Greenhouse vs Green Houses

Précis

I have chosen this topic as I am really interested in the environmental issues and I also think that protecting our planet must be one of our major goals. To know how to do this, we have to understand how bad and harmful the greenhouse gases are and how we can fight against them by building green houses and live eco.

As the popularity of eco friendly housing developments continues to rise, more and more people are looking to the future by purchasing an eco-home.

The reason for building greener homes is really quite important. We need to live more lightly on the earth, because the degradation of our environment is compromising not only our survival, but the survival of most other living beings on the planet. We can no longer ignore the impact we have on the earth's ecosystems. The way we live, the choices we make in providing for our needs, will have an enormous influence on the quality of life of those who will follow us. Now is the time to take responsibility for the consequences of our life styles!

How we build our homes, both in design and choice of materials, is one of the most significant ways that we can affect our future. Much of the concern boils down to the use of energy. How much energy is embodied in the building materials themselves, in their transportation and assembling? Then once the house is built, how much energy does it consume to keep its inhabitants comfortable? Consumption of energy has a direct influence on environmental quality, because of the inherent pollution through greenhouse gasses and other emissions. Then there is the loss of natural beauty, ecosystems and basic resources associated with the extraction of fossil fuels and building materials. The combined effect of this is staggering.

Introduction

Saving the planet, like charity, begins at home. Here is described what people have learned in trying to make our household less damaging to the environment. By "household" people mean the way people run our house and also how people travel around. Making an ordinary house green could make a fascinating subject for a TV series.

The main emphasis in these notes is on possible ways of cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly CO2. Amongst environmental problems, climate change is "the big one" both in terms of the threats that it poses, the difficulty of solving the problem and the urgency of the action that is needed.

People quite like the idea of building an 'eco' house, but this would teach us less about what can be done with existing houses. Given that the UK is unlikely to tear down its entire stock of houses and rebuild from scratch, zero-carbon 'eco-renovation' of existing houses is where the real challenge lies.

Green building, also known as green construction or sustainable building, is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from sitting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction. This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort.

Although new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices in creating greener structures, the common objective is that green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by: efficiently using energy, water, and other resources, protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity, reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation.

Our spreadsheet on CO2 emissions and savings shows that it is relatively easy to make quite substantial cuts in CO2 emissions. Without great expense, inconvenience or discomfort, people have already managed to cut our CO2 emissions by about 50%. If the same is true of industry and commerce—which people suspect it is—then, with the right incentives (provided by Government), the UK should be able to reach the Government's target of a 60% cut in CO2 emissions much sooner than the 2050 date that they have set.