The
SustainableABC book store is an ever changing collection of literature
culled from the best authors on eco architecture, green building
and healthy living.
Review one of the books offered in
our book store and we will publish it and give you credit.
Art
of Natural Building
by Joseph F. Kennedy (Editor), Albert Bates, Catherine Wanek (Editor),
Michael Smith
This comprehensive
introduction to the natural building field is for lay people,
architects, and designers who wish to build beautiful, low-cost,
and environmentally-sensible structures. From straw bale and cob,
to recycled concrete and salvaged materials, this anthology of
articles from leaders in the field focuses on both the practical
and the esthetic concerns of ecological building designs and techniques.
Profusely illustrated and packed with resources.
All three
editors are central practitioners in the natural building movement.
Joseph F. Kennedy has expanded the boundaries of ecological architecture
with NASA's space station habitability module. Michael Smith is
the author of The Cob Cottage (Chelsea Green, 2001), among others.
Catherine Wanek is the editor of The Last Straw Journal.
The New
Natural House Book: Creating a Healthy, Harmonious and Ecologically
Sound Home
by David Pearson
The Natural
House Book, first published in 1989, originated the phrase "natural
house" and established the presence of the Green movement
in home design. Author David Pearson has updated and expanded
this eco-aware homebuilder's classic with new resource listings,
a new photo-essay in the introduction, and revised text describing
the latest and best developments in natural construction.
This completely
revised and redesigned edition of the bestselling Natural House
Book brings you hundreds of practical energy- and money-saving
ideas to enhance your home, your environment, and your well-being.
Originally
published in 1989, The Natural House Book anticipated our problems
with garbage disposal, indoor air pollution, water purification,
and environmental hazards. Today more than ever, we need inspiration
and cutting-edge information to transform our homes into havens
for the body, mind, and spirit.
Lavishly illustrated
with more than 100 full-color photos, combining the expertise
of top architects, designers, and ecology authorities from all
over the world, here is a hands-on, step-by-step, room-by-room
architectural and design guide to bring you and your family safely
and happily into the twenty-first century. .
Prescriptions
for a Healthy House
by Paula Baker-Laporte, Erica Elliott, John Banta, Lisa Flynn
(Illustrator)
This invaluable
guide for the homeowner/architect/builder takes the mystery out
of healthy house building by walking the reader through the construction
process. It explains where and why standard building practices
are not healthful, what to do differently, and how to obtain alternative
materials and expertise. Prescriptions for a Heathy House shows
how to design interior and exterior space, and select construction
materials that enhance and promote physical well-being.
Paul Baker
specializes in residential architecture. She has been diagnosed
as chemically sensitive and is intimately aware of the health
threat of many construction materials and methods. Erica Elliott
is a physician trained in environmental medicine. John Bantra
has over a decade of trouble-shooting experience detecting indoor
environmental problems..
Healthy
House Building for the New Millennium by John Bower
With over
200 photos and illustrations, as well as a complete set of detailed
construction drawings, Healthy House Building for the New Millennium
shows you everything you need to know to build a healthy house.
While your home probably won't look like the one featured in this
book, the important how-to information necessary to build or remodel
in a healthy manner can be applied to any house. This third edition
has been expanded to contain an update at the end of each chapter
with new building products, techniques, options, and web sites
- and there's a brand new chapter about the author's own new healthy
home.
John Bower
is the owner of The Healthy House Institute, and has been involved
with healthy house construction as a designer, builder, writer,
and consultant since 1984. He has personally built four healthy
houses for chemically sensitive people, and consulted on the construction
of many others across the country. John is the author of scores
of articles in magazines ranging from Custom Builder, Journal
of Light Construction, and Indoor Air Review, to East West, Greenkeeping,
and Mother Earth News. He has appeared on dozens of radio and
television programs, and is a regular speaker at housing conferences
in the U.S. and Canada. In 1991 John was awarded a Professional
Achievement Award by Professional Builder magazine for "healthy
house advocacy." He has been named one of the "Indoor
Environment Power 50" - a Who's Who in the Indoor Environment
Industry by Indoor Environment Review, and one of "60 Influential
People, Products, and Events" in the home building industry
by Professional Builder magazine.
