How We Build

Make It Right builds homes and buildings for communities in need. Our homes meet the highest standards in green building; they are LEED Platinum certified and inspired by Cradle to Cradle thinking. We want to change the building industry to make energy-efficient, healthy homes affordable for everyone.

Make It Right constantly works to improve our homes, experimenting with materials and construction methods to make our homes more sustainable and affordable. Our work in New Orleans is a laboratory for cost-effective green building; we’re taking what we’ve learned on our inaugural project and using it to help other communities in need like Newark, NJ and Kansas City, MO.

We want to share our knowledge with you – that’s why we’ve created the Library and Laboratory. The materials we use, our construction methods, lessons learned, recent discoveries and data are now available to homeowners, designers, builders and anyone who is interested in learning more. Below is a list of some of the topics you can explore in Make It Right’s Library and Laboratory:

  • Advanced framing
  • Carpet and wood floors
  • Countertops and cabinets
  • Electrical systems
  • Elevation
  • Heating, Ventilation and Air conditioning
  • Lifecycle analysis
  • Native landscaping
  • Paint
  • Pervious concrete
  • Plumbing
  • Quality control
  • Roofing
  • Siding
  • Solar panels
  • Structural insulated panels
  • Tankless water heaters