Environmental impact is increasingly becoming a key factor amongst home buyers. The Environmental Performance Index (EPI), developed by Yale University, scores nations across 32 performance indicators and has ranked the world’s greenest countries.   In the latest EPI, Denmark is leading the way with a score of 82.5 followed by Luxembourg, Switzerland, the UK and France. The top 10 countries are all in the EU. Japan is the first non-EU country and ranks 12th, the US is in 24th place.   In a recent report of European homebuyers, lowering their environmental footprint was an important factor in their purchase. Nearly 70% of buyers across the countries ranked energy efficiency a key property feature and 50% of the survey respondents said that sustainable building materials as a key consideration.     Making more environmentally conscious choices also helps reducing the running costs of a new home by minimising the energy expended, but there is clearly a shift towards buyers wanting a gr...