November book reviews

“Green Building A to Z: Understanding the Language of Green Building”
By Jerry Yudelson

RATING:
Buy this book

Green building is a rapidly evolving and expanding space. Regardless of whether you’re in it or thinking about joining it, “Green Building A to Z” should be on your desk. Jerry Yudelson has been in the green building business from its beginnings, and his most recent work is a reference guide that is both unassuming and enlightening.

The book starts out with four brief chapters describing the big picture, the history, the definition and the promotion of green building. From there the author discusses green building terminology exactly as he says in the title — by beginning with “architecture 2030” and ending with “zero-net-energy buildings.”

Moving along from A to Z, I came across terms both familiar and unfamiliar. What seems remarkable about the discussions offered is that, regardless of whether I recognized the term or not, I never thought to myself, “Oh, I know this. I’ll just skip ahead.”

In a time when climate changes seem to be on everyone’s mind, the amount of resources used and emissions produced by conventional building methods needs to be seriously called into question. “Green Building A to Z” has the answers. Published by New Society Publishers.

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“Carbon Strategies: How Leading Companies Are Reducing Their Climate Change Footprint”
by Andrew J. Hoffman