Sustainable Urban Living: Finding Eco-Friendly Homes in the City
By Jack Shaw
Eco-warriors used to move out of the city to be closer to nature. Urban heat island effect, mismanaged garbage, bad outdoor air quality, contaminated waterways, loud noises, excessive artificial outdoor lighting — you name it. Fortunately, more municipalities are taking climate action seriously, making cities more sustainable and more attractive to the environmentally conscious again.
What Is a Sustainable City?
A sustainable city allows people to live, work and enjoy life without contributing to the environmental ills rendering the planet inhospitable for humans, wildlife and plants.
Green municipalities are products of thoughtful urban planning and diligent management. Sustainable towns aren’t car-dependent. Instead, they have green public transportation options. Their neighborhoods are walkable and bikeable, discouraging private vehicle ownership.
These cities account for many of the 138,000 public charging stations in the United States, powering quiet, zero-emission, electric vehicles. Renewable energy sources — solar, wind, hydro, and biomass — electrify their commercial and residential properties. Local policymakers push for urban farming practices, promoting food security and reducing agriculture-related carbon emissions.
Sustainable cities have plenty of green space, counterbalancing heat-absorbing surfaces and helping outdoor air temperatures stay within a safe, comfortable range. Urban vegetated areas are wildlife habitats, providing shelter and sustenance to native critters and migratory species.
Ecologically conscious towns have green infrastructures—environmental features that naturally clean water sources to complement or replace wastewater treatment plants. They prioritize waterless hardware to conserve as much H2O as possible. These cities also harvest rainwater and manage various waste types accordingly to prevent stormwater pollution.
Although most cities lack all these characteristics, more and more are striving to embody them in the name of climate resilience.
What Is an Eco-Friendly House?
An eco-friendly house is any piece of residential real estate with minimal or no negative environmental impact. Home eco-friendliness is a spectrum — the more greener features a house has, the more environmentally sound it is.
Types of eco-friendly residences include:
- Prefabricated: Prefab homes consist of factory-made pieces, like modules, reducing waste and construction site disruption.
- Container: Container homes are repurposed shipping containers that have retired from cargo vessels. Giving these used giant storage boxes a new lease on life extends their value and keeps them from rusting, helping reduce air, soil, and water pollution and health hazards.
- Tiny: Tiny houses are residences with below-average square footage. Examples include homes on wheels, accessory dwelling units, campervans, and small cabins. Due to their size, they need less electricity and water than usual. Plus, they can be easier to maintain and need fewer cleaning products that may emit harmful fumes.
- Passive: Passive homes are super energy-efficient. They have exceptional thermal enclosure systems — airtight building envelopes, continuous insulation and high-performance windows. These homes also value moisture control, daylighting and shading.
- Net-zero: Net-zero homes generate electricity from renewable energy sources and produce enough to offset their carbon footprints in a given year.
- Climate-positive: Carbon-positive make more clean electricity than they need and send the surplus to the grid.
- Zero-carbon: Zero-carbon homes emit no greenhouse gasses at all.
These eco-friendly homes aren’t mutually exclusive. Tiny houses can be carbon-positive, while container homes can be passive. Building codes and zoning regulations have restricted and limited the construction of some of them. Cities with climate action plans may promote eco-living and support policies pushing for greener housing options.
City Life and Green Home Ownership
Owning an eco-friendly home in urban areas is more feasible than ever. The pandemic has inspired developers to build more mixed-use spaces by converting aging inner-city buildings and construction on infill lots. These properties promote high population density without accelerating urban sprawl, preserving greenbelts that serve as carbon sinks, wildlife habitats, and pollution controls.
Mixed-use development projects merge residential with commercial, encouraging residents to walk and bike from home to office, and vice versa, minimizing car-aided commutes and helping decarbonize neighborhoods. Various sustainable home options aim to reduce housing unaffordability in cities with high living costs.
What Is the Most Eco-Friendly Type of House?
Climate-positive homes may be the most eco-friendly because they generate clean electricity for others and positively contribute to the energy mix. Zero-carbon homes have a solid argument for being the greenest, for they release no climate change gasses at home.
Then again, sustainability has environmental, social and economic components. Aside from powering themselves cleanly and efficiently, eco-friendly homes must also use locally sourced and circular materials.
Eco-friendly houses must also promote good health. They keep outdoor and indoor air quality levels high through increased natural ventilation and the use of products with minimal or no toxic content, such as volatile organic compounds. They also welcome adequate sunlight to trigger Vitamin D products on the skin and disinfect surfaces with ultraviolet radiation.
Are Eco-Friendly Houses More Expensive?
Going green means spending more greenbacks — for now. Eco-friendly houses are usually more expensive than traditional homes because they require less cheap materials than timber, steel, and concrete. The specialty products that make them what they are, like triple-pane window glazing, also inflate the bill.
Moreover, the growing demand for eco-friendly houses also puts upward pressure on their prices. Mortgage down payments range from 3.5% to 20%, depending on the price you and the seller agree to and the amount a lender is willing to let you borrow. The wider the gap between your prospective eco-friendly house’s fair market and appraised values, the more cash you need when closing on it.
No Eco-Friendly Local Homes, No Problem
Although the sustainability movement is gaining steam across the U.S., many local housing markets still need more green properties. Thankfully, you don’t need to find a preexisting sustainable house to enjoy eco-living in the city.
Energy-efficient mortgages (EEM) simultaneously finance home purchases and green improvements — no need to apply for a separate loan later to fund upgrades. While many EEM programs are government-insured, taking out a conventional one may increase your buying power so you can choose from more property options.
Eco-Friendly Housing in the City — Marrying Urban Living With Sustainability
Pleas to make urban areas greener are bearing fruit. Although rebuilding cities to be more sustainable and climate-resilient requires considerable resources, urbanites can already celebrate being eco-warriors without moving to the countryside. Regardless of the number of local green residences available, applying for an EEM can help you attain home ownership and personal climate goals.
Author’s bio: Jack Shaw is the senior editor of the men’s lifestyle magazine Modded and has written extensively about electric vehicles, sustainable practices, and maintaining a green lifestyle through your everyday actions. His writing can be found in Green Living Journal, Packaging Digest, EcoHotels, and more. Connect with him via his LinkedIn.