Sustainable Construction Practices for a Greener Home Renovation

The greenest renovation is usually the one that removes the least and wastes the least. Not every item on the usual list of sustainable practices applies in a New York apartment, where you do not own the roof or the windows. So here are the practices in the order they pay off in this city, with a note on which ones are yours to decide and which belong to your building.

Keep what is sound

Every cabinet, door or floorboard that stays is one that is neither thrown away nor made new. Before demolition, walk the rooms and ask what can be kept. Solid wood floors can often be refinished. Sound cabinet boxes can take new doors. Old doors and hardware frequently deserve cleaning more than replacing.

Where new material is needed, favor what is renewable, recycled or long-lived: bamboo flooring, reclaimed wood, recycled metal. A material that lasts twice as long is replaced half as often.

Use less water

This is the easiest saving to measure. The Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense label marks fixtures that meet its limits (EPA WaterSense).

• Toilets. Labeled models use 1.28 gallons per flush or less, 20 percent under the federal standard of 1.6. Older toilets use as much as 6 gallons, and toilets account for nearly 30 percent of a home’s indoor water use.
• Showerheads. No more than 2.0 gallons a minute, against 2.5 for a standard one.
• Bathroom faucets. A maximum of 1.5 gallons a minute, against a standard flow of 2.2.

If you own a house with a yard, a rain barrel or a larger rainwater system for the garden is worth a look as well.

Use less energy

In a house, insulation and efficient windows come first, and walls opened for a renovation are the cheapest chance you will have to insulate them. In an apartment the windows and outside walls belong to the building, so the choices that are yours are inside.

• Cooking. ENERGY STAR says only about a third of the heat from a gas burner reaches the food, and that induction can be upwards of three times more efficient.
• Appliances and lighting. Efficient refrigerators and dishwashers, and LED fixtures throughout.
• Daylight. Use natural light before electric light. Keep tall furniture and solid partitions away from the windows, and use glass in an interior door or wall to carry daylight deeper into the apartment. A house can add a skylight.
• Shade and air. Good shades on sunny windows and a layout that lets air move from one side of the home to the other reduce the need for cooling.

Keep the air clean

Fresh paint, varnish and adhesive give off volatile organic compounds. The EPA reports that concentrations of many of them are consistently higher indoors than out, up to ten times higher, and advises more ventilation whenever such products are in use. Choose low-VOC paints, adhesives and finishes, and air the rooms well before you move back in. Dust is the other half of indoor air, and in an older building it may carry lead, which is why containment and daily cleaning with a HEPA vacuum belong in any responsible job.

Send less to the landfill

Demolition debris from a contractor’s job does not go out with the household garbage in New York City. The Sanitation Department requires it to be removed by a private hauler. Ask how your contractor’s hauler handles the load, order materials to measure so that less is left over, and offer sound cabinets, appliances and fixtures for reuse before the dumpster arrives.

What belongs to the building

• Solar panels. On a house they are your decision, and the city has a property tax abatement for solar and battery systems. Its terms are set by law for a limited period, so check what applies when you plan. In an apartment building the roof is the building’s.
• The building’s own targets. Under Local Law 97, most buildings over 25,000 square feet have had to meet greenhouse gas limits since 2024, with stricter limits from 2030. Ask your board what it is planning, so that your renovation does not install something the building is about to change.
• Green building standards. LEED is the green building rating system of the U.S. Green Building Council. If your building is certified, it may set standards for the fixtures you install.

Raise it at the first meeting

Sustainable choices cost least when they are made at the start. Tell your contractor what matters to you before the design is drawn. The rooms where it counts most are covered on our pages on kitchen renovation, bathroom renovation and apartment renovation in NYC. For solar storage in a house, see how your next home could be powered by batteries.

Questions people ask