Earth
Prayers: From Around the World, 365 Prayers, Poems, and Invocations
for Honoring the Earth
by Elizabeth J. Roberts (Editor), Elias Amidon (Editor)
In forest
clearings, beneath star-filled skies, in cathedrals, and before
the hearth...women and men have always given voice to the impulse
to celebrate the world that surrounds and sustains them. Now,
as we face a diminished present and an uncertain future, the need
to honor the interconnection between people and the planet is
heightened.
From Walt
Whitman, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Black Elk, to Margaret Atwood, the
Rig Veda, and the chant of a Samar fisherman, the varied voices
linked here offer songs and prayers for land, sea, and air; graces
for food; and invocations, poems, and passages that reveal in
the common spiritual heritage of all who cherish creation.
In forest
clearings, beneath star-filled skies, in cathedrals, and before
the hearth... women and men have always given voice to the impulse
to celebrate the world that surrounds and sustains them. Now,
as we face a diminished present and an uncertain future, the need
to honor the interconnection between people and the planet is
heightened.
From Walt
Whitman, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Black Elk, to Margaret Atwood, the
Rig Veda, and the chant of a Samar fisherman, the varied voices
linked here offer songs and prayers for land, sea, and air; graces
for food; and invocations, poems, and passages that reveal in
the common spiritual heritage of all who cherish creation.
Rural
Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency
by Andrea Oppenheimer Dean, Timothy Hursley (Photographer)
The genius
of an architect who made beautiful and functional homes out of
inexpensive materials is celebrated in Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee
and an Architecture of Decency. The book showcases work Mockbee
(1944-2002) undertook in Hale County, Ala., where he recruited
architecture students to help design and build free homes for
impoverished residents. Andrea Oppenheimer Dean, a former executive
editor at Architecture magazine, and photographer Timothy Hursley,
an architectural photographer who has been documenting Rural Studio
for nine years, present 132 color and 12 b&w photos of the
warm, modern homes (which often incorporate recycled and natural
materials like tires and hay bales) and discuss them with Mockbee,
his students and the home owners. The work has been featured on
Oprah, Nightline, CBS News and in Time and People.
This book
is a revelation. It displays, for the first time in book form,
the accomplishments of one of the most celebrated architectural
studios in America, the Rural Studio, led by Samuel Mockbee of
the Auburn University School of Architecture. Mockbee ran this
studio for ten years until his tragic death from leukemia last
year at the age of 57, a year after winning a MacArthur genius
award. His students and associates created some of the most interesting
and innovative architecture in the United States by serving the
humblest needs of some of the poorest people in the most neglected
counties of Alabama and Mississippi. About a dozen houses, churches,
playgrounds, pavilions, and community centers are represented
here in elegant photographs by Hursley, the unofficial photographer
of the studio, and in concentrated prose by Dean, a former executive
editor of Architecture magazine. The book includes descriptions
of each project, interviews with students and clients, instructive
essays on key topics, and a complete bibliography of the Rural
Studio.
Dharma
Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology
by Allan Hunt Badiner et al
If we are
to halt our progress toward the ruin of our environment, more
is called for than a few changes in lifestyle. Our destructive
ways did not come haphazardly into existence; they spring from
a particular attitude toward the earth and our relation to it,
and it is that attitude that these essays address. Dharma is the
Buddhist teaching; Gaia is the concept of the earth as a living
being, an organism that is whole the way a body is, each part
of it inseparable from the rest. When you look at the earth through
the eyes of Buddhism, you arrive at a picture very like Gaia:
the idea of the interdependency of all things is at the heart
of Buddhism. Damage one element, and you damage the whole. This
is in the spiritual realm what ecology is in the scientific, and
so the two systems of thought lead naturally into each other.
