Building The Green Movement

A collection of Bahro's essays, including arguments for living in communes, pleas for a more stable social system and addresses on the crisis in Green politics. It finishes with his letter of resignation from the German Greens.

If you want to make a significant and sustainable impact on the health of our planet, this powerful and practical guide can help. Author and activist Sharon J. Smith shares proven strategies and lessons learned from the winners of Earth Island Institute’s Brower Youth Awards—America’s top honor for young green leaders. Here are all the tools you need—from planning a campaign and recruiting supporters to raising money and attracting media attention—to turn your ideas into actions and make changes that matter. All author proceeds from the sale of this book go to Earth Island Institute’s Brower Youth Awards to support the next generation of young activists.

Handbook of Green Building Design and Construction: LEED, BREEAM, and Green Globes, Second Edition directly addresses the needs of building professionals interested in the evolving principles, strategies, and concepts of green/sustainable design. Written in an easy to understand style, the book is updated to reflect new standards to LEED. In addition, readers will find sections that cover the new standards to BREEAM that involve new construction Infrastructure, data centers, warehouses, and existing buildings. Provides vital information and penetrating insights into three of the top Green Building Codes and Standards applied Internationally Includes the latest updates for complying with LEED v4 Practices and BREEAM Presents case studies that draws on over 35 years of personal experience from across the world

Wangari Maathai, founder of The Green Belt Movement, tells its story including the philosophy behind it, its challenges, and objectives.

After centuries of economic activity based on extraction, exploitation, and depletion, we now face undeniable environmental threats. New business models that save or restore natural resources are critical. But how can we translate that insight into more sustainable practices? Building the Green Economy shows how community groups, families, and individual citizens have taken action to protect their food and water, clean up their neighborhoods, and strengthen their local economies. Their unlikely victories—over polluters, unresponsive bureaucracies, and unexamined routines—dramatize the opportunities and challenges facing the local green economy movement. Drawing on their extensive experience at Global Exchange and elsewhere, the authors also: Lay out strategies for a more successful green movement Describe how communities have protected their victories from legal and political challenges Provide key resources for local activists Include conversations with Rocky Anderson, Lois Gibbs, Anuradha Mittal, David Morris, Michael Shuman, and other activists and leaders.

"The members of 7group and Bill Reed are examples writ large of the kind of leadership that is taking this idea of green building and forming it into reality, by helping change minds, building practice, and design process." —from the Foreword by S. Rick Fedrizzi President, CEO, and Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council A whole-building approach to sustainability The integrative design process offers a new path to making better green building decisions and addressing complex issues that threaten living systems. In The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building: Redefining the Practice of Sustainability, 7group's principals and integrative design pioneer Bill Reed introduce design and construction professionals to the concepts of whole building design and whole systems. With integrative thinking that reframes what sustainability means, they provide a how-to guide for architects, designers, engineers, developers, builders, and other professionals on incorporating integrative design into every phase of a project. This practical manual: Explains the philosophy and underpinnings of effective integrative design, addressing systems thinking and building and community design from a whole-living system perspective Details how to implement integrative design from the discovery phase to occupancy, supported by process outlines, itemized tasks, practice examples, case studies, and real-world stories illustrating the nature of this work Explores the deeper understanding of integration that is required to transform architectural practice and our role on the planet This book, both practical and thoughtful, will help you deliver your vision of a sustainable environment. 7group, based in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, includes principals John Boecker, Scot Horst, Tom Keiter, Andrew Lau, Marcus Sheffer, and Brian Toevs, who bring a unique integration of expertise in design, engineering, energy and daylight modeling, materials assessments, commissioning, education, and communications to their work. Internationally recognized thought leaders in the green building movement, they have led countless teams through the practical implementation of integrative design on building projects of all types around the world. 7group also has been directly and deeply involved with the development of the LEED® Green Building Rating System, including experience on more than 100 LEED projects. Scot Horst currently serves as chair of the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Steering Committee.

Today the energy sources used to create electricity differ in many ways, including in their environmental impacts. In the United States, conventional means of electricity generation use fossil or nuclear fuels - forms of power generation that impact human health and the environment through air emissions and other effects. Despite advances in pollution controls over the last 30 years, conventional power generation is still the nation's single largest source of industrial air pollution. Electricity markets are changing, however, offering cleaner ways of producing power and giving many consumers the ability to choose how their power is generated. One of these choices is power from renewable sources that is marketed as green power. Innovative organisations are encouraging the use of these new sources of green power and, at the same time, are reducing their own impact on the environment. In some parts of the United States, the deregulation of electricity has enabled consumers to choose the provider of their electric power and thus to buy green power from their chosen supplier. In regulated markets, too, hundreds of utilities now offer their customers the opportunity to purchase green power through green-pricing' programs. Even in areas where consumers cannot buy green power directly, renewable energy certificates (RECs) are available in every state to allow consumers to support green power. While no form of electric power generation is completely benign, electricity generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, small and low-impact hydro power, and biomass has proved to be environmentally preferable to electricity generated from conventional energy sources such as coal, oil, nuclear, and natural gas. "The Guide to Purchasing Green Power" focuses on electricity generated from renewable energy resources, both delivered through the grid and generated on-site.

The “green building revolution’’ is happening right now. This book is its chronicle and its manifesto. Written by industry insider Jerry Yudelson, The Green Building Revolution introduces readers to the basics of green building and to the projects and people that are advancing this movement. With interviews and case studies, it does more than simply report on the revolution; it shows readers why and how to start thinking about designing, building, and operating high performance, environmentally aware (LEED-certified) buildings on conventional budgets. Evolving quietly for more than a decade, the green building movement has found its voice. Its principles of human-centered, environmentally sensitive development have reached a critical mass of architects, engineers, builders, developers, professionals in government, and consumers. Green buildings are showing us how we can have healthier indoor environments that use far less energy and water than conventional buildings do. The federal government, eighteen states, and nearly fifty U.S. cities already require new public buildings to meet “green” standards. According to Yudelson, this is just the beginning. The Green Building Revolution describes the many “revolutions” that are taking place today: in commercial buildings, schools, universities, public buildings, health care institutions, housing, property management, and neighborhood design. In a clear, highly readable style, Yudelson outlines the broader “journey to sustainability” influenced by the green building revolution and provides a solid business case for accelerating this trend. Illustrated with more than 50 photos, tables, and charts, and filled with timely information, The Green Building Revolution is the definitive description of a major movement that’s poised to transform our world.