The Future for Sustainable Housing Could Be Off-Site Construction

One way to combat climate change is to make housing more energy efficient while using sustainable resources. Making an environmentally-conscious home is costly, however, limiting the effectiveness of the solution. Building offsite is a way to lower costs so more people can afford to build their dream green home, according to Plant Prefab, a custom home building company focused on sustainability.

Buildings as a category use more energy than both transportation and manufacturing. We won’t be able to seriously address climate change without making the built environment more efficient. One way is to have people move into denser living arrangements, closer to jobs, transport and services. Current building practices and current zoning laws often get in the way. But there are companies dedicated to finding ways to build more affordable and more sustainable housing. One such company is Plant Prefab.

Based in Rialto, California, the company is dedicated to sustainability in its operation and in its designs. It recently became the first prefab builder to pledge to be carbon neutral by 2028. “Climate change is happening quickly,” CEO Steve Glenn says. “We have a shorter period of time to dramatically change the way we build, consume products and operate.”

Plant Prefab spun off from LivingHomes, a sustainable design development company responsible for dozens of award-winning prefabricated homes, including the nation's first LEED Platinum-certified home.

Recognizing that “affordable” homes can be costly to build, Plant Prefab focuses on design, permitting and construction, which Glenn says are “the three problems to work on to make housing more accessible, to be able to deliver homes more quickly and more cost effectively.”

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