Publications

Building Better Buildings: A Blueprint for Sustainable State Facilities
California's Sustainable Building Task Force prepared this 75-page report, which presents action items for the state to implement to attain cost-effective sustainable buildings. Downloadable as a PDF.

Building Envelope Technology Roadmap (PDF)
BETR 2020 is a shared vision and action plan towards the building envelope of the future, compiled by DOE. It serves as a framework to align public and private research, market and policy agendas with industry priorities, resulting in synergy from an integrated industry and "holistic design process."

Business Case for Sustainable Design in Federal Facilities
The Federal Energy Management Program provides significant financial evidence from research findings and case studies that sustainable design is a smart business choice.

COMcheck-EZ Code Compliance Manual
Contains a set of "self-contained" guides that offer simple, prescriptive, and software approaches to demonstrate compliance with commercial energy codes based on ASHRAE/IES Standard 90/1-1989. Offers an easy-to-understand process for demonstrating compliance, and focuses on code requirements that apply to most small or simple commercial buildings. A companion MECcheck Compliance Tool applies to residential construction.

A Community Guide to Basic and Cost-Saving Construction in the American Southwest
Produced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for nonprofit housing developers, local housing advocates, self-help homeowners, and community groups that provide housing in the rural Southwest. The publication is intended to showcase the cost benefits of energy-efficient home construction and rehabilitation. Available for $5 from HUDUSER.

Costing Green: A Comprehensive Cost Database and Budgeting Methodology (PDF 368 kb)
The firm Davis Langdon Adamson compared the cost of 45 library, classroom and laboratory projects that were seeking LEED green building rating with 93 conventionally constructed projects, and found no significant cost premium to building green.

The Costs and Financial Benefits of Green Building (PDF 32MB)
The California Sustainable Building Task Force conducted what they call the most definitive cost benefit analysis of green building to date and concluded that sustainable building is a cost-effective investment.

Ecohouse — A Design Guide
Architectural Press offers a sample chapter of this book online, describing how building forms can adapt a structure to its climate.

Energy Design Guidelines for High-Performance Schools
Seven climate-specific volumes of design guidelines for energy-efficient schools, developed by DOE to help schools to save millions of dollars in energy costs. The new design guidelines cover a wide range of technologies and also include numerous case studies. DOE aims to help school districts achieve energy savings as they renovate old schools or build new ones -- U.S. school districts are expected to spend $79 billion on such projects over the next three years. The separate guidelines for each climate can be downloaded as PDF files.

Green Building: A Primer for Builders, Consumers and Realtors
Produced by Howard Associates, this primer addresses a variety of topics related to green building, including environmental performance, water efficiency, healthy indoor air, resource-efficient materials, and how green buildings tie into communities.

Green Building Guidelines: Meeting the Demand for Low-Energy, Resource-Efficient Homes
The Sustainable Buildings Industry Council offers this book for sale in an updated Fourth Edition. The manual is used in a workshop or seminar setting, or as a stand-alone document. It is a brief, simple-to read, builder-friendly text that is applicable to homebuilders anywhere across the nation who are interested in exploring the notion of rethinking some of the design issues in their current product.

Green by Design
This interactive CD-ROM, developed by the City of Austin Green Building Program, is aimed at homeowners seeking to build a new home or remodel an existing one. It offers a detailed, step-by-step approach for residential green building.

Green Construction
The Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center has compiled a holistic guide to green building for project developers. The guide includes water and energy efficiency, construction waste, materials choices, a resource listing, and case studies for residential, commercial, resort, and brownfield projects.

GreenBuilt Tours: How to Organize a Successful Tour of Sustainable Architecture
This step-by-step manual on creating and conducting a green home tour was prepared under a U.S. Department of Energy Grant. The manual contains complete instructions, including sample signage, agreements and promotional materials, in a PDF file.

Greening Federal Facilities, 2nd Edition
This FEMP resource guide for Federal facility and energy managers, designers, planners, and construction staff is designed to help the nation achieve greater efficiency and sustainability in more than 500,000 government buildings and facilities. Downloadable in PDF format.

Green Home Remodel Guides
The City of Seattle's Sustainable Building program offers a series of remodeling guides online, to help homeowners identify materials and strategies to save energy and money on their kitchen, bath, roofing and other projects.

