Green
Development Articles / Publications
Green Buildings
Barker
Spurs Sellen Toward Sustainability
Profiles a construction manager in Puget Sound and how she accomplishes
sustainable building.
Building
for the Future: Green Building Continues to Grow in Popularity,
But Means Different Things to Different People
Describes different aspects of sustainable development and
how a few companies are achieving sustainability goals.
Campuses
Get a 'Sustainable' Look
Highlights activities at universities and colleges across the
country that are promoting greater sustainability, ranging from
new green buildings to campus-wide energy efficiency and pollution
reduction.
Green
Buildings are a Growing Concern
Identifies market forces of sustainable building practices in
the Pacific Northwest, the demand for green buildings, and designers,
consultants and product suppliers who are rising to the challenge.
The
Green Home: Sensible Home Buying in Central Texas
Offers helpful ideas for buying a home that is more ‘green.’
The 'green
standard' -- it’s an evolving thing
Explains what makes a project truly ‘green.’
How
to Build or Remodel Your Own "Green" House"
Describes a Great American Dream House being built north of
Austin as a demonstration of what is possible (PDF file, page
7).
It's
Good to Be Green
Describes growing interest by consumers in Scottsdale, Arizona,
in green building.
Site
Selection and Analysis for a Greener Texas
Explains how to select a building site that meets green
requirements.
Sustainability
& Green Buildings
Summer 1999 newsletter of the Pacific NW Pollution Prevention
Resource Center. Includes articles on many aspects of Green
Buildings, including: "Why Green Buildings?" and "Green
Buildings Can Be Money Spinners."
Green Developments
A
Comparative Analysis of Sustainable Community Planning and Design
Issues
Summarizes key issues in sustainable community planning.
Are
Rosemary Beach and Seaside Sustainable Developments?
Rosemary Beach, a neo-traditional beachside community on Florida's
Panhandle, incorporates sustainable development through pedestrian-oriented
design and environmentally-conscious landscaping and infrastructure.
Civano:
New Thinking for a New Town
Profiles Civano, a sustainable community in Tucson, Arizona,
and its benefits.
Connecting
the Dots
Describes a new 'growing greener' approach to subdivision
design as a strategy to saving open space.
Conservation
Design for Subdivisions
Excerpted with permission from Randall Arendt's book of
the same name. Describes a green approach to designing subdivisions.
The
Economics of Eco-Friendly Land Development
Metropolis Magazine interviews award-winning eco-friendly developer
Jonathan Rose.
Homes
in Local Subdivision will Run on Solar Power
Sacramento Business Journal covers Premier Gardens, a 95-home
development by Premier Homes of "zero-energy" entry-level
homes.
Master
Planned Marketing: New Trends in Marketing Master-Planned Communities
Focuses on a number of trends, including a focus on environmental
factors in site and building design.
Partnerships
Enhance Green Development
From the Puget Sound Area, this article provides examples of
how developers can demonstrate environmental sensitivity by
working with communities to improve their natural surroundings.
Resource
Guide for Sustainable Development in an Urban Environment
This resource guide, prepared for a development project in the
Seattle area, proposes goals, design principles and tools for
designing and building sustainably in a mixed use development
market, examining the feasibility of advanced environmental
design solutions for commercial and residential market developments.
The Executive Summary is online as a PDF.
Smart
Growth, Planned
Unit Development, New Urbanism, Cooperative Neighborhoods, and
the “Not So Big House”
An article from Neighborhood Design/Build presents a conceptual
framework for housing development that responds to urban sprawl,
resource and energy conservation, and residents’ preference
for a supportive social environment.
Smart
Growth and Sustainability Do Not Create a False Dichotomy, They
Must Go Together
Reports on controversial views of speakers from an October 1998
conference on Smart Growth and Sustainability.
Stop
Sprawl: Smart Choices or Sprawling Growth
The Sierra Club report on sprawl describes how some developers
and communities are coming up with answers to sprawl. Across
the country, smarter, better-planned developments are being
built that are walkable, accessible to public transportation
and that strike a balance between jobs, houses, shops and open
space.
A Strategic Concept
Plan for the Burnaby Mountain Community Development Project
This project by students at Simon Fraser University covers land
use, transportation, housing, water, and other sustainable aspects
of a planned development near Vancouver.
Sustainable
Communities Do NOT Automatically Result from New Urbanism
Addresses the realities of how New Urbanist neighborhoods
function.
