Rainwater harvesting / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

A beautiful garden featuring a variety of colorful drought-resistant plants
Landscaping

Drought-Tolerant Landscaping: A Guide for Homeowners and Professionals

...Harvesting rainwater for your garden Another smart strategy is to collect rainwater. Rain barrels or larger cisterns can store water from your roof to be used for watering your plants during dry spells. For more information on this process, see our guide on how to install a rainwater harvesting system for your home. Th...

Permeable laneways and patios

Permeable Landscaping: a Guide to Managing Roof Runoff and Stormwater

...Rainwater harvesting systems: capture and reuse Green roofs: the benefits, design and DIY installation guide  Sign up now and reap the benefits of a free Ecohome Network Membership!

“The perfect lawn” comes with a very heavy environmental cost!
Landscaping

Which are the best bee-friendly & eco-friendly alternatives to grass lawns in backyards?

...rainwater harvesting: Rainwater harvesting is a great way to keep your lawn green... or even better, grow vegetables without using municipal water. This is easily done by installing rain barrels under downspouts to collect rainwater for lawn and garden watering where allowed. Avoid using a garden hose whenever possible...

Off-grid and Net-Zero Housing

A Toronto Off-grid home 20 years later; how did it fare? How could it be optimized?

...rainwater The most crucial prerequisite to designing a successful autonomous home water system is to reduce consumption. For example, this house includes a toilet that consumes only 6 liters per flush, which wasn’t mandatory until 2014. Water reuse is critical as well - wastewater from washing machines, showers, bathtu...

Flooded streets impervious surfaces Would Rock BC
Waterproofing and drainage

Rainwater management and water-permeable surfaces

...rainwater management, find more pages about about sustainable green building in the Ecohome Building Guide and in these pages :  Permeable pavers for laneways to manage storm water runoff Guide to rainwater harvesting How to reduce climate impact with green food choices DIY guide to build your own natural backy...

Earthship in Taos, New Mexico, shame they don't work in cold climates
Concept and design

Do Earthships work in cold climates?

...Rainwater is collected, stored in large plastic cisterns and filtered for residential use; waste water is treated on site and used for growing food. The south-facing wall is all windows and acts as a heat collector and greenhouse where food is produced all year. That's all great stuff and it seems to work fine in New ...

Installing a rainwater catment system
Rainwater Collection & Watering

Installing a rainwater catchment system

...rainwater collection by installing diverters in downpipes and filling a large garbage bin, but with this system there is no “first flush diverter” to remove impurities from the first quantity of rainwater from the roof. Water can be distributed from the bin/tank using gravity or a small pump. Types of rainwater collect...

Rain barrels for storm water management and rainwater harvesting
Rainwater Collection & Watering

Introduction to rainwater harvesting

...Harvesting rainwater can lead us to dozens of other practices that bring us into greater sustainability. The three potential sources for harvesting rainwater: Direct rainfall, street harvesting and roof harvesting. Design landscapes to manage and store rainwater: The easiest source of rainwater to collect is that which...

Water efficient bathroom fixtures
Plumbing and water heaters

Plumbing & water

...Rainwater collection for gardens and other uses For watering gardens, rain water collection is a great solution. You should be diverting water from your home anyway, so you likely have an eaves trough system. For under a hundred dollars you can buy a rain barrel with a tap on the bottom for attaching a hose. They come ...