Green Building Tips

Julie Starr • July 8, 2021



Green building can help you to save energy, lower your operating costs, and love a more environmentally friendly life. Everyone benefits from a green building.

Use Space Efficiently

Larger spaces need more energy to heat, cool, and light. The decisions that you make when you design a building will impact the environment for years to come, so you need to pay attention to the way you use your space. Where you can, minimize the size of the building. A smaller footprint means a lower energy load, and less open space is used. Using the right materials and equipment helps too. Buy used equipment, instead of new, at FleetUpMarketplace . 

Invest In Insulation

An HVAC system is one of the main energy drains in a building. If you invest in high-quality insulation, you will be better able to maintain the interior temperature.

Insulation keeps cold air in, and hot air out during the summer, and the opposite in winter, reducing the workload on your HVAC system.

Use Solar Energy

The roof deflects the sun’s rays from your building. You can harness those rays to provide some power. 

Solar energy is growing fast because it’s clean and has almost no ongoing costs to collect. Solar panels can be placed strategically on your roof. Any power that you are able to produce and don’t consume can be sold back to your electric company. 

You could also choose to fit a battery that can be used to store any excess power. At night, when you can’t get solar power, the batteries can be used instead. This helps you to reduce the amount of electricity you need to pay for even more. 

Make Space For Gardens

Massive farms producing food can be very damaging to the environment. Runoff from pesticides pollutes the water table, while heavy farming equipment releases greenhouse gases. If you’re designing a green building, you should understand the importance of producing fresh produce. 

Residential and commercial properties should try to find some space for gardening to be done. At home, a food garden reduces your grocery spend and can teach children about where food comes from. Gardening has a lot of health benefits that companies can use to help stressed employees. 

The extra greenery also helps to clean the air. 

Adapt To Nature. Don’t Replace It

A new building changes the space it occupies forever. A new structure casts new shadows, changes the way that rainwater reaches rivers, lakes, and streams, and forces animals that lived on the site to move on somewhere else or be exterminated. New traffic patterns come into play, increasing road noise, and requiring new parking spaces, reducing the local tree population. 

Architects who want to build in a much greener, more sustainable way should make sure they take the time to carry out a detailed site survey. This survey should look at how water flows, and how nature is currently interacting with the land. Where possible, you should try to balance the needs of the development with the needs of any existing wildlife and plant life that is inhabiting the land at the moment. 

Over the last couple of decades, an enormous amount of the planet’s wilderness has been destroyed. We all have a responsibility to do more to reduce the impact of the ever-growing urban landscapes on nature and the planet. Including large green spaces in our developments is a good place to start, but there is more than can be done. 

For example, when constructing, it’s better to use locally sourced materials. Layouts should be adapted to the existing landscape. Build with the local landscape in mind, such as including sliding glass walls and doors that can be pushed back when the temperatures allow it to let some of nature in. Architects should try to make their buildings blend in with their surroundings, through locally sourced building materials. 

Those who advocate for green building practices are all working very hard to teach architects and construction companies how to best minimize the impact their work has on the planet. They can learn to preserve natural water flow and avoid site preparation that is expensive and excessive. 

In the construction of transportation networks, environmentally conscious design can be used to create bridges for animals. These bridges are important, as they allow migratory species to avoid having to crossroads and highways, and instead walk over them safely. This reduces the number of collisions between vehicles and animals, keeping humans and animals safer. These bridges also support the local ecosystem by allowing natural migratory patterns to continue. 

