Sustainable Materials | Passive Home Construction

Sustainability from the ground up

Building a sustainable home means choosing the right materials – since a home is only as sustainable as its construction and the components on which it runs. If you’re familiar with Clarum Homes, you know we care deeply about sustainability.

In fact, our core purpose is to transform the way you live by creating greater comfort, greater health, and greater environmental sustainability.

Energy efficiency in every component

Passive homes are, by definition, energy-efficient; to attain certification, a passive home must meet the efficiency criteria defined by the International Passive House Association (iPHA).

This efficiency is crucial to sustainability, too. Clearly, throwing resources away when they could be conserved is wasteful; more importantly, doing so takes an unnecessary toll on the environment, and consumes resources more quickly than they can be replaced.

To be sustainable, a home must be efficient. This is why we use so many energy-efficient components in the custom passive homes that we build. For example:

Tankless on-demand water heater

Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV): Provides continuous fresh air, exhausts stale air, and recovers 90% of heat from exhausted air.

Foam-wrapped building envelope

Tightly sealed ducts, greater insulation

‘Low-E’ energy-efficient windows

Ceiling fans and fluorescent light bulbs

Water-conserving plumbing fixtures

Solar Hot Water System: Utilizes sun to heat water (85%), provides energy for home heating, and increases energy independence.

Each of these components helps lighten the ecological impact of your home, conserving instead of consuming. In so doing, we make your home more sustainable.

Ecologically responsible materials

While energy-efficiency is vital, there are other factors to sustainability as well. Just because a house is a passive or high-performance home does NOT mean it incorporates ecologically-friendly building materials.

This is one of the many differences between Clarum Homes and other custom home builders.

Where a home’s materials are sourced is important, as well as the manufacturing methods of the products. When the Clarum Homes team selects home building materials, we consider questions such as: Are the materials harvested in a way that endangers species or threatens communities? Do they require large amounts of non-renewable energy to manufacture? Are they non-toxic for the occupants? Questions like these help determine the true sustainability of your home.

At Clarum Homes, our core purpose is to transform the way custom homes are built. This means including ecologically-friendly and recycled materials, as well as environmentally-sensitive planning. Here are some of the features that make a passive home so healthy and sustainable:

Solar-power system: produces electricity from sun, and reduces carbon footprint

Engineered lumber

Recycled decking material

Eco-flooring: sustainably-harvested and reclaimed wood floors

Eco-cabinets: Formaldehyde-free construction

Environmentally-friendly, low VOC paint

Drought Tolerant Landscaping: Conserves water

The result is a gorgeously-designed custom home that is not only beautiful, healthy to live in, and amazingly comfortable – it is a smart choice for the environment as well.

Learn more about Clarum and our process of building custom, sustainable homes. Call 650.322.7069.