Making an eco-friendly home is a great goal for SO many reasons; your health, the health of the planet and the health of your wallet! It really is a win-win-win situation.
Whether you’re building from scratch or considering a retrofit, it’s essential to plan on making your home more ecologically sound. Using renewable energy sources, minimizing waste and recycling are all commonly discussed ways we can work to reduce our environmental impact.
Insulate your Home
Making your home eco-friendly is definitely an investment in your future. It may cost a pretty penny upfront, but can end up saving your money in the long run. A great example of that is ensuring your home is properly insulated. Many older homes lack insulation! Insulating walls and updating windows can provide huge energy savings, which will both save you money and be more eco-friendly! Thick curtains can also contribute to your window’s insulation in both cold and warm weather.
Update your Lightbulbs
This is one of the simplest and most affordable ways to make your home more eco-friendly.
In addition to having a longer lifespan than incandescent bulbs, LED bulbs use less energy and generate less heat.
According to the ENERGYSTAR website, LEDS use at least 75% less energy, and last up to 25 times longer than incandescent lighting.
Water Catchment Systems
This eco-friendly home tip literally falls from the sky! Creating water catchment systems off of your gutter system is a great way to reduce your environmental impact. Collecting rainwater is brilliant in areas prone to drought where water use is restricted. You can continue to give your plants much needed water without raising your own water meter!
Instead of using fresh water that you have to pay for, in some regions, it’s even possible to redirect rainwater to fill your toilets.
Clean Green
Did you know that a lot of our tried and true cleaning products are actually toxic to us! Many contain harmful ingredients and fragrances that are known to cause cancer. When washed down the drain, these non-biodegrading products pollute waterways and cause harm to wildlife.
It is really simple and affordable to switch to products that will make yours an eco-friendly home. Baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice and hot water are all excellent non-toxic materials that can clean a variety of surfaces in your home.
Composting Food Waste
Food rotting in landfills is shockingly a big producer of methane gas. Not only does it stink and produce greenhouse gases, it’s also a lost opportunity to get free fertilizer for your lawn and garden! At home composting can even be made attractive with cedar bins or closed tumblers.
Instead of buying expensive and often toxic fertilizers, you can use your finished product in your garden! The benefits of using homemade compost are plentiful; from erosion control to water conservation.
Sustainable Forestry
If you are buying new furniture or building supplies to improve your eco-friendly home, you need to do a little homework first. The wood used should ideally be verified by the FSC
Sustainable forestry focuses on keeping native ecosystems intact. Tree farms, or plantations, allow for timber to be harvested without disturbing native ecosystems. When trees are cut down, new trees are planted in their place. Because quickly growing trees capture more carbon, this type of farming actually sequesters carbon from the atmosphere.
High quality products must come from high quality sources that take the longevity of the environment into consideration. Here at EightDoors, we feel good about the origin of our materials, so you can rest assured that you are getting the best door for you and yours.
EightDoors’ products are manufactured with certified wood, meaning we don’t use wood from;
- Areas where civil and traditional rights have been infringed;
- Forests with high conservation value;
- Genetically modified forests;
- Illegally exploited forest areas;
- Areas in which the native forest is converted into plantations.
Learn more about the origin of our materials.
Sourcing your Products from Ethical Companies
This is perhaps the most important point to consider, as a company that uses sustainable practices is a company that will continue to be reliable.
From the type of energy the factory uses to operate its machinery to the way the company treats their employees, an attempt at sustainability shows that a company is determined to do the right thing.
Look for a door manufacturer that uses “lean manufacturing”, which is a production technique that aspires to eliminate waste during production. An FSC certification also ensures that the wood comes from a regenerative forest!
This not only optimizes the production process but also increases the quality of the produce while minimizing its environmental impact.
For example, Eight Doors uses scraps from the lumber mill to burn to make electricity. This creates a semi-closed loop system, where energy is created through creating the product it was designed to power.
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