Green Guide


Book Description

A definitive how-to guide to the complex environmental issues of the twenty-first century offers practical solutions to the difficult choices of everyday living to promote an eco-friendly lifestyle.




Asphalt to Ecosystems


Book Description

Case Studies from North America, Scandinavia, Japan, and Great Britain demonstrate natural outdoor teaching environment that support hand-on learning in science, math, language, and art in ways that nurture healthy imagination and socialization Asphalt to Ecosystems is a compelling color guidebook for designing and building natural schoolyard environments that enhance childhood learning and play experiences while providing connection with the natural world. With this book, Danks broadens our notion of what a well-designed schoolyard should be, taking readers on a journey from traditional, ordinary grassy fields and asphalt, to explore the vibrant and growing movement to "green" school grounds in the United States and around the world. This book documents exciting green schoolyard examples from almost 150 schools in 11 countries, illustrating that a great many things are possible on school grounds when they are envisioned as outdoor classrooms for hands-on learning and play. The book's 500 vivid, color photographs showcase some of the world's most innovative green schoolyards including: edible gardens with fruit trees, vegetables, chickens, honey bees, and outdoor cooking facilities; wildlife habitats with prairie grasses and ponds, or forest and desert ecosystems; schoolyard watershed models, rainwater catchment systems and waste-water treatment wetlands; renewable energy systems that power landscape features, or the whole school; waste-as-a-resource projects that give new life to old materials in beautiful ways; K-12 curriculum connections for a wide range of disciplines from science and math to art and social studies; creative play opportunities that diversify school ground recreational options and encourage children to run, hop, skip, jump, balance, slide, and twirl, as well as explore the natural world first hand. The book grounds these examples in a practical framework that illustrates simple landscape design choices that all schools can use to make their schoolyards more comfortable, enjoyable and beautiful, and describes a participatory design process that schools can use to engage their school communities in transforming their own asphalt into ecosystems.




David Suzuki's Green Guide


Book Description

Everyone knows that the planet is in trouble, but is there a solution? This timely book identifies the most effective ways individuals can be more green in four key areas: home, travel, food, and consumerism. It also describes how citizens can ensure that governments take the actions necessary to make sustainable lifestyles the norm instead of the exception. Environmental lawyer David Boyd and celebrated ecologist David Suzuki provide vital tips for choosing a home, creating a healthy indoor environment, and decreasing energy and water use — and utility bills. They discuss what readers can do to drive and fly less, profile the most environmentally friendly transportation choices, and explain how to purchase carbon credits, among other suggestions. In addition, they offer simple changes individuals can make in their diet to eat fresher, tastier, healthier food. Included too is invaluable advice about how to buy fewer things and avoid toxic consumer products.




Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide, Wellbeing and the Environment


Book Description

Part of the six-volume Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide, this volume examines the ways in which the built environment can affect and enhance the wellbeing of society. Explores the effects of environment on wellbeing and provides insight and guidance for designing, creating, or providing environments that improve wellbeing Looks at the social and health issues surrounding sustainable energy and sustainable communities, and how those connect to concepts of wellbeing Brings the evidence base for environmental wellbeing into one volume from across disciplines including urban planning, psychology, sociology, healthcare, architecture, and more Part of the six-volume set Wellbeing: A Complete Reference Guide, which brings together leading research on wellbeing from across the social sciences




Guide to Green Building Rating Systems


Book Description

The one-stop guide for choosing a green building rating system Today, sustainability is a growing concern for the architects, designers, builders, and owners of commercial and residential buildings. Meeting the requirements of a rating system provides a metric to evaluate and set priorities. But the variety and complexity of methods available to assess the eco-friendliness of a building can seem overwhelming. Guide to Green Building Rating Systems informs readers about the rating system selection process. Comparing essential issues such as cost, ease of use, and building performance, this book offers solid guidance that will help readers find the rating system that best fits their needs. This easy-to-follow reference includes: An overview of the major national rating systems, including LEED®, Green Globes®, the National Green Building Standard, and ENERGY STAR® An in-depth look at each rating system, including its evolution, objectives, point structure, levels of certification, benefits, and shortcomings How the ratings systems work for different types of buildings—commercial, multi-family residential, and single-family residential construction Illustrated case studies from different climate regions with project descriptions, cost data, and lessons learned by design teams, constructors, and owners An overview of local, regional, and international rating systems Guide to Green Building Rating Systems demystifies complex material, making this book an essential reference for building professionals engaged in, or wishing to pursue, sustainable building practices.




