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| Fig. 1: Example of residential solar panels. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
The residential sector of energy accounts for a large portion of the overall energy sector in many countries. [1] In Sweden it was calculated that domestic energy accounted for almost 25% of overall energy use in the country. Defining what sustainability means in terms of housing is not easy to pinpoint. Within the housing industry trying to define a sustainable house can mean many things. One person might say that a sustainable house simply emits lower amounts of carbon, or none at all. Another view could be that a house can sustain itself, meaning it is able to provide all the energy it and its inhabitants need by itself. One more take on sustainability has to do with the nature of the processes that happen within the house; sustainability happens from cyclical processes not linear ones. This view came from Karl-Henrik Robert, founder of The Natural Step initiative, who believes society continually processes natural resources in a linear direction. The linear direction will eventually reach an end, thus making it unsustainable. Thus, some people may think that sustainable homes are not a real possibility, but it does not mean that they should not be created. Residential buildings play a large role in energy consumption thus contributing to the growing climate change issue we currently face. Low or zero energy buildings have become quite common and lessons learned from them can be applied to sustainable housing. [2] Within the United States commercial and residential buildings use 40% of primary energy and 70% of electricity. The electricity consumption doubled between 1980 and 2003 with an expected rise of 50% by 2025. It has already been shown though that net-zero energy buildings can significantly reduce the energy consumption. [3] The technologies employed in these energy efficient buildings, such as insulation, passive solar building design, lighting improvements and home automation technologies are applicable in housing. Thus, the opportunities to implement sustainable housing are currently available.
The challenges to implementing more sustainable housing throughout the world is not purely a technical or economical issue, as most people think, the largest barrier may actually be society itself. [1] Understanding the large-scale societal transitions that are necessary is part of the solution process in addition to advancing different technologies. The development side of sustainability on a social level usually is thought of in terms of equity, social cohesion, and an awareness of sustainability. These ideas are not simply understood by all of society and accepted, it takes time to push these ideas as necessary and required of an environmentally-conscious society. On the non-societal side, legislative, technical, cultural, and economic barriers make up the majority of sustainable housings barriers. From a legislative view, the governance on onsite renewable energy causes many people to consider sustainable living unflattering. On the economic side people tend to associate sustainable housing with higher costs, especially upfront, and there is good reason for this. [3] The average up-front costs for a five-kilowatt solar installation come in at around $23,000. This amount of money is no small undertaking for potential home owners who want to install solar onto their home. This idea is often shared by consumers that it simply costs too much to install solar. [4] A lack of confidence in the housing industry in these types of homes was a cultural idea shared by some and left people scared of building sustainable homes. The current technical barriers are quite low to be honest, as the current technologies on the market have been proven by many to be feasible in providing sustainability towards a home. Solar panels for example, have been proven to be viable in contributing to building a sustainable house (See Fig. 1).
The solve the problem facing sustainable housings implementation, we must look at the problem from different angles. It cannot be approached from a purely technical or economic view, yet it must be a multi-dimensional solution. [5] The need for fundamental changes in values and behavior to develop sustainable housing make up the often overlooked aspect of the solution. As mentioned earlier, the social aspect is often overlooked because it does not immediately jump out like legislation, economics, or technology. While overlooked, it may be the most important aspect to make sustainable living a common theme across the world. [1] To bridge social and ecological sustainability, the importance of community in the residential environment goes up. The increase of these residential environments that understand sustainable housing and its importance can correlate to a reduction of the common negative way of thinking about pro-environmental lifestyles.
© Erik Miller. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] P. Hagbert and P. Femenías, "Sustainable Homes, or Simply Energy-Efficient Buildings?" J. House Built Environ. 31, 1 (2016).
[2] D. Crawley, S. Pless, and P. Torcellini, "Getting to Net Zero," National Renewable Energy Laboratory, September 2009.
[3] T. Strobel, "The Zero Energy Home," Physics 240, Stanford University, Fall 2015.
[4] M. Osmani and A. O'Reilly, "Feasibility of Zero Carbon Homes in England by 2016: A House Builder's Perspective," Build. Environ. 44, 1917 (2009).
[5] G. Seyfang, "Community Action for Sustainable Housing: Building a Low-Carbon Future," Energy Policy 38, 7624 (2010).
