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Sustainable building techniques and materials can play a major part in cleaning up the air inside a building. Usually the materials are less toxic, and the equipment is better able to handle all the “stuff” in the air. This leads to a healthier environment, increased productivity, and better moods.

Living walls are also known as green-, bio-, vegetated-, living- or eco-walls and as vertical wetlands. At their simplest, they are vertical gardens and can include any type of vegetative covering of a standard wall, such as hanging gardens and climbing vines.

A green roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and soil, or a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. This does not refer to roofs which are merely colored green, as with green roof shingles. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage and irrigation systems. Container gardens on roofs, where plants are maintained in pots, are not generally considered to be true green roofs, although this is an area of debate. Rooftop ponds are another form of green roofs which are used to treat greywater. Finally, the term "green roof" may also be used to indicate roofs that utilize some form of "green" technology, such as solar panels or a photovoltaic module. Green roofs are also referred to as eco-roofs, vegetated roofs, living roofs, and greenroofs.

Is bequeathing a right to occupy a home for life good estate planning, or "ruling from the grave"?

MoneywebTax expert Steven Jones analyses the pros and cons of a usufruct.

A member of the congregation I serve as minister recently tried to pick my brain on a "habitation" she was having difficulty with. Thinking at first she said "haberdashery", and about to tell her I knew nothing about sewing, I thought better of it and asked for clarification. All was revealed when she handed me a legal document headed "Notarial Cession of Habitatio", better known to tax practitioners and estate planners as a usufruct.