[INFORMATIVE] Could Apartments be the Sustainable Housing of the Future?

Could Apartments be the Sustainable Housing of the Future?

By: Bella Duncan

Apartments are widely used in Urban cities, but they aren’t as utilized in rural communities which could play a large role in environmental degradation, deforestation, and habitat loss throughout rural communities around the globe. Apartments can minimize the usage of arable land around the world. This type of housing can give shelter to thousands of people, and the base of an apartment complex takes up less land space than 10 homes combined, however it does take up more airspace. Besides, airspace impacts the environment way less than land space. With airspace, birds and planes can navigate around the complexes and can find resting points on the porches of some of the apartments. However, birds cannot see glass so on occasion some unfortunate birds may fly into one of the apartment complexes windows.

There is no information about whether apartment complexes have caused airplane crashes, however there have been some planes that have crashed into these complexes due to airplane problems such as the airplanes engines beginning to fail. Displaying that apartment buildings are not the reason for planes crashing into them, the planes simply had misfunctions. Apartments do consume lots of air space, but land space is a more valuable space for agriculture, nature, etc. Utilizing apartment complexes helps mitigate humans land use, instead of building single family homes, and taking up lots of land space just to fit barely one hundred people in one neighborhood, an apartment complex could be built and house thousands of people. This could preserve wildlife, ecosystems, biodiversity, and minimize environmental degradation.

Less land use can lead to more biodiversity, but how?; With apartment complexes, less land is used to house more people. So, less trees and agricultural assets of an area do not need to be removed in order to make room for single family housing. Therefore, since less trees were cut down more animals are able to remain in their home, resulting in more animal species to coexist with one another. With more biodiversity on the Earth, ecosystems that were struggling may find balance. This can result in a new abundance of food, clean water, and more natural resources. Environmental degradation can also be minimized with the building of apartment complexes, environmental degradation means the ruining of an environment over time. Apartment buildings can help with this because apartments have one main heating system that can be altered in each apartment, whereas in a single family house there is just one heating system for that house, instead of various houses so it isn’t being used as much as the apartment heating is but is just as impactful.

As well, apartment complexes can assist in minimizing pollution. Instead of throwing away furniture and clothes, like what is typically done in areas with many houses, the furniture and clothes can be given to people living in the complex, if needed. So, the furniture and clothes are being reused. However, in neighborhoods with large numbers of single family homes, the furniture and clothes are dropped off at donation centers. Those donations often go to more urban and/or areas more in need, and in most of those places there are apartment complexes present. According to EARTH.ORG an article titled, “10 Concerning Fast Fashion Waste Statistics’” the article states, “Of the 100 billion garments produced each year, 92 million tonnes end up in landfills”, “To put things in perspective, this means that the equivalent of a rubbish truck full of clothes ends up in landfill sites every second.” Displaying that no matter if you live in a home or apartment complex, or neither, clothing reusage is becoming more vital than ever to keep our Earth the least polluted we can.

In Terner Center For Housing Innovation UC Berkeley an article titled, “Understanding the Role of New Housing in Reducing Climate Pollution”, the author, Zack Subin states, “As the Terner Center recently reviewed, both building infill housing in existing communities and building denser housing types– such as apartments and fourplexes– tends to reduce climate pollution” This quote shows that apartment complexes are in fact a sustainable and more environmental housing method than single family homes. Deforestation is a result of the creation of more infrastructure throughout the globe, building apartments instead of homes can help minimize how many trees are cut down each year. Most homes average between 750-1250 square feet, meaning that the range of trees it takes to create those houses is 30-75 trees per house. In America alone, according to Ceramic World Web an article titled, “Another difficult year for the U.S housing market” the article states, “In 2023 the U.S residential construction decreased for the second consecutive year. 1.41 million new houses were built last year.” Utilizing this information from the quote, we can multiply 1.41 million times 52.5 (the median of 30-75 trees) which is 74,025,000 million trees. Therefore over 74 million (estimated) trees are cut down in America alone for single family homes. Additionally, even more trees are cut down just to make space for the home. However, apartments can mitigate this. Since apartment complexes can house more people using less land space, there will be less trees cut down to make room for individual homes, and instead just take some land to create a home for thousands of people.

Apartment complexes are not only good for environmental reasons, but also for economic reasons. Apartments are easier to buy and rent, as well as the rent is significantly cheaper than the mortgage of a home. With inflation happening worldwide, cheaper housing and cheaper rent is as important as ever. Living in an apartment, you can pay over 1,000 dollars less in rent/mortgage than you would if you lived in a home.

With this evidence, apartments and apartment complexes definitely will be one of the sustainable housing options of the future.


Citations
Zack Subin. “Understanding the Role of New Housing in Reducing Climate Pollution.” Terner Center, 12 Mar. 2024, ternercenter.berkeley.edu/research-and-policy/role-of-new-housing-in-reducing-climate-pollution/#:~:text=As%20the%20Terner%20Center%20 recently,trends%20to%20 reduce%20 climate%20 pollution. Accessed 17 Sep. 2024.

Feb 21, 2024. “Another Difficult Year for the U.S. Housing Market.” Ceramic World Web, 6 Mar. 2024, ceramicworldweb.com/en/economics-and-markets/another-difficult-year-us-housing-market#:~:text=In%202023%20the%20U.S.%20 residential,also%20for%20the%20year%202024. Accessed 17 Sep. 2024.

Igini, Martina. “10 Concerning Fast Fashion Waste Statistics.” Earth.Org, 30 May 2024, earth.org/statistics-about-fast-fashion-waste/. Accessed 17 Sep. 2024.