How to keep a green footprint?

I just started playing EL and I think I have the same problem. I'm playing my old save and even though I haven't done any changes in my worlds to way or another yet, a lot of neighborhoods are going industrial. And fast. I thought that neutral would be a strong default, so that if you have "normal" buildings and normal way of living then the footprint stayed normal too... I don't want to change all my houses to super eco houses or only use two or three eco friendly building materials everywhere only to keep the climate even normal. This can't be the way it should work?

Btw how do you see the footprint of a lot? I only found one footprint for whole neighborhood but liked to know what's going on with every lot also.

You have to look at the world map:

Thanks, I missed the little lot tags completely :D

It seems sort of impossible. I've coated my houses in grass and trees, even putting grass on and inside the roofs. I've used only eco-friendly flooring and wall materials. I've made sure that there is no concrete anywhere, even on the outside of the basements and the inside of the fireplaces. But it never seems to make a difference. I understand there is a machine you can make that will help, but none of my Sims have made it yet. It's frustrating.

I feel like upgrading appliances go a lot farther than just using build buy items. I mean upgrading appliances with green options. FYI you don’t have to use eco parts to make them green, however there are some upgrades that require them like the mist setting on the shower. Those updates should help with the green foot print but yes I agree it’s hard to get and keep.

Honestly idk, I'm barely starting to get into eco lifestyle but one of my households had a neutral footprint but I added several gardening plants and how it's green. So it seemed like gardening plants have a bigger green footprint then build mode plants some try adding some to your builds.

Also idk if this play into it but do you have all your lights on? I typically play with auto-lights on all my builds so it not only helps lower your power usage but it may also lower your low industrial footprint. I say this because I had a household who was mostly neutral but then I decided to have a party and it was winter. So the lights were on in several rooms, the tv was on, the fireplace was going, and I had my sim using the dj booth and I noticed that the lot was going starting to go industrial.

Thank you for the suggestions! :)