Build Green on a Budget: Lessons from Affordable Housing
Sustainability doesn’t have to cost more—and no one knows that better than affordable housing experts. But every project type can benefit from these 12 cost-reducing ideas that support people and the planet.
This is Part Two of a two-part series related to affordable housing. It supports project teams across disciplines and building typologies with 12 specific ideas for building green on a budget. Part One emphasizes the critical importance of sustainability in affordable housing and details six steps building professionals can take to help that happen.
A sculpture of Roberto Maestas at the entranceway to Seattle’s Plaza Roberto Maestas, an intentional community that supports the cultural resilience of Indigenous people and people of color.
Photo: Daniel Glenn/7 Directions Architects/Planners The built environment is responsible for an immense amount of greenhouse gas emissions, toxic chemical pollution, and waste. It also isn’t ideal for our long-term economic, social, and environmental health—especially when it comes to the quality of buildings, the way communities are laid out, and where population centers are located.
As usual, the most marginalized people are the most severely impacted.
As Part One of this series discussed, to do something about this, we must effectively address systemic inequality and discrimination, climate change, and the shortage of affordable housing as the intertwined crises that they are. We will not achieve a sustainable building sector until it’s sustainable for all. That’s why many sustainability practitioners center equity in their work.
In this report, we’ll share advice from green affordable housing experts about how to approach sustainability and resilience on projects—in site and climate analysis, project programming choices, energy efficiency and decarbonization, water conservation, and material selection—using systems thinking and culturally centered, integrative design. Experts agree that sustainability in affordable housing and other budget-constrained project types is achievable, but it requires more upfront time for thoughtful planning and effective stakeholder engagement; it can’t be faked later on.
The 12 principles and strategies shared here apply beyond affordable housing to the entire building sector. As Part One established, the affordable housing sector can be a leader in sustainability—as long as we approach it conscientiously.
“If we can solve it in affordable housing,” stated Gina Ciganik, CEO at Habitable, “it’s accessible to everyone.”
Waters, E. (2024, June 11). Build Green on a Budget: Lessons from Affordable Housing. Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/feature/build-green-budget-lessons-affordable-housing
