Our thinking

Home sweet (tiny) home

30 July, 2021

There’s no place like home. It’s where we spend the majority of our time, it’s the heart of family and it’s where we have our own space.

But as well as being important to us, homes are an important part of our environmental impact: in the UK, households contribute to 40% of greenhouse gas emissions. It’s therefore a key focus area for managing our environmental impacts, through switching to renewable energy, improving energy efficiency and downsizing.

The tiny house movement that is sweeping North America, New Zealand and Australia is one method that takes downsizing to a new level. It sees people living in dwellings typically smaller than 20 square-metres that are often mobile and small enough not to need planning permission in the same way that conventional housing does. Although this movement is increasingly driven by the widening gulf between the cost of accommodation and salaries, it’s as much a social movement for those preferring a lower impact and living well with less. And while size is scarce, quality is a priority and there are some genius storage solutions that mean, while tiny living won’t suit everyone, you don’t have to be Marie Kondo to make it work.

At Good Business, we’ve all become more interested in tiny living since one of the members of our team, Patrick, is ‘going tiny’ and is currently building his own. If you’d like to see more or follow his progress, you can check it out here.

By Patrick Bapty