-retirement life planning to consider.

Establish your likely income

Predicting your income can be hard, but you need to have a rough idea what you’ll have coming in to see if it measures up to your anticipated needs. You might have several workplace pensions from the course of your career, or you might have invested privately as well, so you’ll need to think about whether to keep them separate or combine them into one pension pot.

You will also need to add in the Social Security income that you will receive. However, you will only get this once you reach the age for Social Security eligibility. If you were born between 1943 to 1954, then the eligibility age is 66. However, it will likely be older if you were born later.

Finally, you may have other assets such as property which may contribute an income for you, so these all need to be factored in.

Plan for the future

You’re planning for a long and happy retirement but being prepared for all eventualities is a wise decision. You can’t predict the future, so having a funeral plan in place can put your mind at ease by making sure that your family won’t have the burden of planning and paying for your funeral when you pass away. Funeral plans enable you to pre-arrange your funeral in the way you would like and pay for the services of a funeral director at today’s prices. Sourcing a plan with a member of the Funeral Planning Authority will ensure you’re fully protected by a regulated provider, and that your money is safe so you can enjoy your retirement worry-free.

Consider your living situation

Often, when people retire, it puts other aspects of their life into perspective. You may be tied to a certain location because of your job, for example, whereas retiring frees you up to explore other places or travel. Many people find downsizing is a good option for them in retirement, as often their children have moved out by this stage and they no longer need as much space. Downsizing is also better for the planet, since you won’t use as much energy to heat and cool your home.

Think about whether you’re truly happy in your home or whether you’d like to move and speak to estate agents and mortgage advisors to gather advice to help you make the right choice for your circumstances.

Find Eco-Friendly Ways to Save Money

You are also going to need to find ways to save money in order to stretch your income during retirement. You will find that leading an eco-friendly lifestyle will make it easier to be frugal. As an eco-friendly contractor, you should probably have a better idea on how to do this. Here are some tips:

• Install solar panels to save on energy costs. With rising electric bills, you can pay for them in as little as eight years. You will be helping the planet and your wallet at the same time.
• Use tax credits to buy a hybrid car. Hybrid cars are clearly better for the planet, but they cost so much more that it can take a while to save enough to pay for the initial investment. However, you might be able to pay for them by getting a tax incentive. The federal government currently offers a $3,000 tax credit for hybrid cars.
• Lower consumption. Being an eco-friendly consumer also involves buying fewer things. This is also going to be better for your wallet for obvious reasons.
• Take fewer trips. This is going to lower your carbon footprint. Also, with gas prices around $5 a gallon due to recent supply chain shortages, it will also be financially prudent.

A sustainable lifestyle is going to be better for your savings and the planet. These tips will help.

Divide any assets

By this stage in your life, you’re likely to have accumulated assets that you’ll want passed on to your loved ones in the event of your death. Having a will in place gives you the opportunity to determine who will receive your belongings, whether that’s your home, your money, or sentimental pieces that you want passed on such as jewellery or art. Wills and estate planning are easy to arrange and less complex than many people realise, but they’re essential documents to have in place to ensure that your beneficiaries receive the items you want them to have. It also means you can establish any specific wishes, such as giving money to charity.

Get a health check

You want to enjoy your retirement to the full, and since prevention is better than cure, having a check-up with your GP can put your mind at rest that you’re fit and healthy to enjoy your retirement years. The NHS Health Check programme provides checks for major conditions to prevent the likes of diabetes, heart or kidney disease, stroke, and certain types of dementia. Providing you don’t already have risk factors; you can have a check every five years to assess your risk of age-related illnesses and receive support on reducing or managing them.

Enjoy Your Retirement as an Eco-Friendly Building Professional

After dedicating years of your life to being an eco-friendly building professional, the day will come when you have to retire. Planning for your retirement is an essential aspect of financial planning. Whether that’s simply making sure you have enough to fund the lifestyle you hope to have, putting plans in place for when you pass on, or considering the ways you’d like to live during your retirement, it’s helpful to have peace of mind that you’ve got things figured out after you stop working.

