Green Development Organizations & Publications

Alliance to Save Energy -- provides materials on home energy rating systems, building codes, efficient new construction and design.

Builders Without Borders (BWB) -- BWB is an international network of ecological builders who form partnerships with communities and organizations around the world to create affordable housing from local materials and to work together for a sustainable future.

BuildingEnvelopes.org -- a nonprofit online resource providing state-of-the-art information on innovations in advanced facades, heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting systems to support preliminary design of energy-efficient buildings.

Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems -- a non-profit education, demonstration, and research organization with over 70 years combined experience in the application of appropriate technologies and sustainable design practices to meet the needs of a broad range of users, from individual home builders to regional planning and natural resource agencies.

Center for Resourceful Building Technology (CRBT) -- infomation on a variety of issues related to housing and the environment, with a particular emphasis on innovative building materials and resource-efficient technologies.

The Development Center for Appropriate Technology -- a project to address regulatory barriers to best green building practices.

U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) -- High Performance Buildings Database -- The database is research that seeks to improve building performance measuring methods by collecting data on various factors that affect a building's performance, such as energy, materials, and land use. Developed through a partnership of the Department of Energy, Environmental Building News, Rocky Mountain Institute, the American Institute of Architects' Committee on the Environment, and the US Green Building Council. There are a number of good green building case studies on this site. A good companion to RMI's Green Developments 2.0 CD ROM.

Energy Star for New Building Design -- Top performing facilities that are designed to earn the Energy Star require less money to operate and are responsible for fewer greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

Envirosense -- The Envirosense Consortium, Inc. is a group of companies who collectively offer solutions and strategies to address indoor air quality and related environmental issues.

Green Building Initiative -- This Initiative was set up by the Kresge Foundation to encourage nonprofit organizations to build green. They provide grants for planning and design of green buildings, run workshops, and provide educational materials about green building.

Healthy House Institute -- information on creating and maintaining healthy indoor environmental quality.

Oikos Green Building Source -- probably the most comprehensive on-line green product source; it's easy to navigate and you can search by product type or by company.

Northwest Regional Sustainable Building Action Plan -- an e-mail list for people interested in sustainable building.

Southface Energy Institute -- specializes in energy-efficient construction techniques for the southern climate.

Sprawl Busters -- reading material on sprawl.

The Energy Source Directory. Lorane, OR: Iris Communications. Provides access to over 500 products that help make homes energy-efficient. Information about air barriers, heat recovery ventilators, sealants, heating and cooling equipment, solar water heaters, and insulation materials, etc. The directory is indexed by manufacturer, product name, and product category.

Governor's Green government council's Green Building Video Series. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. +1 (0717) 783-2300. www.dep.state.pa.us. Series includes 6 videos: Making the Case (argument of green buildings); Better Places to Learn (why green schools make sense); Furnishing High Performance Green Buildings (environmentally smart furniture); Pennsylvania's First Green Building (process of designing a green building); Well-Built, Green-Built (focus on green office buildings); Building Green (creation of he south Central Regional Office building, home of Pennsylvania's DEP). Free downloads available online at www.greenworks.tv/green_building/archives.htm.

A Guide to Intentional Community and Cooperative Living. Published by the Fellowship for Intentional Community. More than 700 intentional communities from around the world, news articles about community living, a new resources section, cross-reference charts, recommended reading list, photos, indexes, and more. In addition to the listings, the guide includes maps with locations of North American communities; charts to quickly find the community that meets your needs; articles about intentional communities with topics such as choosing a community, questions about cults, communication skills, financing a community, ecovillages and cohousing communities; descriptions and contact information for major resources; and an annotated book list of more than over 300 of the most important texts for people exploring community. Contact: Laird Schaub, Executive Secretary, Fellowship for Intentional Community, RR 1 Box 156, Rutledge MO 63563. Phone: +1 800-995-8342 or +1 660-883-5545, or e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Healthy House Institute. Healthy House books. Bloomington, IN: Healthy House Institute. A number of books on how to design, build, and create a healthy house can be found at the web site for the Healthy House Institute: http://www.hhinst.com.

Kats, Greg, Leon Alevantis, Adam Berman, Evan Mills, and Jeff Perlman. The Costs and Financial Benefits of Green Building. Report to California's Sustainable Building Task Force, October 2003. A comprehensive report that outlines the financial benefits related to green buildings, including not only lower operating and maintenance costs, but increase in worker productivity and health.

Lovins, Amory B., Kyle Datta, Thomas Feiler, Karl R. Rábago, Joel N. Swisher P.E., André Lehmann, and Ken Wicker. Small Is Profitable: The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size. Snowmass, CO: Rocky Mountain Institute, 2002. Describes 207 ways in which the size of "electrical resources" -- devices that make, save, or store electricity -- affects their economic value. It finds that properly considering the economic benefits of "distributed" (decentralized) electrical resources typically raises their value by a large factor, often approximately tenfold, by improving system planning, utility construction and operation, and service quality, and by avoiding societal costs.

Slessor, Catherine. Eco-Tech: Sustainable Architecture and High Technology. London, UK: Thames and Hudson, 1997. An international survey completed in the 1990's that uses high-tech forms and materials. Showcases innovative approaches by established practitioners. A selection of 40 projects with a thorough description of their architectural and technological features as well as plans, drawings and sketches.

Thompson, George F. and Frederick R. Steiner, ed. Ecological Design and Planning. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Papers from an international symposium entitled: "Landscape architecture: ecology and design and planning," held in Tempe, AZ, April 1993.

Watson, Donald. Environmental Design Charrette Workbook. Washington, DC: American Institute of Architects, 1996. Highlights intensive design workshops dealing with energy efficiency, building technology, environmental approaches to landscaping, waste prevention and resource reclamation, as well as planning and cultural issues. The workbook also contains guidelines for organizers and facilitators, a sample-briefing booklet, plus expert practitioners pondering the art of community dialogue.

The majority of this list has been sourced from Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), a World Green Building Council Affiliate. For more information on RMI click here.