There in currently no such thing as a truly sustainable building, but every day we have the opportunity to move one step further in the right direction. The huge amount of available land in the Western Mountain Region has often led to its inefficient use. While most designers are only responsible for the arrangement of a single building on a single site, this piecemeal approach is detrimental to the whole. Designers and builders have a special responsibility to lead the call for environmentally sustainable planning. Reduction of the overall building size which can also cut both initial and long-term costs.
Many banks now offer lower mortgage rates for energy efficient homes.
The financial common sense of energy efficiency is becoming obvious to the average building owner and developer. Initial steps to reduce this waste include salvaging and recycling demolition debris, leaving packaging at the point of purchase, and using materials which do not leave waste behind. Steel, aluminum, glass and paper can be successfully recycled because markets exist for these products and costs can be competitive with virgin materials. A shift in thinking is necessary about the way everything is produced, including buildings, and every product that goes into them. Much of what we now throw in landfills could be designed to be dismantled at the end of its useful life so that the component parts can be reformed into a new version of the same type of product.