The essays in this book come at the subject from different angles,
all the way from Christopher Reed's Eco-Precepts ("I vow
to recycle everything I can") to David Abram's philosophical
look at how the Gaia hypothesis influences our perception, to
Joanna Macy's thoughts on "the greening of self' - the change
from the self as a separate entity to the self as "coextensive
with other beings and the life of our planet." Some essays
- such as Macy's - are thought-provoking and lively. Others are
more dutiful, more academic. But on the whole, the good essays
make up for the poorer ones, and the matching of Buddhism with
ecology points us in fruitful directions.
Does the idea
of not having to cook meals for yourself or family every night,
deal with traffic on your block, or worry when your children are
out playing in the neighborhood appeal to you? If the answer is
yes, you may want to consider exploring cohousing, a concept that
originated in Denmark in the early 1970s and has spread throughout
Europe. In Cohousing, a number of European cohousing communities
are profiled. Although each community is a unique reflection of
its members' tastes and desires, there are some common components,
such as parking lots on the perimeters of the community for pedestrian
safety, a common house where meals can be shared, and recreational
facilities housing various community activities and services.
With all the responsibilities entailed in managing a home and/or
a family, cohousing is a solution for finding sufficient time
to relax and spend with the people who are important to us. (The
authors have recently started The Cohousing Company, a design
and development company formed specifically to assist groups interested
in planning and implementing cohousing in this country.)
Review by Ilene Rosoff
The Straw
Bale House
by Athena Swentzell Steen, Bill Steen, David Bainbridge, David
Eisenberg
Get a leg
up on the first Little Pig with The Straw Bale House, your guide
to inexpensive, durable, earth-friendly construction that will
stand up to much more than the Big Bad Wolf. Authors Athena Swentzell
Steen and Bill Steen founded the Canelo Project, which promotes
innovative building; David Bainbridge is a California restoration
ecologist; and David Eisenberg is an alternative-materials builder
who pioneered straw bale wall testing. Between them, they have
encyclopedic knowledge of their subject. The book is comprehensive,
broadly covering why and how to build with straw and then focusing
on the details, which are both intellectually and aesthetically
delightful.
Beside being cheap, clean, and lightweight, straw also provides
advantages like energy efficiency and resistance to seismic stresses.
For the nervous Martha Stewart types, there are scads of black-and-white
and color plates of strikingly beautiful interiors and exteriors
from New Mexico to southern France. Both new and experienced builders
will appreciate the clear, simple instructions and diagrams, as
well as practical explanations for dealing with building codes
and insurers. The Straw Bale House shows us advantages so numerous
and dramatic that you'll wonder why we ever moved on to sticks
and bricks. By Rob Lightner
From the author
of The Natural House Book comes a provocative volume for anyone
interested in design, designing or building which integrates the
lessons of the past with today's technology to create structures
where the land, the home, and the spirit coexist harmoniously.
Earth to Spirit
is the record of David Pearson's personal odyssey for natural
architecture. The renowned author of The Natural House Book, David
Pearson has combed the world to find a diverse array of buildings
that head the ancient wisdom of ecology, health, and spiritual
awareness. In this book, he weaves together remarkable photographs
and an evocative text to reveal a new awakening in modern architecture
that integrates the lessons of the past with the technology of
the present day.
Cradle
to Cradle
by William McDonough and Michael Braungart
Paper or plastic?
Neither, say William McDonough and Michael Braungart. Why settle
for the least harmful alternative when we could have something
that is better--say, edible grocery bags! In Cradle to Cradle,
the authors present a manifesto calling for a new industrial revolution,
one that would render both traditional manufacturing and traditional
environmentalism obsolete. Recycling, for instance, is actually
"downcycling," creating hybrids of biological and technical
"nutrients" which are then unrecoverable and unusable.
The authors, an architect and a chemist, want to eliminate the
concept of waste altogether, while preserving commerce and allowing
for human nature. They offer several compelling examples of corporations
that are not just doing less harm--they're actually doing some
good for the environment and their neighborhoods, and making more
money in the process. Cradle to Cradle is a refreshing change
from the intractable environmental conflicts that dominate headlines.
It's a handbook for 21st-century innovation and should be required
reading for business hotshots and environmental activists.
Eco-Economy:
Building an Economy for the Earth
by Lester R. Brown
Eco-economic
theory calls for harmony between our economy and natural resources.