Sustainable
Development Meets New Urbanism
Profiles two new projects in Indiana and Arizona. Each project
will test whether environmentally sensitive building practices
are compatible with pedestrian oriented, human-scale design.
Civano, Arizona is perhaps the largest master-planned community
in the United States with a focus on sustainability. Coffee
Creek is an innovative 800-acre project that combines a pedestrian-oriented
community with concepts of sustainable design.
Sustainable Urban Landscapes: Site Design Manual for B.C. Communities
This manual produced by the University of British Columbia James Taylor Chair in Landscape and Liveable Environments includes case studies and discussion of design method and design approach. The complete publication can be downloaded in PDF.
Welcome
to the Hotel Seaside...
A commentary on Seaside, Florida, and whether
it really is the "premier example" of Traditional
Neighborhood Development.
Community Planning/Land Use
Assessing
the Impacts of Development Choices
Presents an overview of current methods and measures
for evaluating the potential impacts of land use patterns. Written
to assist the Governor’s Commission for a Sustainable South
Florida in understanding the state of the practice, for consideration
of quantitative and qualitative costs and benefits that may
be associated with future development in the Eastward Ho! area.
Ecological
Footprints: Making Tracks Toward Sustainable Cities
Describes "ecological footprints," or the demand
on resources required to sustain our population.
Growing
Greener Ordinance Language: Visually Enhanced Zoning
and Subdivision Models, Island Press, 2001
This interactive CD-ROM provides an enhanced, visually interactive
version of the model zoning and subdivision ordinances that
appear in the book Growing Greener (Island Press, 1999). Included
are more than 50 commentary images and short video clips that
illustrate the model ordinances and help explain and clarify
the available options.
Home
from Nowhere
Discusses the
results of sprawl and looks at strategies to build and restore
compact, mixed-use, traditional American neighborhoods.
In
Contrast: Smart Growth Versus Sprawl
This online photo album compiled by
NRDC illustrates sprawling development and how it impacts quality
of life, as well as showing smart growth alternatives.
Land Use: Sprawl Versus
Communities
Profiles New Urbanism and Eco-villages as
alternatives to urban sprawl.
Larimer to Test 'Cluster'
Housing
Discusses a new master plan created in a two year process
between county officials, developers, property-rights advocates
and environmentalists in a Colorado county trying to protect
farmland and open spaces.
Oregon 1995-2001
Governor's Livability Awards Yearbook profiles exemplary
development projects that promote healthy, livable communities
Criteria for the awards include efficient use of land, a mix
of uses, quality design, transporation options, sustainability,
and balanced community value.
Planning and Zoning for
EcoVillages -- Encouraging News
Discusses zoning and planning issues for
alternative developments and "Ecovillages" with specific
examples from California.
Sprawl
and Today's Landscape
A set of 14 articles on topics such as sprawl, growth vs. "smart"
growth, and zoning.
Sustainable Development:
How to Make it Work
Outlines four policy innovations that combined with existing
environmental legislation could add up to successful regional
growth management and sustainable local design.
The
Sustainability Challenge
Explains how economy and ecology can co-exist.
Ten
Steps to a Living Downtown
Identifies ten steps that local leaders can take to make the
most of the growing desire for downtown housing.
Whither
Growth Management and Sustainability in Florida?
Explains a call to overhaul Florida's growth management system.
Back to Top 
Publications
Green Development
General Design, Planning, and Development
Green Development
American Forests' ecosystem services calculation software,
CITYgreen
5.0, is a powerful GIS application for land-use planning
and policy-making, which analyzes the environmental and economic
value of urban trees in terms of stormwater runoff, air quality,
summer energy savings and carbon sequestration. A free trial
version of the program may be downloaded from the American Forests
website.
Southface Energy Institute and The Buildings Technology Center
at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have collaborated to produce
Sustainable
Design, Construction and Land Development: Guidelines for
the Southeast (PDF). The publication focuses on residential
development and construction, discussing specific practices
that can help to prevent sprawling growth patterns, particularly
in the Southeastern United States.
Green
Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate
Describes a new field where environmental considerations
are viewed as opportunities to create fundamentally better buildings,
developments and communities. Based on 80 case studies drawing
from Rocky Mountain Institute's extensive research and consulting
work, it distills proven procedures, pitfalls and practical
lessons on how to integrate environmentally sound methods to
create financially sound development.
A Primer
on Sustainable Building
Demonstrates how a holistic approach to design can result
in a better which is better than the sum of its parts. Topics
include site and habitat restoration, transportation integration,
energy-efficient design, materials selection, indoor air quality
and cost implications.
