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Owners and renters can have a significant impact and reinforce best practices at home and at work. This increases the likelihood that positive behavior changes can be successfully adopted.
Regional conditions and economic limitations may limit some opportunities to undertake energy, water, or other sustainability upgrades. Restrictions might include local code requirements, lack of waste management infrastructure, or geographical constraints. Alternately, other owners and renters may be located in areas with multiple environmental initiative opportunities, such as reliable public transit or municipal recycling and composting programs. Identify any context-specific restrictions that may affect environmental impact areas as well as opportunities for improvement in other aspects of sustainability.
Considerations
Impact areas included in the residential chapter parallel those incorporated into the remainder of the Guide: energy, water, materials, and indoor environment.
Recommended initiatives presented in each impact area are designed to facilitate positive resident behaviors. For each impact area, residents should evaluate how and when to make effective changes in homes or apartments.
For leased residents, residents should consider strategies to encourage landlords to undertake larger retrofits, especially for those rentals where the resident pays utilities. Opportunities include energy-efficient lighting, programmable thermostats, and water-efficient fixtures. For owned residences, residents should strive to reduce transportation, water, energy, GHG emissions, and waste as part of overall maintenance activities.
The most effective sequence for pursuing residential sustainability strategies is as follows:
- Staff engagement: Owners and renters have significant impact on the adoption of conservation technologies and strategies, and their engagement can accelerate actions taken at home. Site Green Teams should pay attention to ensuring that appropriate tools are provided, and staff are aware of programs that may be available in their community.
- Auditing and improvements: A residential audit can be performed on all housing. In some cases, local utilities will facilitate access to auditors to help with energy assessments. No- and low-cost measures identified in the audit can have immediate and significant benefits in each impact area, for both leased and owned facilities.
- Upgrades: When upgrades or major renovations are being considered, there are both short- and long-term benefits in pursuing efficiency upgrades. Lifecycle cost analysis (LCCA) allows owners to prioritize proposed efficiency upgrades. For rentals, residents can approach landlords to pursue efficiency upgrades as part of lease negotiations.