Let’s face it - if you are going to try selling your home in 15 years and it isn’t sustainable and energy-efficient, you’ll be screwed. Good luck trying to sell an underperforming, useless, old clunker that’s behind the times.

How to do a sustainable, green, energy-efficient house?

If that isn’t reason enough to make your home high-performance, consider this:

If you design and build your house based on green concepts you will a) spend less energy, b) use renewable energy, c) provide for better air quality in your home, and d) create a home that will last you a lifetime. To design and build green is to design and build better.

So how do you do it? It’s simple. Consider these 4 areas:

● The Quality of Materials: For instance, here in the Southeast, Carbon Capture Concrete is readily available. Regular concrete is responsible for 8% of all greenhouse gas emissions world wide. With Carbon Capture you literally grab CO2 from smokestacks and encapsulate it into the concrete instead of pushing it into our atmosphere. There are many more similar materials you can use: from reclaimed lumber and non toxic insulation to PVC windows and hemp wood flooring.

● Smart Design Practices: Provide your home with a continuous insulation shell and an uninterrupted air barrier. Duh! - you think. But the majority of our homes heat and cool their yard. And: open up your home with large expanses of glass and corresponding overhangs to the south. You will capture the low warm winter sun, expel the hot high summer sun, and consequentially reduce your energy bill drastically.

● Systems: Go all electric and install solar panels on your roof. It’s free. If you finance it, your monthly payment will match the drop in your energy bill. That is today. We are right now at the cusp of change where you will be making money with the power station on your roof.

● Certification Programs: If you want to fine-tune all of this or brag to your neighbors, get it tested. Engage one of the many certification programs: Like LEED, Passive House, or Energy Star.

Design it right. Build it right. Live right.

Go high-performance! You have long left behind the wall-hung-crank of a phone and went all smart with it. Do the same with your home! This is the 21st century.