In recent years, sustainability for new development has centered on reducing resource use and emissions in water, waste, and energy. A more recent item bearing attention is biodiversity.
Greenfield housing development typically reduces wildlife habitat, but there are proven strategies that minimize this impact. More direct collaboration between a project’s urban designer, architect, and a team of landscape architects, ecologists, and sustainability consultants during the earliest planning phases yields benefits.
For instance, base-standard houses could include elements like green roofs, green walls, and landscapes with biodiversity-enhancing plant species instead of just those that happen to be available at the local nursery.
Related Stories
Codes + Standards
NAHB Critiques FEMA Study on Resiliency
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is taking issue with a new study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that quantified the…
High-Performance Homes
Can High Performance Be Cheaper Than Code Compliant?
On this week's installment of The Weekly, Jim Nostedt, president of SEEFAR Building Analytics, lays out a formula that shows how total cost of…
Codes + Standards
NAHB Successfully Appeals Two Proposed Changes to the IECC
Two of the National Association of Home Builders’ appeals to the 2021 building code were accepted by the International Code Council Board of…