The Green Office Manual


Book Description

This revised second edition highlights the opportunities for achieving cost savings and environmental improvements to enhance competitiveness in organizations of all sizes, with specific guidance for small businesses. The manual sets out effective and simple mechanisms to encourage participation and commitment from both staff and suppliers. It builds on the advice of the first edition, with a wide range of new case studies from different sectors, including retailers, hotels and hospitality, schools and educational institutions, airports and prisons, and plenty of office-based examples. A new chapter on environmental reporting considers international developments in environmental management, reporting and sustainable business, including the Global Reporting Initiative and the European Environmental Reporting Awards, with a link to DETR guidance. An extended chapter on energy and utilities provides an update on environmental legislation, government position and industry trends. An office waste chapter looks at examples of successful waste exchanges that save disposal costs to donors and purchase costs to recipients.




The Green Guide to Specification


Book Description

Like its predecessors, this fourth edition of The Green Guide to Specification provides designers and specifiers with easy-to-use guidance on how to make the best environmental choices when selecting construction materials and components. It is more comprehensive than its predecessors; it contains more than 1200 specifications used in six types of building: • Commercial buildings, such as offices • Educational buildings, such as schools and universities • Healthcare buildings, such as hospitals • Retail • Residential • Industrial. The principal building elements covered in this edition of The Green Guide to Specification include: • Floors • Roofs • Walls • Windows • Insulation • Landscaping. The performance of each specification is measured against a range of environmental impacts, including: • climate change • toxicity • fossil fuel and ozone depletion • levels of emissions and pollutants • mineral and water extraction. The Green Guide to Specification provides robust information to assist decision-making by translating numerical life-cycle assessment data into a simple A+ to E scale of environmental ratings, enabling specifiers to make meaningful comparisons between materials and components. The Green Guide to Specification is an essential tool for architects, surveyors, building managers and property owners seeking to reduce the environmental impact of their buildings by informed and responsible selection of construction materials and components.




A Practical Guide to Leading Green Schools


Book Description

This practical guide for educational leaders explores how you can transform your school or district into a vibrant center of learning and socio-ecological responsibility with only three manageable actions: taking students outside, bringing nature inside, and cultivating a mindset of awareness, responsibility, and empathy. This book is rich in practical, attainable approaches and stories of real actions taken by leaders, teachers, parents, and community partners to design, lead, and manage a vibrant, flourishing, sustainable learning community. Authors Uline and Kensler take you on an inspirational journey through nine key leadership strategies for you to begin or expand your work towards whole school sustainability.




The Mom's Guide to Growing Your Family Green


Book Description

With the multitude of green choices available, how can moms determine what will be best for their families—and the environment? Terra Wellington has the answers. This user-friendly and invaluable resource is packed with hundreds of easy green how-tos including: • Shopping: Get the most bang for your buck by purchasing organic foods that would otherwise have high pesticide residue, like apples, grapes, green peppers, peaches, and pears. • Kitchen: Save money and water by scraping—not rinsing— dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Today's models are so efficient that rinsing is not necessary. • Home office: Screensavers don't save energy. Instead have the computer switch to sleep mode when idle.




The Sustainability and Climate Change Curriculum Outdoors: Key Stage 2


Book Description

Provide quality curriculum-linked outdoor education in sustainability and climate change for pupils aged 7-11 with the authors of the bestselling National Curriculum Outdoors series. Designed to bring contemporary issues to life, this book contains everything you need to embed sustainability and climate change into your science curriculum, including key subject knowledge, case studies and a complete set of progressions for Key Stage 2. The detailed lesson plans are based around outdoor activities and are all in line with the Science National Curriculum. The book covers the following: - essential curriculum concepts - how to teach species identification - how to encourage pupils to care for the natural world - full curriculum-aligned lesson plans of outdoor activities, crafted to engage children in their local and global environments - ways to progress pupil's learning through leadership, both in a model science curriculum and through the reformation of their own school grounds. Situating this teaching outside the classroom ensures that the developing concepts and knowledge are grounded in the real world, and outdoor learning also has proven benefits for children's mental health and wellbeing. The guidance and templates for development planning are underpinned by current research, while vivid case studies bring these ideas to life.