Essential Sustainable Home Design

Design your own sustainable home

Essential Sustainable Home Design walks homebuilders through designing an environmentally friendly home. Covering what makes a building green, a criteria matrix to guide design, material, and systems decisions, working with code officials, and choosing sustainable materials to keep the project goals on track from start to finish.

Design Your Dream Sustainable Home with Confidence
Part of the Sustainable Building Essentials series, Essential Sustainable Home Design is the complete guide to envisioning, planning, and designing a high-performance, environmentally friendly home. Learn how to turn your ideas into a practical, buildable plan while maximizing energy efficiency, durability, and comfort.

What You'll Learn

• Clarify Your Vision: Define goals, priorities, and pathways to bring your sustainable home project to life.
• Smart Decision-making: Use a criteria matrix to compare materials, systems, and design options for optimal performance and environmental impact.
• Integrated Team Approach: Work effectively with architects, designers, engineers, and code officials to keep your project on track.
• High-performance Building Science: Understand the fundamentals of thermal comfort, energy efficiency, moisture management, and durability to inform design choices.
• Practical Planning Tools: Streamline logistics, material sourcing, budgeting, and construction protocols to turn vision into reality.
• Material and System Guidance: One-page summaries and ratings of popular sustainable building materials and systems help you make informed, confident decisions.

Written by Chris Magwood, a leading sustainable building expert, this guide blends practical methods, design strategies, and building science for both DIY homebuilders and professionals. Whether designing from scratch or improving existing plans, this handbook gives you the confidence and tools to create a truly sustainable home.

Explore the full Sustainable Building Essentials series for practical, illustrated guidance on natural building techniques, high-performance walls, and sustainable construction systems.