Turning home into greener spaces or making a green home is the underlying dream of most of us. But to make that happen, we need to put in some effort. Here, I jotted down some of my learnings that will help you make your home greener.
THE NEED
Today we are hearing a lot of great stories from people living in different countries across the world about becoming more environmentally-conscious and eco friendly. We are looking at people turning their homes into more green spaces in order to face the challenges of climate change and towards creating a better future. Creating greener spaces will not only help you contribute to a sustainable environment but it can also save you a lot of money.
THE PROBLEM
“Necessity is the mother of invention, they said but what If I say there are still necessities that need invention but still the needs are not being recognized exactly. There always exists a gap between identifying the right balance between the necessity and invention and nobody is ready to take real responsibility when it comes to changing for the good but are always ready to copy others at all things bad and toxic.
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE IS OUR MINDSET
We as a community tend to copy each other in terms of how we plan or design a home for ourselves. We are going to see how small changes by each of us can inspire everyone around us. These changes at individual levels in our homes can have amazing results in contributing to a collective evolution towards a greater purpose.
NO SOCIAL DISTANCING BETWEEN HOUSES
Today most of the educated community have started to live or most people aspire to live in congested cities and towns as where our localities are filled with houses closely knitted to each other where every inch, every feet matter and cannot be left unutilized.
People buy plots to start building homes keeping in mind to match the expectations of the neighborhood and to look better than anyone else in terms of the design, painting, and aesthetics so that it stands out uniquely and people gaze at your house every time they pass by. But the emphasis is never given when it comes to making it a greener space or living a natural lifestyle that is healthy and has so many elements to make our lives amazing.
THINGS WE NEED TO REALIZE
Our only aim has become to make our homes more sophisticated and to look attractive inside and outside, We tend to think our homes are meant to protect us from the outside environment and that we have to make it as closed a space as possible so that we can disconnect from everything that happens outside.
Thus we have created all kinds of technology and gadgets to aid us in everything from ventilation of air, purifying the drinking water and, making it brighter using different light settings. But how far this can match the naturally available air, water, and, light. Truth is the fresh air, the freshwater, the bright sunlight can never be replaced by any of our inventions.
THINGS TO REMEMBER
Even though we get everything from nature we tend to forget it once it comes inside our homes. Sometimes we even feel like we are creating our own air, water, and, light sources and we are being so selfish that we forget to give back to nature and only dump the waste created after using then on nature.
Living inside our concrete structures and four walls we sometimes forget it is the environment that is supporting us by all means. If the environment is not good we cannot live happily inside our homes. So in order to connect with the environment and live in a way that we too become a part of this environment we need to let nature be part of our homes and making our homes into greener spaces is the best way to do it.
The constant touch and connect of nature and its benefits and how we contribute back to nature is very important for living a better life We need to realize the importance of what nature is providing us and how it is our responsibility to restore what is taking from nature or at least live in a way we do not destroy or damage it.
Here are seven ways to turn your existing home into a greener space.
CREATE A REAL GREENER SPACE
Making Our houses into more greener spaces is not only about making green spaces around the house but still let us start with it. Our first and main responsibility is to possibly plant a tree in spaces available around the house or creating space for at least one tree in our house. Our ancestors have said a tree in a house can be much more useful than growing a child. It is mentally, physically, and,
spiritually a great thing to have a tree in our house. Thus creating spaces to plant trees and small plants all around the house wherever possible is the first step toward turning our house into greener space.
SET UP A ROOF TOP GARDEN
If it is not possible to create greenery around the house the best thing we can all do is setting up a rooftop garden.E very house must surely own a roof to garden so that we connect with nature and give back to nature in some way. Some of the benefits of having a rooftop garden are,
- we will get a lovely place to relax and spend some quality time
- we can plant and harvest our own vegetables and greens and so many benefits alike
- We can be sure it is very healthy and organically ground thus reducing the cost of improving our health in so many ways
- We can get fresh air and purified air. even in summers, we won’t feel the heat downstairs as the plants will soak up all the heat
- We don’t have to depend on anybody even in these corona times a rooftop garden would have helped as we could have safely quarantined and self-sustained with our own vegetables.
- We can use it for recreational activities like yoga, meditation and creating a peaceful environment
- Finally, We can put back the waste of the used vegetables again as manure for soil wealth so that it becomes a natural cycle.
UTILIZE THE RENEWABLE ENERGY
Today our dependency on power generation is the biggest global economic entity. All government’s main focus is to satisfy the energy needs of the people and most of the politics today is about the ability of a country to generate power constantly. So what if each household creates its own electricity. Creating a natural renewable self-sustaining energy source in every house can go a long way in achieving this.
