Senior living spaces should provide a comfortable, healthy atmosphere to promote happiness and well-being. Eco-friendly spaces focus on natural, sustainable practices to improve air quality, resource use, and the world around us. Eco-friendly senior living facilities can provide a cost-efficient, healthy space for older adults to thrive without harming the environment. As a bonus, sustainable practices can significantly improve how older adults live in these communities.
1. Air Quality
Sustainable practices include better insulation, high-quality air filters, and indoor plant use to boost air quality. Older adults are prone to lung problems such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, pneumonia, and asthma. Improved air quality can reduce asthma attacks and ease symptoms of lung conditions.
2. Stress Relief
Natural light, indoor plants, and accessible outdoor spaces are essential for an eco-friendly living space. These features have been scientifically proven to reduce stress, improve mood, and create a relaxing atmosphere. Sunshine also provides valuable vitamins and nutrients that older adults may have trouble receiving.
3. Heart Health
Exposure to calming outdoor spaces, better-regulated temperatures, and indoor plants can improve stress levels, air quality, and mood. A lower stress level can provide significant benefits for the heart, including lowering blood pressure, which can contribute to heart attacks and worsening heart disease. Better air quality means healthier breathing, which supplies more oxygen to blood cells to help keep the heart pumping healthily.
4. Mental Health
Eco-friendly senior living spaces can provide access to gardening areas, green transportation like biking or scooters, and social activities like sports. These activities promote exercise, socializing, and enrichment, improving mental health. Better air quality can bring more oxygen to the brain, supplying it with more nutrients. The knowledge of helping the environment through eco-friendly practices and living can boost mood, too.
5. Enrichment
Older adults can learn to garden, compost, incorporate green transportation practices, and recycle in eco-friendly communities. Learning new activities and becoming a part of something bigger and beneficial can provide plenty of enrichment for older adults, sometimes improving mood, mental health, and pain relief. Indoor plant life and access to natural light can also enrich the living environment.
6. Comfort
Comfort is a significant issue in many senior living facilities. It’s common for seniors to experience abuse or neglect, regardless of location. Neglect can include missed meals, health issues due to unregulated room temperature, or lack of medication. Abuse and neglect in senior communities are prevalent issues in every state. In Texas, there were 4,000 reported cases in 2022 alone. There were nearly 10,000 reported nursing home neglect cases in SC, but many go unreported. Florida seniors surveyed indicated that 75% had witnessed or experienced abuse or neglect. Eco-friendly living involves better ventilation, air quality, and temperature controls. These factors can prevent overheating or hypothermia in older adults with trouble regulating body temperature during periods without staff supervision, mitigating the chances of neglect or injury.
7. Building Quality
Natural materials, good air quality, and water filtration systems reduce strain on a building and its equipment (like air conditioning systems). These features make buildings last longer, reducing wear and tear. Better-quality structures make for safer, happier living spaces in senior communities.
8. Water Quality
Eco-friendly living areas can and should prioritize water recycling practices (rainwater collection, greywater recycling, and more). With water filtration and recycling systems, water quality is improved. Harmful pollutants and chemicals are removed from the water to make it safe for consumption. Water is crucial for health, particularly for older adults.
9. Pollutants
Senior living facilities are often in older buildings, where pollutants like microplastics, asbestos, and chemicals can be common. Eco-friendly renovations provide clean air, food, water, and other materials to reduce harmful irritants to the skin, lungs, and overall health.
10. Finances
Renewable energy like solar or wind power dramatically reduces the cost of utility bills in senior living communities, improving financial health for older adults. Electric transportation or vehicles eliminates the cost of gas. Water recycling can significantly reduce water usage, which saves money as well. Improved finances can provide more freedom and security for seniors in these communities.
Conclusion
Eco-friendly living spaces provide many benefits not just to the environment but to residents as well. For older adults, air quality, water quality, and pollution play a huge role in mental and physical health. In senior living communities that prioritize sustainable practices like renewable energy, water recycling, and air quality, there can be a significant increase in senior health and happiness. Good air quality can reduce the effects of common lung conditions in senior populations. Water recycling can improve the quality of water and remove harmful pollutants.
Access to gardening, indoor plants, and sunlight can improve mental health, lower blood pressure, improve heart health, and increase enrichment. Eco-friendly living may reduce the prevalence of neglect through temperature control and access to healthier living spaces.
