The 5 Resources of Home Sustainability (and what we can do about it)

The 5 Resources of Home Sustainability (and what we can do about it)

Believe it or not, our homes contribute 15% to greenhouse gas emissions that impact climate change. To some, 15% may not seem like a lot, but I think that we’d all be excited about a 15% pay raise or a 15% return on an investment! 15% is fairly significant.

We control our homes

We have direct control of our home and of our lifestyle – unlike the other large greenhouse gas contributors (agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, etc.). We certainly have an indirect impact on those contributors as well (for example, we can help to reduce agriculture’s impact by eating less meat), but we directly control our homes and the way that we live in and use them on a daily basis.

And, you don’t necessarily have to own your home. Even renters have direct control over certain aspects of the home’s (or building’s) emissions.

When we talk about the home’s impact on climate change, we talk about the resources that come into and go out of our homes. There are 5 primary resources:

• Heating Fuel
• Electricity
• Water
• Food & Food Waste
• Products & Product Waste (i.e. product packaging)

Dean Berg introduces these 5 resources during a presentation at Sustainable Marblehead’s Green Energy Home and Car Show:

We’ll summarize the 5 resources below, but feel free to view our other article, Climate Change: What is your Sustainability Score?, for a more detailed explanation.

Heating Fuel

For those of us that live in cooler climates, heating fuel is typically one of the larger contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change – especially if we are heating with oil or gas. As an example, 1000 US gallons of oil emits 9.6 metric tons of CO2 which is 58% of an average American’s  annual emissions.

Electricity

Another large contributor, especially if used for air conditioning, is electricity. The emissions from our electricity usage actually occurs before the electricity reaches our home. The emissions from electricity are created during the actual generation of electricity at a power plant through the burning of fossil fuels. That is, unless the electricity that you use is generated from a clean energy source like hydro, wind, or solar. Unfortunately, only 12-15% of the electricity generated in the US today is from a clean energy source (source: Wikipedia).

Water

The conservation of water is important for two reasons. The first is that we have a global water shortage and the second is that the processing and transportation of water requires energy that, in turn, creates greenhouse gas emissions. Today, the average American uses 200 gallons of water directly and 2,000 gallons indirectly per day!

Food & Food Waste

Most people don’t realize the impact that their food habits have on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change – but it is HUGE! Of the top 100 solutions to slowing and reversing climate change, Food & Food Waste break into the top 5 at #3 and #4. (source: Drawdown) Food & Food Waste impacts fall into 1 of 3 categories: our diet, the distance that the food travels to reach our table, and our food waste.

Product & Product Waste

Similar to food, ‘what’ we buy, how far it travels, and how much we send to the landfill (versus recycling), has a direct impact on the greenhouse gasses emitted from our product consumption.

As you can see, we do have direct control over the 5 resources that come into and go out of our homes. The above was a short summary of the 5 resources. To get a more in-depth understanding of what actions you can take within each of the 5 resources, please view our article: Climate Change: What is your Sustainability Score?

Moreover, articles going into further depth about the importance of some of these resources will be released in the coming months. If you are interested in getting notified when these posts are made, subscribe to our email list!

For a more personalized analysis of your home and your lifestyle within your home, check out our Home Sustainability Plan page to see how you can get your very own personalized roadmap to sustainability.