A free green building hotline for regional residents, businesses and contractors answers questions about green building strategies, financial incentives, materials, renewable energy, stormwater management and more. Call 503-823-5431 or visit the site.
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503-797-1700503-797-1804 TDD
503-797-1797 fax
Nature-friendly home improvement
Sustainable living › Home improvement
With a little planning and inspiration, you can create a home that balances beauty and comfort with sustainable resource use and environmental health. Get ideas, practices and resources.
Make a difference in your neighborhood
There are many nature-friendly practices you can use or build at home. Homes using these "green" practices are not only good for your health, they are also good for the fish, wildlife, water quality and natural areas of our region.
Want lower utility bills? Reduced maintenance? A healthy, clean planet? With a little planning and inspiration, you can create a home and lifestyle that balances beauty and comfort with sustainable resource use and environmental health.
Why every backyard matters
Over half of the land in the Portland metropolitan area is privately owned. So when it comes to improving and protecting the nature and character of the place we call home, the practices used in every household and backyard matter. And that means every person really can make a difference!
Make the place you call home nature-friendly with these practices:
- preserving and planting trees
- native plants and natural gardening
- pervious pavement or pavers
- rain gardens
- disconnected downspouts, ecoroofs and rainwater harvesting
Nature-friendly resources
Want to learn more? Explore these great nature-friendly resources to get you started:
- Habitat begins at home
Oregon Zoo conservation program
Learn how to invite animals into your backyard or share your space with them by creating your own home habitat! Help animals and build a place you and your family will enjoy for years to come. - Green building hotline
Metro, City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development, Clackamas, Washington and Multnomah counties
Information about green building strategies, materials and financial incentives - G-Rated program: Residential Green Building
City of Portland, Office of Sustainable Development
Extensive information about building practices and strategies, local resources, emerging technologies, financial incentives and more - Clean water starts at home
Clean Water Services
Tips, resources, ideas and information in English and Spanish on ways you can protect water quality at home - Bureau of Environmental Services fact sheets
City of Portland
Information, ideas and pictures of nature-friendly practices - Green Home Guides
City of Seattle
Healthy homes for a healthy environment: beautiful, visual guides for landscaping, roofing, salvage and reuse, and other green building and remodeling options - Green Building Tools
City of Seattle
Popular topics, extensive tool kit and quick links to other resources
Files and related materials
Related Documents
To view PDF files, download free Adobe Reader. To translate PDF files into text to assist visually-impaired users, visit Access.Adobe.com.
Files that are downloadable from this page
- Factsheet: Make the place you call home nature-friendly 335K Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published December 27, 2007
- Factsheet: Gardening naturally makes your home more nature-friendly 390K Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published December 27, 2007
- Nature-friendly design solutions: Residental applications 1.1M Adobe Acrobat PDF | Published March 12, 2008
Did you know?
Salmon need cold, clean and clear water to thrive -- and so do humans. Find out what you can do at home, at work, at school and in your community to protect wild salmon habitat.
Join the cycle
Do the doody
Watch a fun video that encourages dog lovers to do their part to protect water quality. From the rain to the river to the faucet at home, our water moves in one big cycle. Dog poop that's left on the ground runs into storm drains and makes our water dirty.
New edition
Construction Salvage and Recycling Toolkit
Save money and keep building materials out of the landfill with Metro’s updated recycler directory for contractors, developers and architects. It's the go-to listing of more than 100 local sites.Go