Our current, untenable, profit-focused economic model, says Brown
(Building a Sustainable Society), depletes forests, oil, farmland,
topsoil, water, atmosphere and species beyond a sustainable level.
Brown, founding director of the Earth Policy Institute, uses the
Sumerians as an antimodel: as the land was overworked, water sources
eventually disappeared. And he uses forestry as a counterexample:
forests secure land and store water, acting as natural dams. Logging
delivers paychecks, but doesn't consider flood damage from tree
loss. Eco-economists would say that the logger and the town, while
temporarily profiting, pay more in the end in rising insurance
costs, flood damage to homes and infrastructure, increased taxes
and disaster relief funds. The goal, presented here in convincing
detail, is to design a profitable economy that accurately reflects
the social cost of abuse of resources. Brown suggests shifting
"taxes from income to environmentally destructive activities,
such as carbon emissions." Individuals and towns should receive
tax breaks for deploying solar and wind-generated power. However
receptive to Brown's excellent, sophisticated proposals, many
readers will wonder how they can become reality; for eco-economics
to work, all world leaders would need to agree on what makes practices
environmentally unsound. (Nov. 5)Forecast: In light of the current
administration's poor reputation for eco-concern and its withdrawal
from the Kyoto Protocol, Brown's book will do well among students,
activists and the growing environmental movement.
Lester R.
Brown is the founder and president of Worldwatch Instutute , a
private, nonprofit environmental research organization in Washington,
DC. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius
award," the United Nations 1989 Environment Prize and the
Asahi Glass Foundation's Blue Planet Prize.
Alternative
Construction: Contemporary Natural Building Methods
by Lynne Elizabeth (Editor), Cassandra Adams
The first
comprehensive guide to combining traditional natural materials
and modern construction methods.
From adobe
to straw bales, traditional building materials are being adapted
to meet code-required standards for health and safety in contemporary
buildings around the world. Not only are they cost effective and
environmentally friendly, but, when used correctly, these natural
alternatives match the strength and durability of many mainstream
construction materials.
This book
examines a broad range of traditional and modern natural construction
methods, including straw-bale, light-clay, cob, adobe, rammed
earth and pise, earthbag, earth-sheltered, bamboo, and hybrid
systems. It also covers key ecological design principles, as well
as current engineering and building code requirements.
Experts on
each building system have contributed core chapters that explore
the history, development, climatic appropriateness, environmental
benefits, performance characteristics, construction techniques,
and structural design principles for each method. More than 200
visuals depict both construction processes and completed structures.
An extensive resource guide shows where to go for further information,
training, and research.
In an increasingly
resource-conscious era, alternative construction is truly an idea
whose time has come. Whether you're an architect, designer, student,
or homeowner, this book will help you to combine indigenous building
materials with modern construction systems and design standards
to create low-impact, high-quality buildings that meet the highest
levels of comfort, health, and safety.
LYNNE ELIZABETH
is a consultant on sustainable community development and ecological
design. She edits New Village Journal, the national periodical
of Architects, Designers, and Planners for Social Responsibility.
CASSANDRA
ADAMS is an architect and consultant in construction management
and ecological design. She has taught architecture, construction,
and environmental courses at the University of Washington and
the University of California, Berkeley.
Places
of the Soul: Architecture and Environmental Design As a Healing
Art
By Christopher Day
"...one
of the seminal architecture books of recent times." --Professor
Tom Wooley, Architects Journal
At a time
when the environment is increasingly under the spotlight, "Places
of the Soul" examines how people can reinstate the human
factor in the building equation.
Building
with the Breath of Life
by Tom Bender
So simple
yet profound it carries the force of revelation...A condensed
guide for those ready to take energetics into their homes and
communities.
Of immense
practical interest to students of alternative medicine, metaphysical
spirituality, feng-shui, architecture, and a New Age approach
to body, mind and spirit.
Drawing upon
the expertise of one of the world's premier designers of ecologically
sensitive houses, this unique guide provides both inspiration
and practical advice for creating a natural, more energy-efficient
home. The heart of the book is a compendium of 2,000 building,
remodeling and decorating products. Detailed illustrations &
informative sidebars.
