Eco-friendly advantages to retrofitting rather than building new.We are thrilled to see more people seeking ways to reduce the environmental impact of their lives and homes. From buying/using less plastics to slowing down fast fashion, eating more local foods, and even driving a hybrid or electric car. But what about when it comes to making significant changes to your home?
Green building trends are becoming much more desirable these days. Techniques and super efficient and healthy products are super accessible. Yet, the number of builders intentionally integrating these solutions is still alarmingly low. (We’re happy to be amongst the small community authentically striving to build better!)
With so many new building techniques for high-efficiency homes and with the cost of retrofitting – we often get asked if it is “better” to build all new or keep as much as we can and retrofit/remodel?
In most cases, retrofitting a home already in existence is greener, more sustainable, more efficient, and overall less impactful on the environment and carbon outputs than building something new. New construction has been blamed for over 30% of all global emissions – from extracting new materials to transporting them and disposing of the old materials (which also involves lots of transportation). Renovating your current home eliminates the sourcing and use of new materials and allows you to incorporate some of the same modern, eco-friendly/carbon-impacting
We are huge advocates for looking at the whole system of your home and establishing a master plan for what is appropriate to tackle at what stages. Often times that is also means taking a look at not just system upgrades but how you anticipate shifting the interior or exterior spaces of your home over time as also a discussion point to when to do some of the system upgrades.
Contact us to set up a consulting appointment and start envisioning your future sustainable and carbon-friendly home.
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