Green and Eco-Friendly Real Estate

Find Your Beautiful Green Home! Western North Carolina is a mecca for sustainability, energy-efficient green built homes, and community living. The pristine nature of the Blue Ridge Mountains is reflected back in local green building and the sustainable development of beautiful homes designed with the earth in mind. (Feature photo: SolFarm Solar Co.)

Are you looking for a specific kind of green-built home? Developers and certified green home builders can help you with your real estate needs. There are multiple organizations that monitor green homes being built in the Asheville, NC area, including the Green Built Alliance and the Western North Carolina Green Building Council. 

Photo by SolFarm Solar Co

Whether you're considering an NC GreenBuilt home with custom features, new construction, an Energy Star Certified home, or a passive solar home, there are a wide variety of green homes for sale in Western North Carolina. With the help of realtors, you can browse beautiful energy-efficient homes with open floor plans and diverse property types to discover your new home.

What is Green Building?

Green building is optimizing energy efficiency, water, and materials to reduce building impacts on human health and the environment throughout the building’s lifecycle. A green home is designed to have a positive impact on energy efficiency, environmental performance and human well-being. Green homes have a low environmental impact and consider healthy landscapes such as erosion control and preservation of trees; water efficiency; the use of high-efficiency windows and insulation; Energy Star appliances to reduce utility bills; and the use of non-toxic materials for healthy indoor air quality.

Photo by Patrick Cavan Brown

There are green building certifications such as LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) that measure green homes. A LEED-certified home is designed and constructed in accordance with guidelines of the LEED for Homes green building certification program. LEED for Homes is a consensus-developed, third party-verified, voluntary rating system that promotes the design and construction of high-performance green homes.

Eco-Conscious and Intentional Communities in Western North Carolina

Eco-conscious and intentional communities include ecovillages, cohousing, residential land trusts, housing cooperatives, and more. They are developments where people live together with a shared sense of values. Many communities and housing cooperatives in Western North Carolina are multi-generational and multifamily with easy access to the outdoors, friendly neighborhoods, fruit and vegetable gardens, and sustainability initiatives.

Olivette Community by Green Built Alliance