5 Everyday Items That Can Quietly Boost Your Brand

By Julie Starr • July 17, 2025
The best branding doesn’t always come from big campaigns or expensive graphics. Sometimes it’s the smaller stuff that leaves the biggest impression. Things people actually use, touch, or carry with them. That’s where your brand can quietly make its mark without needing to shout about it. If you’re only focusing on social media and business cards, you’re leaving a lot on the table. Here are five overlooked ways to get your name out there that feel natural, useful, and more personal. Thank-you slips If you’re already sending out orders, there’s no reason not to include a short thank-you slip. You can easily get these made through any decent online print shop , and they’re usually pretty cheap to run off in small batches. Just a simple note that says thanks, maybe with a reminder to follow you online or a cheeky discount code for next time. It’s quick, thoughtful, and makes the whole order feel more finished. Customers notice that kind of detail, especially when everything else they buy online comes with zero personality. You don’t need a complicated design either. Just something clean with your logo, a message that sounds like you, and maybe a social handle. The point is to give them a reason to come back or remember your name without it feeling forced. Branded zip pouches If you sell physical products, offer services, or run events, small zip pouches are surprisingly effective. Think of the kind you’d use for stationery, receipts, or travel bits. You can get your brand printed on the side and hand them out with purchases or include them in welcome packs. People keep them because they’re actually useful. They get tossed in handbags, school bags, or glove boxes and your logo just keeps turning up. Cleaning cloths for glasses or screens This one works brilliantly if you’re in tech, health, beauty, or anything involving screens or eyewear. A simple microfibre cloth with your branding on it can go a long way. Everyone needs one. Whether they use it for glasses, a phone screen, or their laptop, it’s something they hang onto. It’s not the kind of thing people throw away, and that means your name sticks around too. Receipt envelopes You might already use little envelopes to hand over receipts or business cards. Branding those envelopes is a small change that makes a big difference. Instead of someone getting a scruffy bit of paper in a plain sleeve, they’re handed something that feels a bit more finished. You can even add a message inside. Doesn’t need to be anything dramatic. A simple “thanks for visiting” or “see you next time” is enough to add a personal touch. Wet wipes or mini hand gels If your business is in hospitality, food, or anything hands-on, branded wet wipes or pocket-sized hand gels are surprisingly popular. People actually use them, especially at festivals, food stalls, pop-ups, or kids’ events. They end up in handbags or cars and stick around longer than you think. They don’t scream “marketing” either. They’re practical, and when done right, they make your business feel thoughtful. That’s what good branding does, it shows you’ve thought ahead.

How Student-Led ‘Energy Audits’ Are Cutting School Costs (and Lighting the Way Forward)

By Julie Starr • July 14, 2025
What happens when students stop waiting for adults to fix things and start conducting their own energy audits? Money gets saved. The lights get switched off. Data gets analyzed. And a quiet revolution in sustainability begins—inside schools that once overlooked their own inefficiencies. Across the globe, student-led energy audits are proving that change doesn't always need to come from a policy shift or a major capital budget. Sometimes, it begins with a clipboard, a spreadsheet, and a group of curious minds asking: Why are the hallway lights on at noon when sunlight floods the building? The Energy Detectives These audits aren’t science fair projects. They’re rigorous investigations, often done in collaboration with facilities staff, local environmental nonprofits, or even engineering mentors. Students go from classroom to classroom measuring electricity usage, checking for phantom loads , and identifying where heat is escaping in winter or air conditioning is leaking in summer. One high school in Ontario saved over $12,000 a year after its Grade 11 physics students ran an energy audit and suggested simple changes—LED upgrades, motion sensors in bathrooms, and smarter heating schedules. They didn’t just propose ideas. They pitched them with spreadsheets, thermal images, and payback timelines. It worked. Learning That Pays Off—Literally Unlike textbook learning, these audits blend real-world math, environmental science, economics, and persuasive communication. Students aren’t just learning about sustainability. They’re doing it. And the savings add up. From dimming overlit hallways to reprogramming HVAC systems that run all weekend for empty buildings, students are surfacing blind spots that administrators often overlook. In some districts, their findings are influencing energy policy. Elsewhere, the audits have inspired school boards to hire sustainability coordinators—often alumni of the student programs themselves. There’s something poetic about a school funding new books or laptops from money saved by students who found out the vending machines didn’t need to be plugged in 24/7. Why This Matters More Than Ever With education budgets tightening and utility costs rising, every dollar saved is a dollar that can go back into classrooms. And here’s where it gets interesting from a family finance perspective, too. If you’re a parent setting aside money for post-secondary savings, every bit of school efficiency helps. Fewer energy costs might mean more programming, better STEM facilities, or even bursaries. That raises a broader point: when families save for their children’s future, they often look into RESPs (Registered Education Savings Plans). And many wonder—is a RESP deduction available on my taxes? While contributions themselves aren’t deductible, the gains grow tax-free, and students often pay little to no tax when they withdraw the funds during school. A Movement Worth Replicating These audits aren’t just an exercise in environmentalism. They’re leadership labs. Students learn how to spot inefficiencies, speak up in board meetings, and make a business case for change. They don’t just flip switches—they shift mindsets. And they carry these habits into adulthood. The result? A generation growing up not only with climate anxiety, but also with tools to tackle it.