4 Easy Ways to Incorporate Sustainability in Building

4 Easy Ways to Incorporate Sustainability in Building

No matter whether you are a sole trader, a larger building company there are good reasons to add sustainability practices to your business strategies – and easy ways to do it. Being environmentally friendly has become fashionable and for good reason. It not only saves you on costs, but it can give your business an edge over the competition if you offer people sustainable building advice.

Here are 5 easy ways to implement sustainability –

• When ordering building supplies, if you don’t deal in bulk supplies take care to order only what is needed, in timber especially. If you do happen to run out you can save by profiting from other builders who order too much and end up dumping it in landfill or giving it to the recycling centre where they could make recycled furniture or save them time and the effort of on-selling it.  There is a great deal of new timber that finds its way into landfill, which is a shocking waste of a resource that takes years to be ready for cutting.
• Suggest your clients salvage such things as windows, doors, tiles and other materials from the recycling plant. They – and you – can save  quite a bit doing this where you couldn’t really do it on their behalf unless they asked you to. They would need to choose the patterns and colours of the tiles, anyway.

• If you create floor plans, always add in sustainability to the designs. Pointing this out to your clients will be sure to please them. Designs that are ‘green’ use larger windows for warmer climates and wider eaves to add shade in the summer as well as many other things. In addition, ensuring the living areas are situated facing the sunny side of the property will make the most of natural light and warmth. Changing a house design so this can be done is another way to ensure the homes you build are sustainable.
• Waste is always a big part of building. There are many off-cuts of timber, left over tiles and other things that are not used up when building a home. Rather than dumping them in landfill, suggest the homeowner keep them in the ceiling space to be used as replacement for broken parts, especially with tiles that can break or deck flooring that may rot over time. The homeowner will be please and you’ll save on the cost of taking waste to the tip, not to mention wasting good materials.

When you consider the matter you’ll find there are many other ways to ensure your business follow sustainable practices that are so important in an industry that uses the earth’s resources so much. While timber is a renewable resource, it takes many years for trees to grow, so conserving timber is a good thing.