A Pattern
Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
by Christopher Alexander
"Brilliant....Here's
how to design or redesign any space you're living or working in--from
metropolis to room. Consider what you want to happen in the space,
and then page through this book. Its radically conservative observations
will spark, enhance, organize your best ideas, and a wondrous
home, workplace, town will result"--San Francisco Chronicle.
A handbook
designed for the layman which aims to present a language which
people can use to express themselves in their own communities
or homes, and to better communicate with each other.
Gaviotas:
A Village to Reinvent the World
by Alan Weisman
...a book
telling a tale too lovely for fiction, a lyrical, well-observed
book that reports from the llanos of eastern Colombia, savannas
tortured by guns and cows and cocaine, of an experiment in solar
democracy in which "appropriate technology" is anything
but a sad product on the discount tables of broken, post-sixties
idealism.
By The Nation, Tom Athanasiou
In an age
when you may feel you have lost your connection to the planet,
this book will help you discover your relationship to the life
around you.
Toxics
A to Z: A Guide to Everyday Pollution Hazards
by John Harte et al
The best book
of its kind for the layman. The general chapters are a good overview
of a wide-ranging subject but put environmental toxins into their
proper perspective. The individual entries are supported by an
excellent glossary and full index.
Relates general
information on the hazards of toxic materials in the environment
and alphabetically lists facts about more than one hundred individual
toxins, with explanations of how to identify each substance and
avoid the danger of contamination.
Healing
Environments: Your Guide to Indoor Well Being
by Carol Venolia, Debra Lynn Dadd
The physical
environments we live, work and play in have a direct, but often
unrecognized, effect on the harmony of our lives. Becoming aware
of our interactions with these spaces and making changes to improve
them can help create balance and emotional well-being. Healing
Environments provides ways in which to reconfigure our lifestyles
and surroundings that will enhance our lives and spiritual beings.
For instance, adding accents of silver, the color of the moon,
can aid creativity, soothe emotions and soften the ambience in
our surroundings. An architect by profession, Carol Venolia guides
us beyond the structural dimensions and into the sensorial realms
of the spaces we inhabit. This book is presented as a way to get
to know ourselves and evaluate our environments, as well as to
teach us how the components of color, sound, temperature, light,
arrangement and texture can be cultivated to create a healthier
and more fufilling existence.
How you put
your house together is just as important as the materials you
choose. Healthy House Building takes you step-by-step through
the construction of a Model Healthy House. With over 200 photos
and illustrations, as well as a complete set of detailed construction
drawings, Healthy House Building shows you everything you need
to know to build a healthy house. While your house probably won't
look like the one in this book, the important how-to information
necessary to build or remodel in a healthy manner can be applied
to all houses. This second edition contains updated addresses
for the suppliers of materials used in the Model Healthy House.
Of course,
having comprehensive text on healthy housing is important. But
Healthy House Building (Second Edition) by John Bower takes this
information further--by actually showing readers how to build
a healthy house from the ground up. Want to see how to lay a ceramic
tile floor using a self-made, no-additive grout; how to install
a metal roof; or how the air-tight drywall approach should be
done? These and all the other steps required to build a "model
healthy house" are explained in text--but also with over
250 photographs, and 25 pages of detailed house plans. This is
the type of information you'll be able to apply to your next building
or remodeling project.
"Indoor
air pollution accounts for 50% of all illness," according
to a Massachusetts Special Legislative Commission, but you can
protect yourself by reading this book. Healthy House Building
reveals the unsuspected sources of indoor air pollution that you
and your family breathe on a daily basis. But more importantly,
it gives you real world, readily available solutions. Everything
about a house is covered, including foundations, flooring, cabinets,
painting, filters, ventilation, etc., and a complete set of house
plans is included. Healthy House Building is a valuable illustrated
resource. It will be useful for homeowners and renters who have
never picked up a hammer, as well as experienced builders and
designers who are after up-to-date information on the subject.
