Top sustainable construction trends for 2025

There are always new green building products coming out that lead to more efficient, more durable or more eco-friendly homes. But most of what grabbed our attention this past year, and the things that we will see through 2025, are perhaps best described as sustainable construction design philosophies, tools, and even education.

One thing that is likely to significantly impact construction in 2025 is the possibility of a tariff hike by the incoming Trump administration. We will see if this materialises!

Below is a list of green building trends for 2025 and product improvements that we are pretty excited about. These either made serious ground in 2024, have already arrived in 2025, or are expected to be released in 2025.These ones are our faves!

1. Prefabricated kit homes LEED or ZNE ready

Prefab houses built in a manufacturing facility can be completed faster, more afforably and to a higher quality than typical site built homes where the raw materials and shell of the house are often left exposed to the weather for extended periods of time. Off cuts of materials on site-builds don't get re-puroposed or recycled as much, and builders are subject to weather delays and many challenges from outdoor sites that are not a factor in a factory.

We believe that the idea of having the ‘parts’ of a home delivered to a site and assembling a house in place will, in the future, sounds an silly as having a bunch of car parts delivered to your house and having to assemble it by yourself in your laneway.

See how  LEED, ZNE or Passive House ready prefab kit houses are often able to achieve a higher standard of quality than site-built homes

LEED Prefab kit house available for purchase through Ecohome
Prefab Passive House & LEED Kit Homes for Sale in Ontario & North Eastern US States on EcoHome

Look for more and more prefab home manufacturers to hit the market every year, with better quality and competitive pricing. You can find local prefab home manufacturers in the Ecohome building directory which has the worlds largest listing of prefab house builders. 

 If you are looking to buy a high performance prefab home and aren't an Ecohome Member yet, sign up here for hot sustainable construction news and offers in the coming months. 

2. ZNE - Zero Net Energy homes

The higher cost of energy combined with an increasing awareness of the global climate crisis is a driving force behind the trend towards more energy-efficient home construction. And Zero Net Energy home construction is a trend that is quickly taking off; read more here about the Canadian Zero Net Energy Pilot program results.

But for the short story, if you didn’t already know or haven’t yet guessed, a Net Zero house is one that produces as much energy as it consumes. It starts with an energy-efficient building envelope that includes high-efficiency heating and ventilation components systems to help keep the consumption of the home as low as possible, and it is then powered by renewable energy sources like roof-top solar panels. Watch for more ZNE or Net Zero ready houses to start popping up. 

3. BIM & carbon footprint calculator for materials

A very useful building tool for reducing the carbon footprint of new builds is the EC3 carbon footprint calculator. Programs like the ZNE mentioned above can really benefit from this, since, to determine the entire carbon footprint of a building from cradle to grave, you would need to know more than the amount of energy that will be consumed during operation; you need to know the embodied energy - which is the energy required to manufacture the building materials in the first place. 

The EC3 tool from Skanska is a free-to-use tool that has a data base of materials that allows architects and designers to calculate the embedded energy of a building design, which means materials can be swapped in the design phase to keep the footprint as low as possible. Until now this has been a complicated process that was not undertaken very often; without knowing that variable, there was no way to accurately assess the total ecological impact of a building.

Using this tool builds on the adoption of BIM or building information modeling, which is another associated construction industry trend that will carry over into 2020. BIM is a way of representing buildings, roads, and utilities through computer-generated images to help contractors visualize a construction process before it is built. Architects and engineers can use the models to visualize how building materials will hold up over time.

If a subcontractor can visualize their part of the project before beginning work, and they have access to accurate data like that the EC3 tool provides, they can accurately estimate how much of a specific material is needed and the carbon impact of different similar materials to make the best environmental choice. This visualization capability also reduces the amount of wasted time, labor, and materials on a project.  

4. Spray foam and XPS foam with lower emission blowing agents

Styrofoam board insulation and spray foam insulation have always had a bad rap in the green home construction industry, and not without good reason, but the true problem is not what most people think. A brief pause here while I slip on the Kevlar vest I wear when I defend foam insulation in the green building community…

The actual environmental damage from foam products is less about the fact that foam insulations are petroleum-based products (because they are actually mostly captured air), and more about the gases (blowing agents) that are used to fabricate them. Oil extraction isn’t good, no argument there. But digging anything out of the ground to 'make stuff' isn’t great for the planet, neither is cutting trees or growing crops to make insulation.

