What is a green home?

Phoenix green homes

Green is not about global warming. Green is about the decisions you make that have an impact upon your health, your pocketbook, and the surrounding environment.

Green is a growing trend in real estate aimed at promoting resource efficiency, conservation, and sustainability and enhancing the health and well being of the owner while providing tangible cost savings to the home owner.

Resource efficiency, conservation, and sustainability are practices that reduce the amount of materials and energy required, eliminating the need to use new materials, and promoting the use of materials that are easily replenished. Efficient homes require less electricity. Building conservation employs advanced techniques that greatly reduce the amount of materials needed to build a home while achieving the same if not greater efficiency and aesthetics throughout the home. Sustainability utilizes materials, like bamboo for example, that do not have a negative impact upon the environment.

Green also refers to how a home affects the health and well-being of a home owner. Hazards such as radon, mold, lead, asbestos, wand the indoor air quality can a have significant upon a person’s health. Radon is known to cause cancer. Mold can create significant respiratory issues. Lead is known to cause learning disabilities in children. Asbestos is another known carcinogenic. Poor indoor air quality can lead to a sick home syndrome.

Material to most home buyers out there, green provides a tangible cost savings to the home owner. Energy efficient HVAC systems reduce the monthly utility costs while improving the comfort of the home owner (especially in the hot summer months in Phoenix). Advanced building techniques that require less material save on the production costs of the materials used in the home. For home owners, green translates to increased appreciation of their home (and when they decide to sell, it results in a faster sale).

If you are ready to go green, contact Green Leaf Realty at (602) 899-7653.