Making your home healthier and more sustainable is something that everyone, from singles to families, should focus on. You don’t have to go live amongst the mud and dirt to live sustainably. You can have hot showers, insulated homes, televisions, and all the modern amenities and more. Sustainability is perfectly suited for modern living; only it works to help the environment and keep your family much healthier.
Many sustainability improvements are also great for the budget and help you save on everything from groceries to utilities. It’s a great approach that works to help you financially and emotionally, as many see a huge boost in their wellbeing when they take on sustainability as one of their core values.
With a mixture of home renovations and lifestyle changes, you can live healthier and more sustainably in more time.
What Makes for a Sustainable Home?
There are a few things that make a sustainable home. To make it simple, they can be broken down into three main categories:
Low CO2 Output
First things first, a sustainable home is one that has a low carbon footprint. Decreasing your footprint will require a few different approaches, from making your home more efficient to being smarter with your food waste or consumption.
Efficient Energy Usage
A smart home is a sustainable home because it doesn’t use more energy to run than it needs. There are so many ways you can improve the efficiency of your home as well, ranging from budget-friendly switches and upgrades to bigger investments ideal for long-term savings.
Sustainable Living
Finally, you personally need to live more sustainably. You can upgrade your home, make it cost less to run, and make it smarter, but if you go out and buy day after day items you don’t like and end up just throwing out, then you cannot get your home or lifestyle to be environmentally harmonious. By cutting back and living more sustainably, your life, and your home, will feel so much healthier.
How Can You Make Your Home More Sustainable?
There are a few ways that you can make your home more sustainable.
Invest in Solar
To lower your carbon footprint and reduce utility costs in the long run, then investing in solar solutions is one of the best options you have available to you. Solar panels can help you save the equivalent of 50 trees every single year, or 9,600lbs of CO2. On top of these CO2 savings, you’ll also see huge bill savings up to $90 per month.
Opt for the full Custom Solar and Leisure Tucsonsolar panel solution, or stick with a single solution, like a solar water heater or solar pool heater, so that you can enjoy those hot showers or longer swimming season guilt and cost-free.
Solar is subsidized and getting more efficient and cheaper by the year, making it a great way to make your home more sustainable.
Improve Insulation
Any energy you use that you waste is bad for the environment and your wallet. By simply checking the state of your insulation and making the necessary upgrades to get your home back up to snuff, you will end up saving massively on costs and enjoy a cozier, more comfortable home. Sustainability and livability working together.
Get Smart
The best way to not use more energy than you need is to have a smart hub that works to turn systems on and off only when they are necessary. The most basic function, for example, is automatically turning all lights, heating, and unnecessary appliances off when you leave home, and turning them back on when you are on your way back. You don’t notice any difference in terms of comfort, but your energy bills will drop, and so too will your carbon footprint.
Upgrade Appliances
There are a new series of rules being rolled out in Europe that guarantees the right to repair. In short, new appliances will come with parts that can easily be fixed and repaired, so you can forget about planned obsolesce and enjoy high-quality, energy-efficient models you can easily fix instead of need to replace down the line.
Garden
If you want to enjoy a beautiful backyard, save on food costs, and enjoy some truly delicious produce, then the best way is to start your own garden. You can do this so easily, and in every home type. Even if you don’t have a backyard space, you can grow produce and herbs inside or on balconies just as easily. Great for the natural wildlife and your family.
Alternatively, when landscaping, try to focus on native species. This will help the native wildlife and help preserve the ecosystem in your area.
Refurbish and Repurpose
A great way to add custom character to your property that is also wonderful for the environment is to refurbish and repurpose. You can source old flooring from another building and enjoy some beautiful, unique floors, doors, crown molding, and so much more just by repurposing old renovation items.
Depending on where you shop and how you get these items, they are also an excellent way to save. If you can rescue the floors from a building renovation yourself, you could even get hardwood floors for free, and just need to pay to have them installed.
Aim for a Sustainable Life
When your home is designed to help you live sustainably, it becomes easier. All you need to do to follow it through it try to adopt a slow living approach to your every day. These lifestyles are better for your health and wellbeing. Combine a slow-living approach with a checklist to go through before you buy to cut down on impulse buys, and you have everything you need to live better and more sustainably.
Instead of eating out, make food from scratch and prep it. Instead of buying, create. Make little changes and keep experimenting until you build a sustainable, enjoyable life that works for you and your individual needs.