It seems to me that building a new home would have a much greater environmental impact than remodeling, though I think the results would be similar. Considering that building a new house uses far more raw material, and costs much more (especially if EVERYTHING is green), remodeling seems to me to be the most energy efficient, cost-effective way to make your home greener.

I think that all that lumber plus the new water and sewage lines involved in building a new home would have a more negative impact than remodeling, plus, the loss of the open space.

before we build any more new development we should focus on improving the buildings that already exist. it's just wasteful to keep building and building when there are already so many existing structures we could retrofit at a lower cost and environmental impact than building something new.

Building "green" is about recycling as much as new innovations so refitting an existing home is "more green" than building new from the foundation up. Besides there are so many wonderful classic old homes that will only improve with some retrofitting that are currently standing abandoned. It is a shame to let as an example some beautiful ginger-breaded Victorian or Princess Anne home go to wreck and ruin when there are homeless people.