Green Design Reading List

The following reading list is suggested as a starting point for readers eager to learn more about green design, sustainable development – and their many iterations.

Books:

General Green Design

Cradle to Cradle:  Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart
The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability:  Charting the Conceptual Landscape Through Economy, Ecology, and Culture by Ann Thorpe
Ecological Design by Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan
The Green Building Revolution by Jerry Yudelson
The Philosophy of Sustainable Design:  A Journal by Jason McLennan
Sustainable Architecture Whitepapers by Earthpledge Foundation
Worldchanging:  A User’s Guide for the 21st Century by Alex Steffen

Green Design Process

The Green Studio Handbook:  Environmental Strategies for Schematic Design by Alison Kwok and Walter Grondzik
Green BIM: Successful Sustainable Design with Building Information Modeling by Eddy Krygiel and Brad Nies
The Integrative Design Guide to Green Building:  Redefining the Practice of Sustainability by 7group and Bill Reed

Special Design Topics

Biomimicry:  Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Benyus
Biophilic Design:  The Theroy, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life by Stephen R. Kellert, Judith Heerwagen, and Martin Mador
Ecodesign:  A Manual for Ecological Design by Ken Yeang
Design Like You Give a Damn:  Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises by Architecture for Humanity
Sustainable Healthcare Architecture by Robin Guenther and Gail Vittori
Towards a New Regionalism:  Environmental Architecture in the Pacific Northwest by David E. Miller

Green Construction

Contractor’s Guide to Green Building Construction:  Management, Project Delivery, Documentation, and Risk Reduction by Thomas E. Glavinich
Sustainable Construction:  Green Building Design and Delivery by Charles J. Kibert

Green Engineering

The Ecological Engineer Vol.1: KEEN Engineering by David R. Macaulay and Jason F. McLennan
Engineering a Sustainable World by Interface Engineering. Available for download at http://www.interfaceengineering.com/portfolio/green_building/book/book.html

Green Interior Design and Design Specifications

Green Building Materials:  A Guide to Product Selection and Specification by Ross Spiegel and Dru Meadows
Green Guide to Specification by Jane Anderson and David Shiers
Offices at Work: Uncommon Workspace Strategies That Add Value and Improve Performance by Franklin Becker and Tom Kelley
Sustainable Commercial Interiors by Penny Bonda and Katie Sosnowchik
Workplace by Design: Mapping the High-Performance Workscape by Franklin Becker and Fritz Steele

Green Homes

Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies by Eric Corey Freed
The Northwest Green Home Primer by Kathleen O’Brien

Green Economics

Deep Economy:  The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben
The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken
The Green Collar Economy:  How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems by Van Jones
Natural Capitalism:  Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter L. Lovins
The Rise of the Creative Class:  And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life by Richard Florida
Strategies for the Green Economy:  Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business by Joel Makower
Who’s Your City?:  How the Creative Economy Is making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life by Richard Florida

Planning and Sustainable Development

Building an Emerald City:  A Guide to Green Building Policies and Programs by Lucia Athens (forthcoming in October 2009)
Form Based Codes:  A Guide for Planners, Urban Designers, Municipalities, and Developers by Daniel G. Parolek, Karen Parolek and Paul C. Crawford
The Humane Metropolis:  People and Nature in the 21st Century City by Rutherford H. Platt (Editor)
Life Between Buildings:  Using Public Space by Jan Gehl
Neighbor Power:  Building Community the Seattle Way by Jim Diers
Resilient Cities:  Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change by Peter Newman, Timothy Beatley and Heather Boyer
Retrofitting Suburbia:  Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburb by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson
Sustainable Design:  Ecology, Architecture, and Planning by Daniel E. Williams
Sustainable Urbanism:  Urban Design with Nature, by Douglas Farr

Sustainable Site Design

Materials for Sustainable Sites:  A Complete Guide to the Evaluation, Selection, and Use of Sustainable Construction Materials by Meg Calkins
Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls by Nigel Dunnett and Noel Kingsbury
Sustainable Landscape Construction:  A Guide to Green Building Outdoors by J. William Thompson and Kim Sorvig

Change and Leadership

Blessed Unrest:  How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming by Paul Hawken
The Cultural Creatives:  How 50 Million People Are Changing the World by Paul H. Ray, Ph.D. and Sherry Ruth Anderson
Harvard Business Review on Green Business Strategy, Harvard Business Review Paperback Series
Leadership and the New Science:  Discovering Order in a Chaotic World Revised by Margaret J. Wheatley
Leading Change Toward Sustainability:  A Change-Management Guide for Business, Government and Civil Society by Bob Doppelt
The Necessary Revolution:  How Individuals and Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World by Peter M. Senge, Bryan Smith, Sara Schley, Joe Laur, and Nina Kruschwitz
A Whole New Mind:  Moving from the Information  Age to the Conceptual Age by Daniel H. Pink

Food for Thought

1491:  New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
Being Human at Work: Bringing Somatic Intelligence Into Your Professional Life by Richard Strozzi-Heckler
Bowling Alone:  The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert Putnam
The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono
Seven Lessons of Chaos:  Spiritual Wisdom from the Science of Change by John Briggs and F. David Peat
The Sustainability Revolution:  Portrait of a Paradigm Shift by Andres R. Edwards and David W. Orr
The Upside of Down:  Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization by Thomas Homer-Dixon
Women in Green:  Voices of Sustainable Design by Kira Gould and Lance Hosey

Periodicals

CitiesGoGreen
Dwell
Eco-Structure
Environmental Building News
Environmental Design + Construction
Interiors and Sources
Journal of Green Building
Metropolis Magazine
Sustainable Industries Journal