A Guide to Sustainable Design Renovating for Baltimore Rowhouses (PDF 3.2 MB)
This Green Building Template created by the Maryland DNR Green Building Program lays the foundation for future renovation projects by creating a replicable, adaptable framework based on using better building principles for rehabilitating rowhomes.

Guidelines for Creating High Performance Green Buildings
Produced by the Pennsylvania Department of Environnmental Protection, this guide is intended for decision-makers and others involved with designing, constructing, and developing green buildings. It includes useful information on green design systems, case studies, and references and resources.

High-Performance Commercial Buildings: A Technology Roadmap (PDF)
This DOE document presents a plan to integrate research, development and deployment of the next generation of commercial buildings, using a "whole-buildings" approach.

High Performance Guidelines: Triangle Region Public Facilities
These guidelines were developed for North Carolina county and municipal buildings, and address energy and water savings, reduced material use and improved indoor environment for public buildings. Exemplary local case studies are included. Downloadable as PDF files.

High Performance School Buildings Resource and Strategy Guide
The Sustainable Buildings Industry Council offers this publication for sale. It shows school administrators and procurement specialists how to hire architects and engineers capable of providing real value through sustainable design, and how to work with them at each phase of the design and construction process to ensure that “green design intent” is fully realized. View a PDF sample from the book.

Home Performance Power: Fannie Mae's Guide to Buying and Maintaining a Green Home
A new publication to help home buyers purchase and maintain an environmentally-friendly or "green" home, that describes methods for operating a home at peak efficiency from the exterior shell of the house to the indoors, and highlights where energy and money savings are possible.

MECcheck Code Compliance Manual
A "self-contained" tool that makes it fast and easy for designers, builders, building officials, plan checkers, and inspectors to determine whether new homes and additions meet the requirements of the Model Energy Code (MEC). Offers three compliance paths--prescriptive, trade-off, software--for flexibility.

Minnesota Sustainable Design Guide
This online guide is a tool that can be used to overlay environmental issues on the design, construction and operation of new and renovated facilities. It can be used to set project priorities, develop design strategies, and establish performance measures.

Models and Guidelines for Managing Maryland's Growth
This Infill and Redevelopment Report addresses infill development and includes model zoning codes, examples of existing zoning codes from jurisdictions throughout the country, and a list of minimum requirements that jurisdictions must meet in order to qualify for certain state incentives.

Return on Investment: High Performance Buildings
A new report by Minnesota's Office of Strategic and Long-range Planning, which suggests that the way public buildings are designed, built and operated affects lifetime costs, human health, labor productivity, student achievement and environmental quality. The report identifies emerging practices in the building trades, outlines efforts across the country, and recommends ways to adopt these practices in Minnesota.

Sustainable Building Technical Manual: Green Building Design, Construction, and Operations 
Provides the building industry with suggested practices for the entire building process—from site planning to building design, construction, and operation. 

The Sustainable Building Sourcebook 
Created by the City of Austin Green Builder Program, this useful manual contains a host of useful information to help make buildings more sustainable. Includes chapters on water, energy, building materials, and solid waste. 

Technology Roadmap: Energy Efficiency in Existing Homes - Volume Three: Prioritized Action Plan
The PATH program is focused on improving the affordability and value of new and existing homes. Through public and private cooperation, PATH is working to improve energy efficiency, environmental impact, durability and maintenance, hazard resistance, and labor safety. To accomplish this, PATH has identified priority strategies and activities that will enable government and industry to jointly fulfill the PATH mission.

Periodicals

Environmental Building News 
A very informative periodical on environmentally sustainable design and construction. Features articles, reviews, and news stories on energy-efficient, resource-efficient, and healthy building practices. 

Environmental Design and Construction
A bi-monthly magazine that reports on the innovative products, strategies and technologies that are driving the green building industry's success. Past issues are archived online.

Florida Homebuilder
The May/June 2000 issue of this magazine includes a special section on sustainable development that includes a series of online articles.

GreenClips  
A biweekly online news service that summarizes recent articles on sustainable architecture, green building strategies, case studies, new technologies and products, and research findings. 

Home Energy Magazine 
A bimonthly magazine that reports on the latest energy-efficiency technologies for the home--from weatherization, to heating and cooling systems, to lighting, windows, appliances, and indoor air quality.  

HousingZone's Green Building Forum
HousingZone.com features a green building forumthat presents recent articles from Cahners Business Information publications including Professional Builder. A wide variety of building projects and green building trends are covered in the articles.

