Building a Sustainable Home

Practical Green Design Choices for Your Health, Wealth and Soul

By: Melissa Rappaport Schifman

Narrated by: Randye Kaye

Whether the listener is building a new home or doing a minor remodel, a homeowner needs a framework by which to guide their decisions. These decisions are based on values, and the author posits that there are really only three reasons to go green:

• For Our Health: By building more sustainably, we reduce our exposure to harmful chemicals and toxins.
• For Our Wealth: By building a more durable home and being more efficient with resources like water and electricity, we reduce our monthly utility bills and ongoing maintenance expenses.
• For Our Soul: Collectively doing the right thing for our planet does make a difference - and that is soul-nourishing.

The green-building movement has produced hundreds of "how-to" books and websites that are filled with tips about green building and what homeowners should do to go green. While helpful and informative, when it comes to making actual purchasing and installation decisions, these books do not make it any easier for a homeowner to prioritize against a budget. Here, Melisssa Rappaport Schifman shares her knowledge and experience for others to use in their journey toward a greener way of living.

©2018 Melissa Rappaport Schifman (P)2021 Tantor

Environmentalism for the super bougie

I appreciate the LEED certification explanation but it's all from the perspective of someone who wants to have a bougie, pretty, big house and the author is sort of obsessed with cost benefit analysis

Irritating, but still useful

The slightly smug text (or reading) really annoyed me, but I made myself finish listening,
It was valuable for the overview but I suspect absolutely annoying for anyone with any deep knowledge of any of the topics covered. But not bad for a newcomer. Really.
Anything I did not know about felt illuminating.
Anything I felt familiar felt ill-informed and often trite.
Longview--probably bad. But still in an odd way valuable because it covered so many parts of a complicates process.
I also felt the never ending search for LEEDs points was overdone and led to a contrived story underlining the privilege that needed no other nail in the coffin.

Not informative

The book is basically a circular conversation about the benefits of sustainable building. There's no real substance or how to information.

This is definitely attainable

The point at which current methods of housing construction are no longer sustainable is clearly in view—it's actually been within sight for some time. In this book Melissa Rappaport Schifman describes her actual experiences in designing her own home to be sustainable. The author demonstrates in this practical project that sustainability is not only attainable, it actually is so from tangible financial, health, and general sense of well being perspectives.

Don't be put off by the extremely left brain technical considerations addressed in their minute detail—each step of the hard slog through mind numbing arcane and seemingly arbitrary technical minutiae is accompanied by a sense of higher purpose throughout. On the other hand, those with a knack for calculations will be in green eyeshades heaven. The calculations are based on the requirements of LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which is a voluntary rating system created by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 1998 that certifies the sustainability of new and planned buildings. The narrative of pursuing LEED points is actually entertaining (as in "will they qualify for this point or not").

Schifman presents a bottom line target that is clear: 100% energy from renewable sources; 0% of toxic chemicals released to air, water, or land (which is an industry, more so than residential, action item); 100% of waste is recycled or composted (the only way to be financially sustainable for food, clothing, and transportation); and we need to vote with our wallets to support businesses that are more sustainable. The author points out that we have the tech and the knowledge—and this could be the moonshot of our time.

We should do all we can through voting and communicating with elected officials to demand housing that is both affordable and sustainable—don't let anyone convince you this is not attainable. The alternative is the continuation of rampant uncontrolled development that benefits no one but unsustainable profit takers.