The green home is no longer an interesting experiment, and Atlanta green homes are now available. It is no longer possible for anyone to deny the tremendous impact that we humans are having on the welfare of our planet. Our ever-growing numbers and ever-greater demands and expectations have led us to the point where our everyday lives are constantly choking the planet that gave us birth.



It is all too easy to sit back and claim that the problem is down to big industry, and that we can have little impact ourselves, or make very much difference as individuals. It is also too easy to let the politicians handle the crisis, and turn away from the evident issues that surround all of us, whilst we happily return to our daily lives.

Yet the truth is that it is those very same daily lives that are having the greatest impact of all on the environment, chiefly as a direct result of the energy consumption and ongoing energy demands that are made. We are only just waking to the realisation that it is our very homes which are causing the greatest cumulative threat to the survival of our species, since it seems very clear that, at the present rate of global damage, we stand little chance of surviving for much longer.

It is for this reason, and with this realization in mind that an increasing number of people and companies are investing in green homes - houses that are designed, built and lived in with the greatest attention given to the welfare of the environment, and the quantity of energy necessary.

Shipping huge quantities of logs from halfway across the world uses enormous amounts of fuel, and those logs may well come from forests that cannot be sustained. Building homes from such materials is easy to ignore by those of us who simply live in the home once it is built, but the supply of green homes, built with a clear environmental awareness, is only ever going to match the demand from consumers.

It may be the big businesses and building companies using up the precious energy reserves we have in natural resources, but it is only as a result of the demand from those of us who live in homes of our own. The more aware we are of what it means to have a home which is green, the more likely it will be that demand will increase, and with such an increase, a necessary decrease in the extraordinary wastage which occurs every day of fossil fuels and natural resources which are choking the world we share.

A green home is one that meets a wide range of criteria. To begin with, the materials used to build the home must be environmentally friendly. Timber must be from sustainable forests, and any materials used should be sourced as locally as possible, or transported in the most fuel efficient way.

It is also important to bear in mind that the type of materials used will have a significant impact on the energy efficiency of the home. Many natural materials, such as timber, provide far greater insulation than many materials which are commonly used today. Even incorporating larger windows not only drastically cuts down on the amount of timber or other materials used for walls, but also helps to allow more light in - cutting down on lighting costs, and of course also helps to let the sun's heat in, and hold it in, to help save energy for heating.

Even the basic design of a house makes a huge difference, and green homes often have very large sloping roofs, providing a large area which can be used for solar panels to absorb the sun's energy. Angling the house in such a way that the roof gains maximum sunlight means that the average home can easily sustain its own power requirements from the solar panels alone - especially during the summer months when heating and lighting costs are limited anyway.

Atlanta green homes are insulated by means of cavity walls filled with foam, double glazing and loft insulation. All of this retains heat in the home and reduces the energy required for heating. Any step that can be taken to conserve energy is taken.

It is the design of a home, its location, the materials used in its manufacture, the transportation of those materials, the features built in to the Atlanta green home to help reduce energy costs and maximise natural energy sources all helps to create a home which has as little impact on the environment as possible. It is only by creating homes of the future which reach as far towards this ideal as possible that we have any realistic chance of reducing our energy consumption sufficiently to ensure that future generations have a planet on which to build their home.