Regreening The Built Environment

Regreening the Built Environment examines the relationship between the built environment and nature and demonstrates how rethinking the role and design of infrastructure can environmentally, economically, and socially sustain the earth. In the past, infrastructure and green or park spaces have been regarded as two opposing factors and placed in conflict with one another through irresponsible patterns of development. This book attempts to change this paradigm and create a new notion that greenspace, parks, and infrastructure can indeed be one in the same. The case studies will demonstrate how existing "gray" infrastructure can be retrofitted with green infrastructure and low impact development techniques. It is quite plausible that a building can be designed that actually creates greenspace or generates energy; likewise, a roadway can be a park, an alley can be a wildlife corridor, and a parking surface can be a garden. In addition to examining sustainability in the near future, the book also explores such alternatives in the distant and very distant future, questioning the notion of sustainability in the event of an earth-altering, cataclysmic disaster. The strategies presented in this book aim to stimulate discussions within the design profession and will be of great interest to students and practitioners of environmental studies, architecture, and urban design.

This work aims to provide a possible specification of the problems involved in greening the built environment and an articulation of the solutions. It begins with a discussion of sustainability as a concept and its applicability to contemporary towns and cities. The following chapters take up particular aspects of the built environment and sustainability in greater depth and include the construction industry, transport, health, planning, community and equity issues, employment and the economy. The links between environmental damage, poverty and the economy are all themes in this book which also focuses on interconnections and on solutions to these three problems. The final chapter explains how the achievement of sustainable development is, in the authors' opinion, dependent on detailed solutions to everyday problems of modern society.

Sustainable Design for the Built Environment marks the transition of sustainable design from a specialty service to the mainstream approach for creating a healthy and resilient built environment. This groundbreaking and transformative approach introduces sustainable design in a clear, concise, easy-to-read format. This book takes the reader deep into the foundations of sustainable design, and creates a holistic and integrative approach addressing the social, cultural, ecological, and aesthetic aspects in addition to the typical performance-driven goals. The first section of the book is themed around the origins, principles, and frameworks of sustainable design aimed at inspiring a deeper, broader, and more inclusive view of sustainability. The second section examines strategies such as biophilia and biomimicry, adaptation and resilience, health and well-being. The third section examines the application of sustainability principles from the global, urban, district, building, and human scale, illustrating how a systems thinking approach allows sustainable design to span the context of time, space, and varied perspectives. This textbook is intended to inspire a new vision for the future that unites human activity with natural processes to form a regenerative, coevolutionary model for sustainable design. By allowing the reader an insightful look into the history, motivations, and values of sustainable design, they begin to see sustainable design, not only as a way to deliver green buildings, but as a comprehensive and transformative meta-framework that is so needed in every sector of society. Supported by extensive online resources including videos and PowerPoints for each chapter, this book will be essential reading for students of sustainability and sustainable design.

The Earth’s temperature has been rising. To limit catastrophic outcomes, the international scientific community has set a challenging goal of no more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) average temperature rise. Economists agree we will save trillions of dollars by acting early. But how do we act successfully? And what’s the backup plan if we fall short? Setting politics aside, Two Degrees reviews the current science and explains how we can set practical steps to reduce the extent of warming and to adapt to the inevitable changes, all while improving the bottom line, beautifying our communities, and increasing human health. The book is a practical guide intended for a broad audience of those who occupy and shape our built environment. The authors provide a clear framework for communities, policy makers, planners, designers, developers, builders, and operators to help manage the impacts and capture the opportunities of our changing climate. Two Degrees is divided into three sections—Fundamentals, Mitigation, and Adaptation—covering a diverse array of topics ranging from climate-positive communities and low-carbon buildings to the psychology of choice and the cost of a low-carbon economy. After a foreword by Amory Lovins, more than 10 contributing authors share knowledge based on direct experience in all aspects of built environment practice. This book clarifies the misconceptions, provides new and unique insights, and shows how a better approach to the built environment can increase resilience and positively shape our future.

Sustainability in the built environment is a major issue facing policy-makers, planners, developers and designers in the UK, Europe and worldwide. The measuring of buildings and cities for sustainability becomes increasingly important as pressure for green, sustainable development translates into policy and legislation. The problems of such measurement and evaluation are presented by the authors in contributions which move from the general to the particular, e.g. from a general framework for an environmentally sustainable form of urban development to a specific input-output model application to environmental problems. The book is divided into three parts: the first covers city models and sustainable systems - research programmes, environmental policies, green corporations and collaborative strategies to make urban development more sustainable; part two discusses the problems of evaluating the built environment in planning and construction, covering economic and environmental methods and construction, development and regeneration processes; part three illustrates a number of applications using different approaches and techniques and referring to a range of environmental aspects of the natural and built environment, from maintaining historic buildings to transport management and air pollution monitoring.

"Sustainable Practices in the Built Environment is an important introduction to the subject for senior undergraduate and postgraduate students. Given the importance and novelty of the subject, professionals in the construction industry will also find the book valuable."--Jacket.

There is an urgent need to build human capacity to make the often vulnerable and exposed buildings and communities we live and work in more resilient to the changing social, economic and physical environments around us. Extensive research has been done over the last decades on both mitigation and adaptation to climate change in the built environment, but the outputs of much of this research have failed to result in the wider uptake of effective greenhouse gas emission reduction solutions. This volume introduces credible 'fresh thinking' on how this may be done. For the first time an emerging generation of research is brought together that is directly concerned with understanding, influencing and leading the transformation of markets and thinking in the built environment. Chapters cover: defining values setting targets consumer motivation selling existing ideas better developing new design principles, paradigms and programmes optimizing solutions to ensure that when change does happen, it does so in the right direction. Papers are contributed by leading experts in fields ranging from philosophy, the social, political and physical sciences, engineering, architecture, mathematics and complexity science. The resulting volume will be essential reading for all those involved with changing the mindsets of a generation on the need to, and ways to, build resilience to rapid change and transforming markets in the built environment.

"After twenty years of sustainable building policies, the issue of environmental impact of buildings and urban environments remains. Policy makers still have difficulties addressing the ambiguous, contested and dynamic goals encapsulated in the term 'sustainable development'. How to decide between using zinc or PVC gutters, when knowledge and valuation of environmental risks of both keep changing? How can we accommodate urban growth, now that compact cities turn out to be urban heat islands?" "Greening governance identifies how policy makers can deal with these contested questions. The book draws on policy network theories that consider stakeholder interaction, negotiation and learning as conditions for policy success. By understanding these conditions from an evolutionary viewpoint it provides a new perspective for governance. The concepts of generative variety, selective retention and regeneration will help policy makers to prioritize and select contested alternatives while also focusing on more long term and ambitious policy goals. The book is of interest to policy makers and scientists concerned with both the practical and theoretical issues of sustainable built environments." --Book Jacket.