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Any sus­tain­abil­i­ty con­sul­tant will tell you that a building’s insu­la­tion is a cru­cial part in con­struct­ing an ener­gy-effi­cient, high per­for­mance home. Choos­ing the right mate­r­i­al and insu­la­tion method for a build ensures home­own­ers will have a sus­tain­able build­ing enve­lope for the life cycle of the…

While it may seem that hav­ing to com­ply with con­stant­ly-evolv­ing build­ing codes is just part of doing busi­ness in a mod­ern soci­ety, that’s not real­ly true.

While it’s great news that we’re not cur­rent­ly using more ener­gy to run our homes, the study also ​“rais­es impor­tant con­cerns about mak­ing home ener­gy use more effi­cient.” If American’s time at home con­tin­ues to rise, home effi­cien­cy will need to as well.

Com­mer­cial con­trac­tors and their clients are show­ing a greater inter­est in design­ing build­ings that can stand strong dur­ing nat­ur­al dis­as­ters. In their quest for for­ti­fied mate­ri­als, more of them are turn­ing to ICF con­struc­tion.

As green build­ing becomes more com­mon prac­tice, there is a trend towards low­er con­struc­tion costs asso­ci­at­ed with build­ing sus­tain­ably, due to improved tech­nolo­gies and more read­i­ly avail­able envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly build­ing mate­ri­als.

We’ve com­piled a list of zero-ener­gy homes that incor­po­rate sus­tain­able con­struc­tion into the build­ing process. The results are 5 facil­i­ties that prove zero net ener­gy can be achieved with care­ful plan­ning and appro­pri­ate imple­men­ta­tion.