A sustainable housing checklist

I’ve developed a checklist of five factors to consider when evaluating solutions for building sustainable housing for the developing world.

• Is the house well insulated? In one of my earlier posts, I reported some data from McKinsey that home insulation is the single biggest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. More insulation = more heat. Our BuildFast panel solution is well insulated, both from the EPS foam core and the concrete thermal mass.
• Is the house durable? If a house in the developing world is poor quality and needs to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch in ten years, or if it gets destroyed in an earthquake or hurricane, then that creates a tremendous amount of waste. For maximum sustainability, houses should be durable and resistant to earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, fires, rot and mold.
• Are the same materials used for “double duty” to perform multiple functions? The harder you can make your materials work for you, the fewer materials you’ll need. One reason I’m so excited about our BuildFast panels is that the concrete is used to create structural integrity, as well as for the outside coating of the house.
• Are the house materials produced locally? Shipping vessels are powered by oil, so when materials need to be shipped long distances, that’s a negative for the environment. If only a few BuildFast House Kits are ordered, we do ship them from San Francisco. But for larger orders, we would prefer to come on-site to assemble the kits for you from materials produced locally, to reduce our environmental impact.
• Can the future residents meaningfully participate in construction? As Habitat for Humanity has shown us, it can be useful & rewarding for the future residents of a home to participate in its construction. And needing to use professional contractors adds significant construction expense, which is sad when people are so willing to work hard themselves to build their own home, but may not have the skills. One thing I love about our product is that even unskilled people can build with it, so you can spend less on professional help.

Please send me your thoughts on any other items you would add to the checklist – I’m interested in your feedback.