I am pleased to announce that my new book, Practical Green Remodeling: Down-to-Earth Solutions for Everyday Homes, published by Taunton Press, is in bookstores nationwide as of today. You can also find it here on Amazon.com.
In the coming weeks I will be posting excerpts from the book, as well as tips for making any home healthier, more energy efficient, and easier on the environment - in short, greener.
Here is a brief excerpt from the introduction:
All across the country Americans are waking up to the realization that our planet is in trouble. Temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting, and changing weather patterns are starting to affect food production. Communities across the country and around the world are facing serious water shortages. Wildlife habitat and natural resources are being depleted at an alarming rate.
The scope of the problem seems so vast that we often wonder how anything we do as individuals can possibly make a difference. Yet single-family homes in the United States produce 21% of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Our homes, at least, are something we, as individuals, do have the power to change.
Reducing energy consumption. Green remodeling offers an excellent opportunity to stop being part of the problem and to become part of the solution. Excessive energy consumption, and the negative environmental impacts associated with producing all that energy, can be dramatically reduced and you can save money on your utility bills into the bargain). Choices as simple and inexpensive as plugging air leaks or switching to more efficient light bulbs can have an enormous impact. And that’s just the beginning.
Reducing a home’s energy consumption by 25% to 40% or even more is not uncommon in green remodeling projects, and well within reach for most people. And today, the holy grail of net zero energy use is no longer a just dream but, for an increasing number of homeowners, a reality.
But there is more to green remodeling than just improving energy efficiency. Greener homes not only consume less fossil fuel, but they also make more efficient use of natural resources like water and lumber. They reduce waste, make innovative use of materials with recycled content, and extend the useful life of valuable resources that once would have ended up in a landfill.
Healthy homes. Going green also means making homes healthier. Americans spend, on average, 90% of their time indoors. For young children and senior citizens, the percentage is higher. But the air indoors is commonly two to five times as polluted as outdoor air--and much more than that in some homes. It is no coincidence that rates of asthma and allergies have skyrocketed in recent years.
Indoor pollutants are blamed for a vast array of symptoms including headaches, fatigue, dizziness, sore throats, eye irritation, nasal congestion, and rashes, among others. Exposure to toxins such as formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are contained in many kinds of building materials, furnishings, and finishes are among the prime culprits. In many homes, excessive moisture fosters the growth of mold and mildew, posing serious health risks. And even the cleaning products used every day in millions of homes can have negative impacts on health.
Finite resources. Unavoidably, the very act of building and remodeling homes uses up a lot of stuff: everything from lumber to steel to a wide range of building products derived from petroleum, such as paints, plastics, and floor and wall coverings. And lots of other things. But is there an infinite supply of these things? Obviously, there is not.
If the earth contains a finite amount of natural resources, which clearly it must, and each year we keep using up those resources faster than we did the year before, which we certainly are doing, that is not something that can be sustained indefinitely. So we are simply going to have to find ways to use less of things that cannot easily be replaced and to reuse as much that can’t as we can.
The scope of the problem seems so vast that we often wonder how anything we do as individuals can possibly make a difference. Yet single-family homes in the United States produce 21% of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. Our homes, at least, are something we, as individuals, do have the power to change.



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