Get "Go Green" Home Ideas

Even the smallest of actions can have lasting environmental effects. Going green at home gives people the opportunity to reduce their impact on the environment and to ensure that clean air and water are available for future generations. You can spend a lot to go green, but just a few inexpensive changes can make a difference.

The Cascade Team is dedicated to Not only saving you some "Green" when selling your home, but to being earth friendly and Green when it comes to how we do business:

Some of the ways we help stay Green are:

We use *CD's instead of paper flyers, which provide more in depth information on the property and links to the virtual tour and school information.
Use Electronic Fax, and not traditional faxes that waste paper, toner, and energy.
DocuSign digital signatures
Virtual Office for agents to cut down on commute times, car emissions, and save fuel

If you have a CD flyer and would like to recycle it, you can send it to:

Back Thru The Future
150 Main Street
Ogdensburg, NJ 07439

Write "CD" on the outside of your shipping package.

For more information on CD recycling visit www.cdrecyclingforfree.com

We would encourage you to not only recycle our CD flyer's, but any other CD's you have laying around your home. It's easy to do and it's FREE!

A Green Home Checklist

Whether you’re a homebuyer or a renter looking for a green home, how do you know if a home is truly green? What should you look for? This checklist will help you identify a truly green home and ensure you get a healthier, high-performance green home that costs less to operate and has fewer environmental impacts:

If you're interested in having your home Certified as a "Green Home" please call 800-509-6905 and we can help you through the process!

Location: New green homes and neighborhoods must not be built on environmentally sensitive sites like prime farmland, wetlands and endangered species habitats. The greenest development sites are “in-fill” properties like former parking lots, rail yards, shopping malls and factories. Look for compact development where the average housing density is at least six units per acre. Your home should also be within easy walking distance of public transportation – like bus lines, light rail, and subway systems – so you can leave your car at home. A green home should also be within walking distance of parks, schools, and stores. See how many errands you can carry out on a bicycle. That’s healthier for you, your wallet, and the environment.

Size: No matter how many green building elements go into your home, a 5,000-square-foot green home still consumes many more natural resources than a 2,000-square-foot green home. The larger home will also require more heating, air conditioning and lighting. If you really want a sustainable home, choose a smaller size.

Building Design: The home should be oriented on its site to bring abundant natural daylight into the interior to reduce lighting requirements and to take advantage of any prevailing breezes. Windows, clerestories, skylights, light monitors, light shelves and other strategies should be used to bring daylight to the interior of the house. The exterior should have shading devices (sunshades, canopies, green screens and – best of all – trees), particularly on the southern and western facades and over windows and doors, to block hot summer sun. [t4]Dual-glaze windows reduce heat gain in summer and heat loss during cold winter months. The roof should be a light-colored, heat-reflecting Energy Star roof, or a green (landscaped) roof, to reduce heat absorption.

Green Building Materials: A green home will have been constructed or renovated with healthy, non-toxic building materials and furnishings, like low- and zero-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints and sealants and non-toxic materials like strawboard for the sub-flooring. Wood-based features should come from rapidly renewable sources like bamboo, but if tropical hardwoods are used, they must be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. A green home uses salvaged materials like kitchen tiles and materials with significant recycled content.

Insulation: A non-toxic insulation, derived from materials like soybean or cotton, with a high R (heat resistance) factor in a home’s walls and roof will help prevent cool air leakage in the summer and warm air leakage in the winter.

Siding: Cement sided or planked homes provide superior insulation, lower maintenance, and d not contribute to the consumption of natural resources like trees which clear carbon from the air.

Windows and Doors: Windows and exterior doors should have ENERGY STAR® ratings, and they should seal their openings tightly to avoid heat gain in summer and heat loss in winter.

Energy Efficiency: A green home has energy-efficient lighting, heating, cooling and water-heating systems. Appliances should have ENERGY STAR® ratings.

Renewable Energy: The home should generate some of its own energy with technologies like photovoltaic systems.

Water Efficiency: A green home has a water-conserving irrigation system and water-efficient kitchen and bathroom fixtures. Look for a rainwater collection and storage system, particularly in drier regions where water is increasingly scarce and expensive.

Indoor Environmental Quality: Natural daylight should reach at least 75% of the home’s interior. Natural ventilation (via building orientation, operable windows, fans, wind chimneys and other strategies) should bring plentiful fresh air inside the house. The HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system should filter all incoming air and vent stale air outside. The garage should not have any air handling equipment or return ducts, and it should have an exhaust fan.

Landscaping: Vine-covered green screens, large canopy trees and other landscaping should shade exterior walls, the driveway, patios and other “hardscape” to minimize heat islands. Yards should be landscaped with drought-tolerant plants rather than water-guzzling plants and grass in most regions.

Easy ways to Go Green at Home!

Use less electricity. Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs each time you replace an old incandescent bulb. Compact fluorescents save 75 percent in energy use and last up to 10 times longer. As a bonus, you'll save money on your electric bill.

Run the washer, dryer and dishwasher only with full loads. You reduce both electricity and water usage by only running these appliances when necessary.

Install a low-flow shower head. The newest models still produce strong water pressure while using much less water.

Retrofit your hot-water system with a hot-water recirculation pump. These pumps recirculate cold water back to the water heater and only release water when it is hot. Go green and quit wasting water waiting for the cold water to get hot.

Choose Zero VOC paints for your next home decorating project. Most paints contain toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are released into the air when you paint. VOCs can cause short and long term health problems.

Look for furnishings made without glue or formaldehyde. This will green your home by improving your indoor air-quality.

Recycle, reuse and compost. Reduce the amount of stuff you send to the landfill. Find out about recycling programs in your community. Find new uses for items. Compost yard waste and kitchen scraps.

Properly dispose of hazardous waste. Cleaners, oils, paints, pesticides, batteries and solvents should never go out with the household garbage; they end up contaminating the soil and groundwater in your community. Contact your city government or the EPA to find out how to properly dispose of these items.

When you need to replace a household appliance, go green and look for appliances with the Energy Star label.
Have your heating and cooling systems checked each season. You can keep green by making sure there are no leaks and the systems are working efficiently.
When building or remodeling, choose recycled building materials, reclaimed wood and the most energy-efficient insulations and appliances.

Many environmentalists are questioning whether we need to be buying so many products in the first place, and say bottled water is a case in point. One recent study by the US-based Earth Policy Institute estimated that bottled water is 10,000 times more environmentally damaging than tap water because of the effort involved in extraction, packaging and transportation. The US's second most imported brand, Fiji, is shipped around the world from the middle of the South Pacific. Yet global sales of bottled water have leapt by 57 per cent in a decade, to 154 billion litres in 2004.

"Why not drink from the tap?" suggested Anna Watson, of Friends of the Earth. "We should celebrate the fact that we have fantastic drinking water in this country. We ask: do you need that product and do you need that packaging?"

Even if we recycle and occasionally reuse these bottles, they are still costly to the environment.