Agency Info
Meadows Group Inc., Realtors
1902 SE Morrison St.
Portland, OR 97214
Look Who’s Seeing Green in Portland
Portland listed on many Top Green City lists
We like to think of our city as the greenest place around. We do have many reasons to be proud of our goals for many decades to preserve our natural beauty. Alot of others would agree. Here’s just a few of the cool lists we made:
webecoist.com
Portland #2 Green City 2009
Cars.com
Portland #2 Green City 2009
Mother Nature Network
Portland #1 Green City 2009
Popular Science
Portland #1 Green City 2008
Country Home Magazine
Portland #2 Green City 2008
Sustainlane.com
Portland #1 Green City 2008
Yahoo! Real Estate
Portland #1 Green City 2007
EPA Stats Show How Homes Impact Our Environment
Didn't your Mom tell you "when you leave a room turn off the light!"?
Here’s some basic but vitally important facts about building and living in our homes in the US: land use, energy consumption, air quality, water use and waste. The Environmental Protection Agency publishes these facts on their website.
1. As of 2000 there were nearly 116 million residential buildings in the United States.
2. As of 2003 more than 1.8 million homes were being built here annually.
3. Total land area in the US, not counting Alaska and Hawaii, is 1.9 billion acres, of which 107 million acres are developed. This represents a 24% increase in developed land over the years from 1992-2002.
4. Total US buildings accounted for 39.4% of total US energy consumption in 2002, and of that, 54.6% was residential homes, and the rest was commercial buildings.
5. All US buildings used 67.9% of the electricity in 2002, and of that, 51.2% was residential homes, and the rest was commercial use.
6. US buildings contribute 38.1% of the nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions, including 20.6% from residential and 17.5% from commercial.
7. As of 1995 US building occupants used 12.2% of the total water consumed in the US per day, and of that 25.6% is used by commercial building occupants, and 74.4% by homeowners.
8. Building-related construction and demolition debris totals about 126 million tons per year, accounting for nearly 60% of the total non-industrial waste in the US in 1996.
9. From a study in 1996, about 43% of the construction and demolition debris was from residential sources.
10. It was estimated that between 20-30% of this construction and demolition waste was recovered for processing and recycling, most often concrete, asphalt, metals and wood.
So what does all that mean? Well, in a nutshell, the way we live today can’t be sustained! I think we can all see the impact that we have on our land and its resources. We’ve started to change with our greener ways of living and we’re learning more and more every day. Individually and together, by being smarter about how we build our homes, we can make a difference!
Human Destruction of Forest Homes
For our own selfish needs and desires, we destroy what it took thousands of years to create, in a matter of months and years. We have to stop, or what kind of world will we leave behind? Each of us can make a difference in the way we live our own lives, and together change this course of destruction.
The “Small Home Movement”
Homes Shrinking in Size
Haven’t you heard? Yes… there’s a movement! And it can be seen around the country and the world today. Homes are getting smaller. As the economy suffers, people are realizing that smaller is simpler, less expensive, and improves the quality of our lives in so many ways.
According to a recent article by Nicholas Riccardi in the LA Times (see article here), the National Association of Builders surveyed its members and found that 90% of them are building smaller now. The reasons they gave were increased energy consciousness, empty-nest baby boomers downsizing, and the economic downturn.
What really struck me was that between 1973 and today, homes grew from 1660 sq ft to 2500 sq ft on average across the U.S. Then last year, according to the article, there was a dramatic 11% drop! Some say that people always downsize in a recession. But that large of a drop is seen by many as a possible change in the trend toward larger homes of recent decades. And that’s great news for those of us who believe its time to make less of an impact on our planet.
Jerry Clifford, a Minneapolis, Minnesota Real Estate Agent, writes that smaller homes improve our lives in many ways: cheaper utilities, easier to keep clean, prevent us from owning too many unnecessary “things”, and getting clutter out of our lives. They help us be smarter about storage and in better planning of our living spaces, such as unused rooms that are available only for “when company comes”. Like so many of my generation, I grew up in a fairly large home over 3000 sq ft, and two large rooms of the home were the formal living and dining room, which were separated from the rest of our house by shuttered doors. They were only opened “when company came”, which was maybe 3 or 4 times each year, especially during the holidays. What a waste!
Small homes are also cheaper to maintain, repair and remodel because they require less materials and time. They are by their very nature more “green” because they take less resources to build. And especially important today, they are usually less money which means a smaller mortgage and less debt.
By reversing the trend of the last 40 years, we can take better care of our earth so it will be able to support us for generations to come. Sounds like a great plan to me!
Small Home Green Tips
So you’ve bought the small home you’ve been dreaming of! Now you’re wondering what you can do to remodel it, while keeping green in mind? Howdini has some basic ideas to get you started. Please see the video below.
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Monday, October 26th, 2009
Portland listed on many Top Green City lists We like to think of our city as the greenest place around. We do have man EPA Stats Show How Homes Impact Our Environment
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Here's some basic but vitally important facts about building and living in our homes in the US: land use, energy consump