Shelterforce
Published by the National Housing Institute, this publication provides tools to rebuild neighborhoods, organize communities, and create affordable housing. Highlights of current and back issues available on-line.

Sustainable Building Residential Rehabilitation Guidebook
Produced by the City of Los Angeles and Global Green USA, this guidebook serves as a compendium of healthy, efficient, and affordable building strategies for residential rehabilitation projects. (Note: Adobe Acrobat 4.0 is required to open this publication. Version 3.0 will not read it.)

Terrain: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments
A quarterly on-line journal that focuses on both the built and natural environments. It includes columns, essays, articles, and other resources to help communities develop and redevelop more sustainably.

Articles

Green Economics: Small Price for Environmental Gains
An article on FacilitiesNet profiles a new EPA laboratory in Massachussetts that met LEED Gold standards while increasing project costs by only 1.4 percent.

Turning Down the Global Thermostat
An article in Metropolis Magazine features Edward Mazria, an architect trying to convince other members of his profession that architects have the responsibility to prevent global warming by designing more energy-efficient buildings.

Increasing Energy Efficiency in New Buildings in the Southwest
A study by the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) says consumers and businesses could save $8.4 billion net during 2003-2020 by making new homes and commercial buildings in the region highly energy efficient.

Building for Sustainability Report, Matrix and Resources
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation compared and contrasted the construction and life cycle costs of six scenarios for their new planned building. The results of this comparison may be downloaded.

Building Greener, Building Better: The Quiet Revolution
A 24-page color brochure produced by the National Association of Home Builders and NAHB Research Center that highlights topics such as advanced building technologies, building with trees, urban infill, and site design. Online in PDF format.

Easy on the Eyes and the Environment
Green building is going mainstream reports The Christian Science Monitor, as the number of environmentally friendly homes and builders is on the increase nationwide, offering a host of benefits.

On Eve of Olympics, Salt Lake City Joins World in Support of Kyoto Protocol
Describes Salt Lake City's pledge to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. To help meet that goal, the city will establish a scientific, detailed tracking of its greenhouse gas emissions. Through the city's "Salt Lake City Green" program, the city plans to cut emissions by encouraging the construction of "high performance" energy-efficient buildings while promoting alternative fuel vehicles, electricity conservation, and other measures.

Solar Power Hits Suburbia
The solar power industry is moving closer to mainstream, according to The Christian Science Monitor, thanks to growing acceptance by suburban residents.

Using the Natural Step as a Framework Toward the Construction and Operation of Fully Sustainable Buildings
This working paper by the Oregon Natural Step Construction Industry Group offers detailed information on the process of applying the Natural Step to the building industry. It is found as a PDF publication in the "News" section of the SERA Architects web page.

Sustainable Sites
A feature in Professional Builder profiles residential developments across the United States that demonstrate sustainability in community design, habitat conservation, energy innovations, healthy buildings, and affordability. Projects featured are Hidden Springs, Coffee Creek, Erie-Ellington Homes, Prairie Crossing, and Civano.

Downtown Where the Living is Easy
A piece in Planning discusses the movement in many cities to enhance and promote downtown housing. Many of these cities have converted old buildings into housing units.

San Francisco Has a Chance to Lead Green Building Revolution
Describes a proposed green-building ordinance for San Francisco.

Village Homes 
Profiles a successful cohousing community in Davis, California, that incorporates into its design aggressive energy-efficiency and solar energy measures, a combination of commercial and agricultural land uses, and increased social interaction in common areas. 

Cohousing: A Model for Sustainable Living 
Describes cohousing, or shared living, and the benefits these "communities" offer. 

Building It Right 
Describes the sustainable construction and recycling efforts of the Turner Corporation, and profiles one of its projects, the Portland Trailblazers arena, in which 95 percent of construction waste has been recycled.

Reducing Waste at the Source 
Explains the importance salvaged materials, recycled-content materials, and recycling construction waste have on green building design and construction. 

Building a Cohousing Community 
Outlines the characteristics of cohousing developments, as well as the development process. 

The Return of the Village
Describes the first cohousing project in the Boston area and how its residents are working together to make it a success.

Houses to Save the Earth 
Introduces a house in Missoula, Montana, constructed from products made from recycled materials.

What is Green Building?
A compilation of past articles from Environmental Building News that provide an overview of green building, from setting priorities to affordable strategies.

Last updated: January 18, 2005

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