Green Home Building – Can it be done with a mansion.

Green mansion might seem like an oxymoron. In a time where a carbon footprint is the new business card of the environmentally conscious mega mansions of the wealthy do not seem be able to fit the bill.

If this holds true then larger homes could never be classified as green buildings. So lets have a closer look.

First of all why would the size of a home mater in terms of its greenness? It uses more resources to be built and it consumes more resources to be operated and maintained. A large home also generates more waste when it is torn down. To be a green home one would have to mitigate and consider all of these factors.

Building Materials
There are two ways to go green in this respect; use less material and/or use a larger percentage of renewable resources. Log homes for example us a very large percentage of wood which is a renewable resource and can be very easily recycled. Timber frame homes use a skeleton of timbers for the structural frame.

It is also important to use local resources as they need less transportation and therefore have less of a carbon impact. Material that cannot be separated out for recycling at the end of a homes lifespan is also problematic from a green standpoint.

Energy Use
There are two components to the energy use equation of a home, consumption and supply. A green home uses as much energy as it produces. So one way of making a home greener is to reduce consumption. Better insulation, more efficient appliances less energy waste. The other component is the supply of energy through photovoltaic systems for electricity and solar collectors for hot water.

The size of a house is irrelevant in this respect as every home can be built to produce as much energy as its users consume. Larger homes have larger roofs to accommodate larger solar panels.

Recycling
This is best addressed during the design and building phase of the home. It is just as easy to recycle a large home then it is to do so with a small home. The engineering and design that goes into a home determines if at the end of its life a majority of its building components can be reintegrated into the commodity cycle rather than having to be discarded.

Overall it is clear that large mansion style homes can be just as green as your average home. The fact that the new owner of the mansion has the financial resources to pay attention to the greenness of the building might actually make the difference in its carbon footprint after all.

Toby Munk relocated to Colorado to pursue a career in Aspen Colorado Real Estate. Explore more information on Aspen MLS search and Snomwass Colorado Real Estate listings.