How to be sustainable?

At live-work-play we believe in designing live and work environments to be as sustainable as each individual project will allow. Our top priority is working with project owners to ensure durability and spatial and energy efficiency. We rely on low-VOC materials where possible for indoor air quality. If a material can be locally sourced, that is what we specify. If you would like your project to be Built Green rated, we can help with that.

Buildings use a sizeable chunk of our resources, both by their creation and their energy use. live-work-play is committed to including sustainable design practices wherever possible.

Here are a few strategies:

energy: have an energy audit performed; reduce air infiltration through air sealing; use more insulation than required by code so the building uses less energy; use a high efficiency heating system; use a heat recovery ventilator for incoming and outgoing air to increase energy savings; use energy star appliances and equipment.

the building: create only as much space as you need; reuse an existing house; recycle an existing house; reuse an existing lot, with services already provided for it; use locally or regionally manufactured materials where possible; create a durable building

wood framing: use FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) lumber for framing; use stacked or advanced framing techniques to reduce the amount of lumber used

water: use rainwater as much as possible on site so that it is part of the evaporation cycle, instead of the sewer treatment system: collect rainwater for landscape use; create a rain garden to use some of the roof water; collect, store and filter rainwater for plumbing and laundry use.

finishes: select for recycled content/ low environmental impact/ air quality/ durability.