Green Community - Hardcover

Green Community is a thoughtful, provocative collection of essays that explore a dizzying range of concepts that are contained in that elusive phrase "green community." These timely essays vitally inform us-poised as we are on the cusp of what will likely be generational changes in our global economy, in how we provide the energy we need, in how we travel, and in our ideas about what constitutes "the good life" in our neighborhoods, towns, cities,and suburbs around the world. -Harriet Tregoning, cofounder and former director of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute, former secretary of the Maryland Department of Planning, and cofounder of the Smart Growth Network Green Community is a rich, fact-filled, and up-to-date collection of today's critical environmental issues and how to deal with them. It is invaluable. -Roberta Brandes Gratz, author of The Living City: Thinking Small in a Big Way and Cities Back from the Edge: New Life for Downtown Today, more than any time in history, we live in a global economy where quality of place drives the free flow of capital. And as the lines between urban, suburban, and rural challenges blur, from poverty to housing affordability, strong neighborhoods are increasingly becoming a yardstick with which we measure America's success. Green Community is a definitive work on the sustainability challenge, offering us a blueprint for integrated transportation, housing, and land-use development and catalyzing a new generation of metropolitan and rural decision making that builds a geography of opportunity for every American. -Shaun Donovan, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban

The health of our planet and ourselves depends on how we plan, design, and construct the world between our buildings. Our increasing dependence on fossil fuels over the last century has given us unprecedented individual mobility and comfort, but the consequences are clear. Climate change, sprawl, and reliance on foreign oil are just a few of the challenges we face in designing new-and adapting existing-communities to be greener. Based on the National Building Museum's Green Community exhibition, this book is a collection of thought-provoking essays that illuminate the connections among personal health, community health, and our planet's health. Green Community brings together diverse experts, each of whom has a unique approach to sustainable planning, design, politics, and construction.