Guidelines
for Creating High Performance Green Buildings
Produced by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental 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 sources.
Greening
the Building and the Bottom Line: Increasing Productivity Through
Energy-Efficient Design
Makes a new economic case for green design in the workplace.
Its message to corporate managers: while energy-efficient design
can pay for itself in reduced energy costs alone, it may also
produce vastly greater benefits in higher worker productivity.
Better Models for Development in Virginia and Better
Models for Development in the Shenendoah Valley
Both of these publications are available through The
Conservation Fund.
The Smarter
Land Use Guidebook
This citizens' guidebook for neighbors, environmental groups,
developers, planners, realtors, attorneys and board members
shows anyone how to help create and gain approvals for land
development that improves local property values, reduces traffic
congestion, enhances natural and historic resources, and builds
community spirit.
General Design, Planning, and
Development
Cradle
to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
William McDonough and Michael Braungart, North Point Press,
2002
The two authors, one an archictect and the other a chemist,
call for new design processes that promote "eco-effectiveness,"
as opposed to eco-efficiency. The goal is "not to make
human industries and systems smaller, as efficiency advocates
propound, but to design them to get bigger and better in a way
that replenishes, restores, and nourishes the rest of the world."
Common Place: Toward Neighborhood and Regional Design
Douglas Kelbaugh, University of Washington Press, 1997
Conservation Design for Subdivisions. Practical Guide to
Creating Open Space Networks
Randall Arendt, Natural Lands Trust, American Planning
Association, American Society of Landscape Architects, Island
Press, 1996
Designing with Nature: The Ecological Basis for Architectural
Design
K. Yeang, McGraw-Hill, Island Press, 1995
e-design
Online
An innovative online publication and forum focussing on numerous
aspects of sustainable design, community and regional planning.
Ecological
Design
Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan, Island Press,
1995
Challenges designers to incorporate nature in their projects
to achieve sustainability and to protect the environment.
Environmental
Design and Construction
An online and printed magazine that covers all aspects
of environmentally responsible design and construction.
Financing
Change: The Financial Community, Eco-Efficiency and Sustainable
Development
At first glance, this book would seem more in the realm
of bankers or investors. However, it is highly recommended to
design professionals, as buildings and other development projects
are capital-intensive undertakings. Although focused on large
scale developments and the industrial sector, Financing Change
seems equally appropriate to residential, small commercial
and institutional projects.
Great
Planned Communities
Edited by Jo Allen Gause, et al. Urban Land Institute, 2002
This book features 26 innovative planned communities. Following
an introduction that describes how planned communities have
evolved, it provides an inside look at the concept, the plan
elements, the design, and how the master plan reflects the vision
for traditional and new urbanist communities, both established
and just off the drawing board.
Green
Building: A Primer for Builders, Consumers and Realtors Provides
an overview of topics related to green building, including environmental
performance, healthy buildings, and resource-efficient materials.
Green Infrastructure:
Smart Conservation for the 21st Century
Report published by Sprawl Watch Clearinghouse calls for states
and communities to make green infrastructure an integral part
of local, regional and state plans and policies.
Green Plans: Greenprint for Sustainability
Huey Johnson, University of Nebraska Press, 1995
Greening the Built Environment
Maf Smith, John Witelegg, & Nick J. Williams, Earthscan
Ltd., 1998
Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's
Man-Made Landscape
Edited by James Howard Kunstler, Touchstone Books, 1994
Home from Nowhere: Remaking our Everyday World for the 21st
Century
James Howard Kunstler, Simon & Schuster, 1996
Natural Home
Magazine
A printed publication that focuses on sustainable design and
healthy building themes for the home. The website features major
articles from the current issue, as well as back issues.
New Urbanism: Toward an Architectural Community
Peter Katz, Vincent Scully and Todd Bressi, McGraw-Hill
Companies, 1993
Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth
Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees, New Society Publishers,
1995
Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development
John Tillman Lyle, John Wiley & Sons, 1994
Sustainable Architecture: Principles, Paradigms and Case
Studies
James Steele, McGraw Hill, 1997
Terrain: A Journal of the
Built & Natural Environments
A quarterly online 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.
Tomorrow by Design: A Regional Design Process for Sustainability
Philip H. Lewis, Jr., John Wiley & Sons, 1996.
Towns and Townmaking Principles
Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Alex Krieger,
Will Lennertz, Rizzoli Books, 1991.
Last updated: February 11, 2005
Back to Top
HOME
| SEARCH
| 
