Green/Sustainable Infrastructure & Practices

[Zach Watson]

So I have been looking for books and/or websites that talk about these things and I have yet to find anything.  Are these things that can really only be learned through a classroom environment or is there some resource out there that I can get a hold of to advance my understanding of the subject?

Zach

[Roland Beinert]

There are plenty of resources out there on this subject. Of all the books I’ve read on the subject, my two favorites are The Permaculture Designers Manual (Bill Mollison) and Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development (John Lyle). I like them because they are about an overall approach to sustainable design rather than just a few methods. A few others that are helpful are Energy-Efficient and Environmental Landscaping (Anne Moffat) and Gaia’s Garden (cheesy title, but a good book, by Toby Hemenway).
I think I learned the most about sustainable design from working at a design/build firm that specialized in it. I was surrounded by people I could go to for advice. Even just having my own organic vegetable garden has taught me a lot. You will always learn more by doing than by just reading, I think.

[Frank Varro]

If your looking for the more hard science, evidence based side, there is some out there. Its not as easy to find as you might think, but as with most research articles, if you find one, between looking at what they cite and who cites them, you get a quickly growing research stack pretty quickly. If you can find case study articles out of Europe, they seemingly have a head start on green infrastructure, especially Germany.

I THINK West8 in Rotterdam has done some work in the area, you could also look at their portfolio for some info.

[Author]

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