To label something an ‘eco-friendly building material’ can only be done if you calculate its full impact, (See the EC3 calculator above) and the fact that a relatively small amount of raw material is required to fabricate foam insulation is a definite advantage. 

new HFO blowing agents coming soon for XPS rigid insulation boards
Owens Corning XPS rigid insulation boards

Since the most concerning environmental problems with foam insulation comes from the gases that are used to expand the foam beads into dimensional form (some gases are more than 1400 times worse than carbon as a green house gas contributor), that's where solving the problem starts too. 

The biggest culprits for releasing harmful green house gases were traditinally spray-polyurethane foam (SPUF) and XPS rigid insulation, but most manufacturers have phased out harmful blowing agents.   Read more here on our page about choosing the best rigid insulation panels.

5. Phasing out of gas heating and cooking in homes for health and climate reasons 

Natural gas for heating and cooking in homes has falsely been considered a clean and safe fuel source, but nothing could be further from the truth. Europe has begun phasing out gas heating in homes, and North America will not be far behind.  Find out here why and when natural gas home heating will be banned.

Gas cooking in homes is linked to respiratory illness in children and adults. Studies show that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) released by a natural gas stove increases the risk of asthma in children by 42%.

Read more here about transitioning from natural gas cooking and heating to electric. And find the best heat pumps for 2025 here

6. Water conservation measures

Awareness of the predicted crisis in fresh water supply in many regions of the world will increase as climate change continues to disrupt rainfall and water supply systems worldwide in 2025.

As we continue to see headlines such as "the hottest year on record", this impacts us in many ways. It exacerbates power consumption for AC, it causes droughts, water shortages and causes catastropic wildfires that force us to re-think how we buid homes.

In recent years we have seen fire devastation in Australia, Canada, Montana, and terrible fires are still underway in California this is being written. The future security of our water sources is anything but secure for home consumption, agriculture and fire suppression. Taking measures now to reduce your consumption helps the situation, but also makes it less taxing when restrictions come into place. 

Heightened concern about the impact of future restrictions on water supplies and cost is prompting many building designers, owners, and managers to consider ways to further reduce water consumption in commercial and residential buildings, such as adopting some of the following water conservation strategies: 

Investing in the above, and other things such as efficient cooling towers, and other innovative approaches to reducing on-site water use is something already being done in Germany, Australia, and many other European countries.

Improved water conservation and wastewater treatment regulations are something that has significantly changed in recent years in Europe and new green building rating and certification programs like LEED V4 and PHIUS+ have started to take water efficiencies into account. Expect this to further develop in 2020 in the US and Canada, with stand-alone and consumer friendly greywater treatment products like Hydraloop gray water treatment system coming to the market having won a CES Innovation Award in 2020.

7. Virtual / augmented reality in construction

Virtual Reality, also called Augmented Reality has been around for a few years now, but the construction industry found a plethora of new applications for it in 2019 like safety training that are sure to continue to be developed in 2025.

Virtual reality allows users to experience complex logistics first-hand to get a more accurate gauge of the project or product. It helps provide a digital visualization of our real world with added data to augment the experience and allows for a 360-degree view of the project.

It also offers some interesting possibilities for "on-site" training or product support without the necessity to be on-site - saving transport costs for time/money and carbon footprint and a virtual "hands-on" experience for learning about new sustainable building products and installation techniques.

We at Ecohome are hoping this speeds the adoption of better sustainable construction products and methods, and makes training quicker and easier to encourage more people into the construction trades and ease some of the chronic shortages of trained construction tradespeople in 2020 and beyond.

8. Increase in PV solar panels on homes    

There has been a steady increase in the installation of solar panels on homes in North America, which is encouraged by technological advances, decreasing prices, as well as receiving help from states in the form of Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS).

Solar power for homes is common, less common is when using solar power generation for home heating, but it is feasible, and for those that can afford the upfront costs it provides an incredible amound of security in this age of climate crisis and natural disasters. 

Heating a standard code-built home with solar panels would be a poor use of funds and resources, but when you build to Passive House standards or Net Zero, your heat load can drop to a fraction of code-built homes, and when you combine that with a heat pump for more efficient heating, then suddenly heating with solar panels becomes an achievable goal. 

