Doing A Home Renovation? 6 Things To Consider To Make It More Sustainable

After so much time at home, many people are feeling the itch to redesign, renovate, or rebuild altogether. These changes can get really resource-intensive really quickly, and eco-minded homeowners might be wondering if there's anything they can do to keep their renos as sustainable as possible. To find out how to pull off a grand redesign on a small footprint, we asked architect and author of House to Home: Designing Your Space for the Way You Live Devi Dutta-Choudhury for some insider tips:

Lighting cues can also help you decide how to lay out your new space. "Maybe you don't want a quiet bedroom on a super-sunny side of the house or a kitchen in a dark corner," she says. "That's something simple to think about from the beginning, but it's harder to change later on."

Nonetheless, she recommends going into a project with the intention of saving and salvaging whenever possible, to reduce your need for new materials. Who knows; you might be rewarded with beautiful wood framing that can be repurposed as vanities, countertops, etc.

Some cities in the U.S. are now requiring that a certain percentage of construction waste be diverted away from landfills. If that's not the case where you live, keeping these materials out of the dump will require working closely with your contractor, since they'll have to keep an eye out for elements that can be recycled, donated, or reused during the demolition process. "It's something you have to build into the project beforehand with the contractor so they know that's a goal of yours," Dutta-Choudhury advises.

With that in mind, she considers the most sustainable materials to be the ones you can buy locally: Look into what's available within 200 miles of your home to cut down on the emissions it takes to ship such heavy materials across the world.

While they require a significant upfront investment, Dutta-Choudhury says that finishes like induction stoves, energy-efficient appliances, well-insulated walls, and thick casement windows (which open outward instead of sliding to allow for more airflow) can all reduce your home's emissions in the long run.

"What do you really like? If you create that in a high-quality way, that will be timeless," she says, adding that enduring styles like mid-century modern and Art Nouveau prove that authentic, thoughtful design will only get better with age. Music to any environmentalist's ears.