What we can learn from Ford’s new eco-friendly campus
When you want to save energy and money at home, a good place to start is with electric tankless water heaters. They're 99 percent energy efficient and provide endless hot water to your home. Point-of-use water heaters can even bolster an older system that struggles to provide water to a large house. Making the switch is an easy way to save money and energy all while doing your part to protect the environment.
For more inspiration for saving energy, look at the way one large company is changing their facilities:
Changes at Ford
The Ford Motor Company recently announced a 10-year plan to transform their Dearborn campus into an environmentally friendly location, complete with a zero-waste design building. The cylindrical show-piece building will be 100 percent sustainable. The 70 buildings on the campus will be surrounded by lush green gardens and parks as well as a waterfront. The entire area will be extremely modern, and above all easy on the environment.
This is a huge push for a company that helped to found an industry many believe led to the issue of global warming. So it should serve as an inspiration to all, that there are things everyone can do to be more environmentally responsible. At home especially, there are habits every American can form to help curb energy waste and over-consumption.
Saving energy
Ford's new campus will save energy in many ways. According to Curbed, the campus will have unique water-saving technologies, automated metering and rain water collecting. You can use some of these same methods in your own home to help cut back on your energy bills. For example, you could use a rain barrel to collect water for your garden and indoor plants. According to HGTV, you can simply place the barrel under a drainage spout to collect the runoff from a storm. By using this water whenever applicable, you save money on your water bill.
Green and looking good
When you go green, you don't have to sacrifice aesthetics. The Ford campus is being designed to look futuristic, natural and above all, pleasing on the eye. The lush green spaces that connect the buildings are a reminder that everything we do doesn't exist in a vacuum. It affects other people and the planet as a whole. When you think about how to save money and preserve energy in your living space, you can use your creativity to create something visually appealing at the same time.
A point-of-use water heater, for example, takes up minimal space. In fact, most units fit right under the sink where they can't be seen. A whole-home tankless water heater doesn't take up much space either, so it's perfect for those with a smaller space or who just don't want a large, bulky tank in their home.
Other energy-saving devices, like solar panels, can be customized to fit in with the natural design of the house. Panels placed on the roof of the house can fit into special wood frames to help them blend in with the other features of the home, and those on the ground can become part of a flower bed or rock garden.