I’m Marla, the Green Home Coach, and I’m back today with Chapter 7, the final chapter of my book, Living Green Effortlessly: Simple Choices for a Better Home. On today’s episode, you’re going to learn what a Certified Green Home is and the various reasons why you might want to consider one. Whether you dream big or dream small, there’s something out there for everyone, as you’ll soon find out. Listen in - I think you will hear about some things you can put into action.  I thank you for joining in and learning about how to make simple choices for your better home! Turning your dreams into goals   Many people have never thought about the possibility of turning their dreams into goals and creating a certified green home for themselves. Money, time, and effort   Most of us spend a large amount of money, time, and effort on our homes because they mean a lot to us.  An ideal green home Ideally, a dream green home would be off the grid, with no mortgage or electric bill. The water would come from a well, but it would still have every modern luxury. That is do-able, but you would need a plan. Energy-efficient homes There are energy-efficient homes in every part of the country, so you could take a look at them to inspire you.  A road map You could work with any builder, as long as you have a road map and know what you want. You have to set your priorities, and you need to understand how to accomplish your goals and dreams. A certified green home Having a certified green home means that your home has a third-party,  independent verification. Having a third-party to inspect everything means that there is someone always looking over the process, the materials, and the selections, to make sure they meet the criteria set forth by that specific plan. Higher quality Third-party certification goes hand-in-hand with quality. So, it is usually consistent for green homes that are certified and use energy-efficient programs to be of higher quality.  Energy Star There is an energy-efficient home certification under Energy Star. So, new homes can be certified under Energy Star for energy-efficiency only. The products inside the house can also be Energy Star certified. There are also other energy-efficiency programs and ratings that you may run into. Green home certification The green home certification programs are much more holistic. They include all the different parts of the home, and they take a lot of other things, above and beyond energy-efficiency, into account as well. There are national, as well as numerous regional, and local green home certification programs.  The benefits of a green-certified home One of the benefits of a green-certified home is the health and safety of you and everyone else living in that home. Another benefit is that the resale value of your home tends to be better, and green-certified houses tend to sell faster. All the certification programs give you, as the homeowner and inhabitant of the home, the peace of mind and reassurance that your home has that third-party stamp of approval that stays with that home, and that can be very important if you ever decide to sell the house.  Comfort We all want to be comfortable, especially in our homes.  Cost savings There are many ongoing and long-term cost savings to be had from green-certified homes. Those could be the operating costs, the maintenance costs, and the insurance costs. Planning is key when building an affordable green home Like every other home, green homes come in all shapes and sizes. They can range from basic to high-end luxury. Some of the specifics that you follow in the building process are what make it a green home. Sustainable planning is key when building a green home because making changes down the line can create a domino-effect of throwing things off.  Goals When doing your planning, you need to know what the goals of your planning process are. So, you need to design your home with the end in mind, incorporate sustainable or green and energy-efficient