Description
Book SynopsisBuildings consume 40% of our planet's materials and 30% of its energy. Their construction uses up to three million tonnes of raw materials a year and generates 20% of the soild waste stream.
If we want to survive our urban future, there is no option but to build in ways which improve the health of ecosystems.
Understanding the concept of ecological sustainability and translating it into practice as sustainable development is a key challenge for today's built environment professionals. The skill and vision of those who shape our cities and homes is vital to achieving sustainable solutions to the many environmental, economic and social problems we face on a local, national and global scale.
Peter Graham offers here a holistic view of ecologically sustainable building by drawing on established areas of knowledge, demonstrating their relevance to the environmentally-conscious building professional and putting the pr
Trade Review
'The book is well written and its conversational style engages the reader right from the start. Its readability does not detract from its intellectual rigour with arguments being well documented and thoroughly referenced....This is a stimulating and thought provoking book clearly written by a person holding deep convictions regarding the need for a sustainable built environment. The book will be useful for built environment academics and professionals alike.'
Construction Management and Economics Jan 2004
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements.
About this book.
Introduction;.
Part 1 Interdependency:how buildings affects nature; Life-cycle thinking:how BEEs think about inderdependency through time; Building Metabolism:how BEEs understands effects on the whole system; Impacts:the effects of current practice; Summary:what do BEEs know now?.
PART II Building Ecological Sustainability; Thermodynamics:underlying physical laws; Change:ecolological sustainability through time; Summary; what do BEEs know now?;.
Part III The beehive revealed; Natural laws and principles of ecoogical sustainability; Developing ecological sustainability in built environments; Case study; From knowlege to understanding; Glossaries; Index