9. Non-toxic building materials and healthy homes. 

Building healthy homes with safer indoor air quality is a trend that increases in popularity every year, and we think 2025 will offer significant growth. New non-toxic building products hit market regularly, but what is important is when box stores opt for more eco-friendly material options.

This is a reflection of the trend towards protecting indoor air quality in homes, as well as being a trend setter, since people are more likely to choose them if they are easier to find. 

Ecohome comprehensively supports the work of "Mind the Store" who have had many victories in getting poisonous chemicals out of the US's major retailers - including the notable victory of getting Home Depot to banish Phthalates from Vinyl Flooring in 2015-6. Check out your local materials retailer for their hazardous chemicals policy here

Another example we heard of but are still trying to confirm, is that Ikea may actually be offering healthier cabinetry materials than we think, that are formaldehyde-free. If it turns out to be true (as it is in Europe) then their 50+ stores across North America may already be offering formaldehyde-free kitchens and bathrooms, but they just aren’t tooting their horn about it. It’s time to toot! Keep an eye out here for an update on that - or contact IKEA North America here to ask for more info and let us know what you discover. 

When building products go from being a fringe market to being displayed in mainstream box stores is when they really get noticed, which also helps drive prices down and encourages competitors to follow suit. 
The more builders and home owners ask suppliers for more sustainable and non-toxic building products, the more they will supply them. 

10. Coach houses, laneway houses and ADUs for urban infill building

Urban infill construction slows urban sprawl and protects green space. That’s a good thing. But as so often is the case, those living in established older neighborhoods are often loath to see changes to their communities and increases in traffic, which is a fully understandable sentiment. But it doesn’t change the fact that the lowest-impact living occurs when new homes make use of existing infrastructure such as roads, sewers, power lines and public transportation. 

Many cities have passed new legislation encouraging coach homes, granny suites and additional rental units on existing home lots. An example are tax breaks and low interest loans for coach houses and rental units with the Secondary Suite Incentive Program recently announced for the city of Vancouver.

Another common trend is to see  older, smaller and possibly rundown homes being removed and  duplexes being built in their place. We get it; it sucks when it happens next door to you but on the grand scheme of things, every residence built inside a city’s limits means one less house was built outside of them. 

11. More options for green building certifications 

Passive House certified homes consume about 90% less energy that a code-built house. As a green home certification program, Passive House is getting a boost from some regional building codes as performance requirements set higher targets for energy efficiency.

Some municipalities are also implementing tougher regulations that are ‘inspired’ by programs like LEED or Passive house, and requiring air-tightness targets to be met. This is not a small thing, since too few builders realize how much heat loss is due to air leaks in a home, and how important an air-tight home is for durability and efficiency.

Also, we're seeing a proliferation of Net Zero Energy and Net Zero Ready certification schemes being devised making it easier for home buyers across the US and Canada to recognise and choose greener homes - and with choice and competition these should progressively become more affordable, accelerating the number of new home builders and owners who demand better homes - Ecohome hopes that these Net Zero certification schemes will establish common grounds for qualification all the same. 

12. Mass timber panels

Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and Mass Timber Panels are more frequently replacing metal and solid wood as structural beams in buildings and homes, or so it would seem in the circles where we travel. This is a great trend towards preserving natural resources and old growth trees, as Mass Timber Panels are made from post-industrial waste wood as well as smaller dimension trees from logging that are normally too small for any commercial use. 

Interior finishing with CLT Cross Laminated Timber
Cross laminated timber interior

We can assume the increase in use of CLTs for framing can be attributed in part to an awareness of environmental issues and an upswing in the demand for green homes, but don’t forget the power of architectural trends and running with the cool kids.

Open concept buildings with natural light and exposed structures have been a consistent theme for many years, and such trends seem to hold better when there is a ‘noble’ cause as well, and preserving forests makes everyone feel good.

More demand for green building products brings more suppliers and gives manufacturers better access to the products with more competitive pricing, so here’s hoping that eco-friendly home construction stays cool!

Now you know more about the top trends in sustainable construction in 2025... 

Find more pages about sustainable and resilient green building techniques here : 

Find more about green home construction in the Ecohome Green Building Guide pages