You don’t want to have to make sacrifices when you finally retire simply because you didn’t plan ahead when you had the chance. Planning lets you set aside money to do the things that matter most to you and your family, so you can really enjoy this special time.

The post Eco-Friendly Retirement Planning Tips for Green Building Professionals appeared first on Green Building Insider.

However, as anyone committed to helping the environment might wonder: Are smart home devices green? Do they do anything to reduce our load on the environment? Can you build a smart home that enhances your sustainable efforts?

The answers to these questions, thankfully, are: yes, yes and yes. Read on for more information about why smart homes might be the best solution for sustainable homes and how you can use them to your advantage today.

Smart Homes Boast More Efficient Resource Usage

You raise your thermostat a few degrees in the summer and lower it down a few degrees in the winter, but can you be sure your HVAC is operating optimally any season? What about lights — you want them on when you come home at night, but you don’t want to waste energy by leaving them on for hours in the interim. What is a sustainability-minded homeowner to do?

For both these situations and others, smart home systems come through with the solution. Because smart tools allow more effective monitoring of use and energy consumption, they help you use the right amount of energy when you need to — and eliminate wasteful energy use altogether. From anywhere in the world, you can control your thermostat, your lights and a handful of other major energy consumers around your home, so you can be certain you aren’t sucking up more resources than you need to stay safe and comfortable.

Still, not all smart home tools are essential to reducing your environmental impact. Here are the top gadgets you need in your smart home system to improve your resource efficiency:

Thermostat. HVAC systems are the energy-hungriest features of your home, so controlling them precisely at all times is critical for sustainability and optimal energy use. A smart thermostat is easy to install and use and provides noticeable effects on your energy bill.

Lighting. Replacing your halogen lightbulbs with LEDs is a good first step to cutting your energy bill, but by using smart LEDs, you can turn your lights off and on from anywhere. That means you don’t need to leave your lights on in case you return home after dark; you can flick them on just beforehand to reduce energy use.

Window treatments. When the sun sets through your western windows in the summer, your house heats up, increasing the load on your HVAC. Thus, you should have smart window treatments that know to block out the sun at certain times of day — or that you can raise or lower through your smart home system.

Irrigation. It’s easy to focus on your energy bill at the expense of your water usage. You should invest in a smart irrigation system, so you know your plants are getting exactly what they need — and not a drop more.

You Can Start Building a Smart Home in a Few Easy Steps

While you should consider gathering all these smart home gadgets, doing so out of order could negatively impact how they function, meaning your home won’t be as conveniently green as you might have hoped. Fortunately, it isn’t difficult to build an optimal smart home once you know the correct first steps. Here’s a short-but-sweet guide to making a functional, sustainable smart home.

Choose Your Smart Assistant

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Your smart assistant will be how you communicate with all the smart gadgets around your home. Choosing your assistant is an important first step because you will accumulate smart tools according to the assistant you choose. Thus, you need to be certain you have the best home assistant for you. As of this writing, there are three major options: Siri from Apple, Alexa from Amazon and Google… from Google. If you are already comfortable using one over the others — say, you have an Apple phone or a Google computer — you might want to stick with that one.

Research Smart Devices

Next, you should begin looking into the smart devices on offer. Your first goal should be to verify that certain devices integrate with the assistant you chose. Next, you should compare and contrast the features available on similar devices as well as their price points. Finally, you should understand each gadget’s warranty and perhaps invest in additional protection to ensure you enjoy high-quality service for years to come.

Use Your Smart Devices

Most important of all, you must be willing and able to use your smart home system — otherwise, your home will remain as wasteful and inefficient as ever. Fortunately, smart home devices tend to be intuitive and convenient, meaning you are more likely to play around with them and optimize your environment in the process.

The post How Do Smart Homes Support Green Living? appeared first on Green Building Insider.