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When we talk about developing sustainable homes, we are referring to cost-effective strategies for ensuring human health and reducing our environmental impact. In designing a healthy home, important considerations include air quality, water quality, natural light and thermal comfort. In terms of reducing the home’s environmental impact, we can look to our use of energy, water and materials. There are, of course, many ways to move towards sustainability when designing and building new homes or retrofitting existing ones. It is also essential however, that we examine and reshape our daily behavior, in order to promote environmental consciousness and responsibility

With over 7 billion people on earth, humankind’s demand for energy, water and resources is having a tremendous impact on our environment. We are literally reshaping the natural systems that we rely on for clean air, fresh water and healthy food. Faced with this reality, the question of how to sustainably co-exist with each other and with nature is of increasing importance – indeed, it is the question of our time.

Building design plays a key role in this equation. Throughout the twentieth century, most buildings were designed with little concern for how much energy, water and materials were consumed, or how this might impact the human and ecological health. This led to enormous waste, and introduced innumerable toxins into the world around us.

Not all the things you want to look at for your custom home need to be about washers and dryers when it comes to Energy Star ratings. There’s more to it than just the appliances.Although there are design elements that need to be taken into account when you’re looking at where your new appliances will fit into the scheme of things, you need to consider what the design of the place can accomplish working with Energy Star.

Of course you should still look at what top rated appliances can accomplish. It’s quite possible that you’ll need to trim from the budget here and there as you design that custom home, and getting these top rated appliances can help you save in the long run by cutting down on your energy bills.

In the wake of Toronto’s recent flood (July 8, 2013), it seems appropriate to discuss the role of design in water management. As Mark Mattson (@waterkeepermark) of Lake Ontario Waterkeeper explained on today’s Metro Morning, Toronto’s sewer and stormwater infrastructure is combined. When it is overrun during heavy rain events, our rainwater and sewage end up mixing, bypassing our treatment system to be discharged directly into the lake (or in the case of yesterday’s storm, our streets, subways and basements!).

 

The resulting spread of bacteria can have detrimental effects on human and ecological health. And while we continue to build in the city (including countless condos in the downtown core), the capacity of our infrastructure remains the same, thus increasing the likelihood of system overload. Given this reality, it is all the more important that we design for water management.