Creating our own energy must be based on the geography of the area, Places receiving a lot of sunshine where solar energy can be utilized so well but still, the people and the government have taken no initiatives to commercialize the usage of solar energy but take this up more seriously. Windy places and places next to the seashores can utilize the source to generate their own power by harvesting the power of the wind
Many people think solar energy is only about setting up solar panels at the terrace of the house and about solar water heating being installed. But solar energy has evolved so much in recent times around the world that they are integrating solar panels in windows, walls, ceilings, and floors nowadays.
These types of inventions have created a way to shade windows and roofs during the summer while maximizing solar gain in the winter. Also, they say effective window placement can provide more natural light and lessen the need for electric lighting during the day which we will be looking at very shortly.
generating renewable energy through solar power, wind power can significantly reduce the environmental impact of the building and make it a greener space and reduce costs for sure as power generation is generally the most expensive feature to add to a building.
Home automation is also becoming a reality so we can even possibly in future automating and integrate smart systems to create and manage our own power. But initially Making our homes into greener spaces must include both measures to reduce energy consumption and also an initiative by us to create our own power sources
BRING IN THE SUNLIGHT
Creating a way to let the natural light come in can save a lot of energy. But somehow in our country, there is not much emphasis given to this. As we have packed houses closed each other and all around us It has become infeasible for us to think about providing large windows and installations to let light inside.
We think of our homes as our secret place and privacy is so important to us we don’t give much importance to creating ways to let the sunlight come inside and create windows made of opaque materials such as wood, steel panels, etc. One way we can solve this is by replacing everything using transparent glass panels so that we can let the natural light come in.
USE WATER EFFICIENTLY
Reducing water consumption and protecting water quality are key objectives for making our homes a greener space. Regarding water consumption, we know that our demands are exceeding the supplying capability of the underground aquifers and its ability to replenish itself. So it is our responsibility in the process of making our homes a greener space to the maximum extent feasible create facilities to emphasize recycling and optimizing the usage of water by collecting used water purify it and re-use it in as many ways possible.
A smart system around our homes to monitor and control water usage and recycle it is the need of the hour as we don’t have much water left to serve us for the future. It is a serious situation that we need to realize and take it up as our responsibility with the future generations in mind. Thus, Reducing water consumption and protecting water quality must become our key objectives in making our homes a greener space
Some useful mechanism I found that are being used to protect and conserve water throughout the life of a building is
- Designing dual plumbing mechanisms that recycle water in toilet flushing or by using water for washing of the cars.
- Waste-water may be minimized by utilizing water conserving fixtures such as ultra-low flush toilets and low-flow showerheads.
- Improving water quality and conserving energy efficiency while reducing the amount of water in circulation can be done by filter settings and smaller openings for taps and showers
- The use of non-sewage and greywater for watering the rooftop garden will minimize demands on the local aquifer.
USE ONLY NATURAL PRODUCTS
The practice of using natural products will go a long way in making our homes into a greener space. We need to make sure that we replace all our toxic chemically treated products into products created from natural materials.
All our cooking ingredients must be organic and our daily Bathing soaps, washing powders, medicines, cooking gas needs, our health and beauty care products, cleaning products all must be from natural products.
Today many brands have turned into this marketing gimmick showing that their products are natural while it’s not. Our job is to not depend on these organic brands. We need to realize that natural organic products cannot be produced in mass numbers for such a large population. True and originally organic brands can never create so much of quantity except in a few cases.
We need to research the internet and find ways to create all these products by ourselves or at least make a try to bu them from contacting locally producing people. We must start using natural ways that are still being followed in villages so that we start living healthily and also don’t damage the environment.
IMPROVE INDOOR AIR QUALITY
The quality of air inside our homes is poorer than outside we always tend to forget or avoid this fact. Indoor Air Quality seeks to reduce volatile organic compounds and other air impurities such as microbial contaminants. Our homes must have properly designed ventilation systems to provide adequate ventilation of cleaner air from outdoors or recirculated, filtered air as well as isolated operations such as kitchen and dry cleaners.
LIVE A MINIMALISTIC LIFESTYLE
The final and all-inclusive way to make your house into a greener and cleaner space is by following the principles of minimalism. The following are some basic principles for living a minimalistic lifestyle
- Get rid of clutter that doesn’t add value to your life and only have things that we need and actively use.
- Spend more on experiences rather than stuff
- Be happier and less stressed
- Go green as much as possible
- Remember the 3 R’s Recycle-Reuse-Reduce
- Don’t depend on material things for seeking happiness
THE RESULTS
As an individual, if we can make these changes and as a community if we work together and start changing the way we live we surely can achieve a way to live sustainably and positively impact the nature around us. In fact, as humans, it must become our responsibility to take care of the environment and help it to support our survival rather than damage it and use it only for our needs and forgetting we are just a part of the environment and our actions impact and affect the nature around us. Let us all promise to create a better world for the future.
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