How to Build a Sustainable Home

What does it mean to create a sustainable home?

Essentially, it means creating a home that could survive a zombie apocalypse. If all supplies from outside were 

cut off and you were unable to leave your home or get energy from the grid… would you be able to survive?

It also means that your home is carbon neutral. It means that you aren’t contributing to an imaginary zombie 

apocalypse and that if your family lived there for a thousand generations, it would do nothing to accelerate 

global warming or any other damage to the environment.

With all that said then, how do you go about building a sustainable home? What are some sustainable tips 

that you can implement?

Solar Panels

Investing in solar panels for your home is a great way to reduce your energy bill. Solar voltaic panels on your 

ceilings will convert the energy from sunlight into a current that you can use to charge your appliances 

completely freely and with no by-products. It costs a bit to get started and won't be enough to power all your 

household items, but it's a huge step in the right direction and there are various grants and rebates on offer in 

many areas to make the deal even sweeter. 

And while you might not be able to power your entire lifestyle from solar panels, they will nevertheless 

be enough to keep your essentials running in a power-outage (think fridge, portable heater etc.).

Solar panels are a must-have for a sustainable home.

Solar Chargers and Generators

On a much smaller scale, you can still make use of solar energy without having to cover your roof in panels. 

Simply buy yourself a solar generator – or even a charger for your phone, tablet or laptop. This way you can 

charge these power-hungry devices outside with no need to plug them into the wall. Many of these devices 

come with long cords and are waterproof, meaning you can keep them outside while you work and play 

indoors. Likewise, there are also many solar powered devices you can use that have their solar panels built in 

such as garden lights.

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy is simply energy from deep underground where the earth is hot enough to heat up the 

water held in pipes. This is highly useful for heating swimming pools and radiators and again has no 

by-products. The only downside is having to have your garden dug up to a large extent in order to install them. 

Again, though this is an investment that should pay for itself in the long run.

If you add a wind turbine into the mix, then your home will be generating power in all manner of ways – which 

may be almost enough to entirely cut ties with your energy provider!

Grow Your Own

Growing your own fruit vegetables is a perfect option if you really want to live off of the grid in a truly 

sustainable manner. This way, you can eat without making a trip into town and without relying on 

environmentally impactful farming. Likewise, you could consider keeping hens, farming, using a food 

dehydrator (to keep fruit and veg edible for longer) and collecting rainwater. Of course an organic garden is 

also essential.

Lifestyle

Your sustainable home also comes down to your lifestyle. It means learning to enjoy free activities that are 

right on your doorstep. It means making friends with your local community and it means trading goods and 

services rather than having them mass-produced and imported from overseas. It’s a way of life that is far 

more sustainable and much kinder to the planet and it becomes possible once you build a home with 

efficiency and independence in mind.