From Traditional Row House to Sustainable Home

In the United States, buildings—the homes, apartment buildings, and offices—where we live and work account for about 39 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions. At the same time, on a global scale, the embodied carbon footprint of buildings is considered to be responsible for 11 percent of all annual greenhouse gas emissions. Among the almost 128 million households in the United States, the number of people who live in single-family homes or multifamily apartment or condo buildings that were specifically designed and built for sustainability is significantly lower than those that were not. The vast majority of residences across the country offer no real sustainability advantages.

Still, sustainable, energy-efficient, and net-zero construction methods have been gaining acceptance in recent years, across all price points. New technologies are bringing into new homes greater energy and operational efficiencies. Still, the environmental impact and the embodied energy footprint attached to new construction often go unconsidered.

According to one recent report, tearing down and replacing an older, energy-inefficient building with a high-efficiency new home will take an average of 80 years to offset the ecological impact of the new construction project. For this reason, architect and sustainability expert Carl Elefante, of the national firm Quinn Evans Architects, has said: “The greenest building is the one that’s already built.” 

Homeowners deciding whether to tear down or renovate their single-family home may find inspiration in Sharon Slusher, a Philadelphia resident who renovated her traditional row home in North Philadelphia. In 2007, Slusher brought together a group of architects and contractors—Canno Architecture and Design, Think Green Landscape Architecture, and Walnut Tree Construction, as well as the Energy Coordinating Agency of Philadelphia—to come up with a major sustainable-renovation strategy.