If you are planning to build a new house or simply remodel an
existing one you need Healthy House Building.
John Bower
(BS Purdue University, MA Ball State University) has been involved
with healthy house construction since 1984. He has written extensively
on the subject in several books (The Healthy House, The Healthy
House Answer Book, and Understanding Ventilation) as well as in
articles for such publications as Custom Builder, The Journal
of Light Construction, and Mother Earth News. In addition, he
has been an invited speaker at builders' conferences throughout
the U.S. and Canada sponsored by such organizations as the National
Association of Home Builders, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, and the American Institute of Architects. In 1991, he
was honored with a Professional Achievement Award for "healthy
house advocacy" from Professional Builder magazine. He is
currently serving on the Editorial Advisory Board of Indoor Environment
Review.
Ecological
Design
by Sim Van Der Ryn & Stuart Cowan
Ecological
Design presents a vision of how the living world and the human
world can be rejoined by taking ecology as the basis for design--adapting
and integrating human design with natural processes. The authors
weave together case studies, personal anecdotes, images and theory
to provide a thorough treatment of the concept of ecological design.
Out of print
but a wonderful resource and available used at Amazon.com.
Better
Basics for the Home: Simple Solutions for Less Toxic Living
by Annie Berthold-Bond
These days,
more and more people are saying no to "better living through
chemistry" and yes to a lifestyle that is less toxic and
more environmentally friendly. This trend toward a more natural
lifestyle has become something of a crusade for Annie Berthold-Bond,
author of Better Basics for the Home. After developing hypersensitivity
to even very low concentrations of chemicals, Berthold-Bond was
forced to rid her life of as many toxins as possible. "It
wasn't until I had to be away from chemicals that I began to realize
how many we lived with. The extent of the contamination is startling--from
hair spray and floor wax to dandelion killers and plastic shower
curtains and other products that line our hardware stores and
supermarket shelves."
This book
represents the culmination of her search for a more sustainable
lifestyle. Taking her cue from an earlier time, Berthold-Bond,
former editor in chief of Green Alternatives for Health and Environment,
offers more than 800 simple and practical alternatives to common
household toxins, covering everything from skin care to gardening.
And the good news is that adopting her suggestions and formulas
isn't hard at all. "Mixing up face creams or wood stain isn't
much different than cleaning the windows with vinegar, soap, and
water instead of using Brand Name X, or making a cake with flour,
eggs and milk instead of buying a mix," see asserts. "With
a few simple staples we can clean our houses, wash our hair, rid
the dog's bed of fleas, and do many other things as well."
If you have your doubts, here is her formula for metal polish:
3 teaspoons
salt, 1 tablespoon flour, and enough white distilled vinegar
to make a paste. Scoop the paste onto a clean sponge, and polish
the metal clean. Rinse with hot water and buff dry.
Sure, these
days it's literally impossible to lead a life that is completely
toxin-free. But you can significantly reduce your exposure, and
picking up a copy Better Basics for the Home is a great way to
get started.
Home
Safe Home: Protecting Yourself and Your Family from Everyday Toxics
and Harmful Household Products in the Home
by Debra Lynn Dadd
Provides more
than four hundred tips on ways one can remove harmful substances
from the home and have them replaced by safer, do-it-yourself
formulas, and gives helpful hints on how to purchase natural food,
clothing, and beauty supplies."
Card catalog description
Home Safe Home offers more than 400 tips, including do-it-yourself
formulas for inexpensive, safe products to replace harmful substances
we are exposed to in our own homes. Whether you suffer from unexplained
headaches, fatigue, or depression, or if you worry about the link
between increased use of toxics and the rising rate of cancer,
the many suggestions in this book can make your life virtually
toxic-free!
Clean
and Green: The Complete Guide to Non-Toxic and Environmentally
Safe Housekeeping
by Annie Berthold-Bond, Annie Berhold Bond
Better than
Heloise's Hints for A Healthy Planet....
Garbage Magazine,
March/April 1991
The result of her years of experimentation is not only an encyclopedia
for environmental cleanliness, but also a laundry list of solutions
of solutions for everyday puzzlers.
