Green by Design: Creating a Home for Sustainable Living

This introductory guide to sustainable living will give you new ideas for building your home in an environmentally-friendly way.

I am a SoCA tract homeowner getting ready to relocate to the mountains of northern Utah. My husband and I are committed to building a home that is environmentally responsible, but the "green" concept is absolutely overwhelming. Green by Design is a terrific overview of the concept of sustainable living. Through the several case studies we learned that we would not have to be locked into an ugly straw box or uglier geodesic dome, and this book gave us just what we needed for next steps. If you already have expertise in this area and are looking for a how-to, I'm sure there are more appropriate books to help you build your home. However, if you want an introduction, this book does a great job.

This book is a very nice primer for green building and has lovely pictures, but it is not really suited as an exhaustive resource for the would be home builder. I bought this book as an enhancement to my collection of books on the topic of green building. The ideas presented are sound and I especially like the pictures and descriptions of the various approaches people have taken with their homes.