Book Review

Green Building Guidelines: Meeting the Demand for Low-Energy, Resource-Efficient Homes

By the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council
Washington, DC: Sustainable Buildings Industry Council. 135 pages; $50.00 paperback.

Reviewed by Jim Vann

It's been said that "you can't judge a book by its cover." This is not always the case, but a notable exception is Green Building Guidelines. The book was produced by the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council (formerly the Passive Solar Industries Council) with funding from the US Department of Energy through the Build America Program. These are important organizations in the sustainable building community, so with them on the cover I started with high expectations for the book.

Green Building Guidelines is actually a compilation of information from a multitude of different publications and resources. The acknowledgments are a "who's who" of organizations, businesses, and individuals involved in environmental building. By gathering and organizing information from these many groups and people, the book becomes an important and comprehensive resource on the subject.

The book is composed of six chapters, each covering a certain aspect of the building process: Community and Site Planning, Energy, Efficient Water Use, Indoor Environmental Quality, Materials, and Operation and Maintenance.

Each chapter is packed with recommendations, specifications, checklists, rules of thumb, case studies, a detailed reference list, and a web reference list. Green Building Guidelines is a well-laid-out information resource for the building professional, and the homeowner as well. The case studies even include cost data.

The book is based on the premise of whole building design principles, an integrated approach to energy and resource efficiency in residential building design and construction. Each chapter concludes with a list referencing sections from the chapter to other sections and chapters where the topics and specifications correlate. They call this list "Building Integration," and it is wonderful to see these interrelationships detailed.

Green Building Guidelines is an excellent, concise, comprehensive, yet surprisingly readable, reference source. It is a must for anyone interested in sustainable construction. My only complaint is, ironically, the book cover. The book is loose-leaf bound. A book this good should have a more archival cover; it’s going to disintegrate in my briefcase. Oh well.

Jim Vann heads Ra Solar Company and is a NESEA board member.