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A green prefab house starts out in a designer's mind. Because it is a prefab house, and because it will, in theory at least, be built over and over again, the designer takes great care in creating a house that uses every single inch of space in the most intelligent way possible, which means that prefab houses can actually be quite small without actually seeming especially small. The upside of this is that they have a small footprint, which means less ecological damage at the building site, and they also use far less materials, which means less resource extraction.
Green prefab houses are also especially exciting because the model allows designers to work in many green design features, such as grey water filtration systems and solar panels, that most houses make an afterthought, rather an integral part of the original design.
Because these small prefab houses are essentially mass produced, it also means that recycled materials can be used in mass. Many recycled building materials can be costly, but producing the same exact house many times over brings costs down for everyone.
Mass produced may seem like a dirty word; who wants to live in the same house everyone else has right? But take a drive down any suburban lane, or walk through any apartment building, and it will quickly become clear that we all live in residences that are, if not exactly the same, then at least very, very similar to everyone elses. In fact, living in a prefab house may be an excellent way to differentiate oneself from the rest of the houses on the block.
