Sustainable Building
for Boston area homes

Through their use of more locally-sourced and often upcycled or prefabricated building materials, sustainable homes frequently cost less to construct than conventional homes and require fewer repairs thanks to more durable construction practices. In addition, their energy efficient designs save homeowners between 20% and 90% off their ongoing annual energy costs.

By adopting energy-efficient and renewable energy strategies, sustainable homes provide greater stability in a future that may face volatile market pressures for traditional energy resources.

Conventional materials that may contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that continually out-gas into the indoor environment. By contrast, non-toxic, green building materials—and designs that utilize sustainable processes and natural sources of heat and light—result in more breathable air and are healthier to live in.

One of the subtle side-effects of the heavy mass and thermal insulative qualities of many sustainable building materials is that they also result in better sound insulation and quieter interiors for their homeowners.

It's not only THE environment—it's YOUR environment. Homeowners can feel good about having a lower negative impact on the world that surrounds them and even building sympiotic relationships with the surrounding environment, reducing dependencies of fossil fuels, lowering risks of contamination and illness,  and offering a healthier and more comfortable lifestyle for the homeowner. Sustainable building and operational practices prevent over-extraction, conserve natural resources, and help keep water, air, and soil resources cleaner—both immediately and for future generations.

These buildings maximize the ability of natural sunlight to provide warmth in cooler months, with features like large, high-performance, south-facing windows, thick, airtight,  insulated walls, and open floor plans. Similarly, shade-producing features like overhangs and adjustable blinds help minimize heat in the summer. Such design principles can reduce energy consumption by up to 90%. Certified by Phius (Passive House Institute US), Hawthorn Builders are experts in building passive solar homes.

Solar homes can also include rooftop or ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) panels to generate electricity—in some cases, enough to stay off the grid—or reliable, hybrid electricity systems.

One model for energy efficiency is LEED certification. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Verified by a third-party authority, these homes can demonstrate that they use up to 30% less energy than and fewer resources—usually thanks to sturdy construction and effective use of natural sunlight and airflow to maintain a healthy and comfortable indoor environment.

The aim of such a home is to be so energy efficient that its annual net carbon footprint is zero. While most are still connected to the power grid, they often combine effective battery storage, renewable energy (including solar panels) and extremely energy-efficient design to equalize their home's yearly impact on CO2 levels. 

A recently popular eco friendly movement, tiny houses make a simple, economical solution for some homeowners. Typically between 100 and 400 square feet, such homes take advantage of flexible interiors and convertible furnishings. They're naturally sustainable homes due to the reduced materials used in their construction. Many such houses can even be loaded onto a trailer and moved to different locations throughout the year, taking advantage of optimal climates as seasons change.

Delivered and assembled from factory-built modular components, these homes reduce on-site waste, speed the project build time, and greatly lessen the construction impact on the home's physical environment. Their inherent quality and energy efficiency make them a popular green home option, particularly for isolated locations.

Built using bales of straw for both structure and insulation, bales of hay or straw are stacked like bricks to form walls and then covered in plaster, inside and out. Wooden beams and posts provide other essential structural support for roofs, doors, and windows. Built from the ground up using chemical-free, infinitely renewable, quickly constructable, and naturally thermally-efficient materials, straw bale homes are the very definition of green—even lowering energy usage by up to 75%.

Similar to straw bale homes, a recently introduced building material is hempcrete—a biocomposite material that blends hemp hurds (a byproduct of cannabis agriculture) and lime. Lightweight, renewable, and recyclable, hempcrete is cost-effective, provides goo insulation and breathability, and energy efficiency. Hemp plants absorb carbon as they grow, offsetting the lime binder emissions for a net zero carbon footprint in hempcrete production.

Free-standing earthen homes can also be constructed by compacting damp subsoil—on-site, using plywood forms— into giant panels like smooth, man-made sedimentary rock. Stabilized with lime or cement and then cured, these compressed, monolithic structures offer natural thermal mass, strength, and long term durability.

Steel cargo containers make excellent structural elements. A perfect example of green upcycling, they're naturally durable and surprisingly inexpensive. Being all the same size, they are simple to stack and arrange into modular sections to construct a variety of home configurations. 

Made from reclaimed or recycled materials (like old tires, steel cans, or plastics, earthships are often entirely off-grid homes. Designed to collect rainwater and harness solar, wind, or water for power, they are inexpensive (though time-consuming) to produce and perfect examples of sustainable housing with small eco-footprints.