After experiencing record-breaking climate impacts in 2024, including $58 billion in weather disasters globally and 27 $1-billion disasters in the United States (note that the Trump Administration has suspended this weather disaster reporting going foreward), people want to make better and more sustainable choices to reduce their environmental impact. It is no surprise then that they want to be less wasteful when building or upgrading their homes.
Traditional building methods are responsible for over one-third of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. However, construction is an industry making genuine progress toward reduced environmental impact. The United Nations Environment Program reports that in 2024 buildings and their construction account for 32% of global energy use and 34% of carbon dioxide emissions, down from 34% and 37% in 2019, respectively.
Conventional houses release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, both in the building process and as we live in them. The materials we choose make a significant difference in the carbon footprint of the home. For example, clay brick averages 345 kg (760 lbs.) embodied carbon per m³, while softwood timber emits only 110 kg (242.5 lbs.). Another report indicates that a brick-built house creates twice the carbon footprint as a wood-built house.In fact, by substituting wood for concrete and steel in commercial buildings, we can cut greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 60%.
To meet the Paris Agreement’s target of being net-zero carbon by 2050, everyone needs to do their bit to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030 and keep the 2050 net-zero goal alive. So if you’re planning on building a new home, designing it with minimal waste in mind — both in regards to energy and building materials — is the best route forward. You can also check the embodied carbon footprint of building materials using Circular Ecology’s Inventory of Carbon & Energy database.
Here are five of the least wasteful ways to build your home.
Log Cabin
Building with logs can be an environmentally friendly way to build your sustainable home. Many companies now sell log cabin kits that mimic the increasingly sustainable practices of the manufactured homes industry. For example, Katahdin Cedar Log Homes uses responsibly harvested trees like the Northern White Cedar, which is abundant in their area, instead of shipping logs across the country or around the planet. The strategy reduces fuel costs to transport materials and lowers emissions. They also have a zero-waste policy regarding their logs; if certain logs don’t meet the criteria to be used for the walls, they’ll be used for something else in the build.
If you choose to build your own log home, the process of harvesting logs requires much less energy than producing traditional manufactured building materials. This is one way that building a log home produces fewer greenhouse emissions than a traditional home.
In addition, many log cabin owners find that they use less energy. The logs are naturally insulating because they store and release heat like thermal batteries, so log homes require less heating and cooling. A 2006 report by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management estimates that greenhouse gases could be reduced by 86% by using logs and timber instead of conventional building materials like concrete, steel, and aluminum.
Reclaimed Materials Home
Stone and timber may be obvious material choices for building an eco-friendly home, but there are a whole host of other options. One of those is using reclaimed and recycled materials in the construction of the home.
Homes built from recycled materials do not need to look old and recycled. There are some companies that turn old waste products — such as rubble, glass, and clay — into bricks that look brand new. If you want to build a home sustainably but want to achieve a new modern look, this is a great option.
Other, more unique options, include using reclaimed materials such as pallets, old windows, flooring, siding, or salvaged beams. By choosing reclaimed materials, you omit the need to manufacturer any new materials altogether, therefore avoiding the carbon emissions associated with manufacturing your building materials.
Bottle Wall Home
If you’d rather not cut down trees to build a log cabin, how about building your home with glass bottles? This method uses recycled glass bottles and a binding material such as mortar and clay.
Brewery founder Alfred Heineken has designed a brick bottle with flat sides after seeing many discarded bottles on a trip to the Dutch Antilles. Unfortunately, his idea did not get the support of the Heineken brewery that makes many of those bottles, but many individuals do choose to add glass bottle walls to their homes. Bottles can be used to create beautiful designs in the walls, filtering light into the home while maintaining privacy.
An alternative to using glass bottles is to use plastic bottles stuffed with other non-biodegradable plastic waste. These are known as ecobricks. In Panama, an entire town was built using discarded plastic bottles.
Shipping Container Home
Incorporating shipping containers into home construction is a great way to recycle a product that might otherwise be left to rot away in a container lot. These huge containers can be used as building blocks to create a frugal and sustainable home. Shipping container homes reduce the amount of concrete needed in traditional building. The production of concrete and cement in 2025 accounts for 8% of global CO2 emissions.
Reusing an old shipping container can also lower the carbon footprint of daily living. Backcountry Containers and Conex Modular, for example, designs low-impact container homes.
Earthship
Over 40 years ago, architect Michael Reynolds designed the first Earthship, a house that requires little to no energy to build and to live in. Earthships are self-sustaining structures that use renewable energy sources for electricity, passive solar heating and cooling, and water captured from rain, snow, and condensation.
Earthships are made from natural materials, such as compressed earth and adobe mud, and reclaimed materials, including plastic bottles, tires, cans, and glass. The idea is to mix these materials to create strong and durable insulating walls that help regulate indoor temperatures. The structures are built to coexist with and blend into the surroundings, yet are visually striking.
By choosing to build your home with any of the above materials and methods, you’ll get a beautiful, unique home. Better yet, you’ll save money and be kind to the environment.
About the Author
David Woods is a carpenter, outdoorsman, and author with more than 30 years of professional woodworking experience. David is the author of best-seller How to Build a Log Home and has educated more than half a million people on how to build a log cabin on his website Log Cabin Hub.
Editor’s Note: Originally published on July 22, 2021, this article was updated in July 2025. Feature image of Earthship is courtesy of Dominic Alves (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons