The Regenerative Home: Go Beyond Sustainable
Last Updated: Apr 13, 2025Sometimes, it can be difficult to understand what the word "sustainable" implies. In the era of green advertising, or "greenwashing," almost anything can label itself as environmentally friendly, natural, sustainable, etc. This makes it difficult for consumers to make an educated choice. Tyson chicken previously got in trouble with the USDA for labeling their chickens as "antibiotic-free" - even though they were injecting chickens with antibiotics before they hatched. After the resulting consumer backlash, they have since updated their farming methods to using "no antibiotics ever," a step in the right direction.
In the construction industry, certain plastic lumber manufacturers might claim to be using post-consumer recycled plastic, when their products contain only 20% recycled content.
Besides the misleading environmental claims, some people believe that it is time to move the housing industry beyond green upgrades and sustainable modernizations. Designing and building homes to become a regenerative part of the landscape is a radical idea that could transform the way we design, build, and interact with our local environment.
Table of Contents
- Beyond Green and Sustainable
- How to Make Your Home a Regenerative Part of the Landscape
- Bottom Line
How to Make Your Home a Regenerative Part of the Landscape
Daniel Wahl is an independent sustainability consultant and a member of the International Futures Forum, who recently came out with a book called Designing Regenerative Cultures. In his book, he attempts to define ways our culture can move beyond green Band-Aids and substantially contribute to the regenerative work of the places where we live.
Wahl says: "Only when we reconcile nature and culture and move towards understanding ourselves as part of life's evolutionary journey and participants in life's life-sustaining processes are we beginning to work regeneratively." In the case of topsoil mentioned above, the regenerative home would compost its kitchen scraps into nutrient-rich, biological humus. That humus could be applied to their yard and garden to speed up the process of topsoil regeneration.
Below, we look at ways in which the homes we live in can become not only a sustainable, but a regenerative part of the landscapes and ecosystems where we live.
Recycle Greywater for Habitat Restoration
Home construction is often responsible for habitat fragmentation. The placement of a home reduces habitat for a wide range of animals. It can also affect their migratory movements, which can lead to a reduction in local animal populations. Amphibians and other water-loving creatures are often most affected by homes that affect waterways and wetlands.
Greywater is the water that goes down the drain from showers, sinks, laundry, and dishwashers (not from toilets). The greywater from your home can be recycled into a mini wetland system, instead of flowing to a municipal sewer system or the septic tank. Greywater can be safely directed to the base of trees and other plants for more vigorous growth. The nitrates and phosphates in soaps and other greywater residues are great plant food. This mini wetland system will allow your home to re-create a natural habitat that allows for a high concentration of diverse animal species, including amphibians, insects, birds, etc.
Tobias Roberts
Tobias runs an agroecology farm and a natural building collective in the mountains of El Salvador. He specializes in earthen construction methods and uses permaculture design methods to integrate structures into the sustainability of the landscape.
