A Green Homes Revolution is Happening around the World: Terri Wills, World Green Building Council

Author:
Terri Wills

When we think of green buildings, we often picture towering office buildings with green walls and state-of-the-art technologies – such as the iconic Empire State Building retrofit or the EDGE office building in Amsterdam – with shiny LEED or BREEAM plaques at reception, boasting of their environmental credentials.

But whether small, big, multi-unit, stand-alone, urban, rural, it is actually the humble green home which represents one of the greatest untapped opportunities to improve our lives.

Homes represent directly 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but they can also contribute to serious health problems. According to the World Health Organization, lung and respiratory diseases associated with poor indoor environment quality are three of the top five leading causes of death.

Greening our homes will help us as individuals and as a society to thrive today – and in the future.

So why, then, are all homes not green? Many of our 74 Green Building Councils see a few key barriers. These include:

The article's full-text is available here.

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