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Meadows Group Inc., Realtors
1902 SE Morrison St.
Portland, OR 97214
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!
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Here's some basic but vitally important facts about building and living in our homes in the US: land use, energy consump
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