Green Building Bible 2nd edition

Review

From the 'Get Sussed' newsletter

In the beginning there was the word... and in this case, the word was ‘green’.
Apparently ‘bible’ means ‘big, authoritative book’, and there is no denying that this is a
very useful book.

What makes the book well worth its cover price is the wealth of reference material.
Many of the 46 essays list further resources (books, organisations and websites); and
there are 80 pages of ‘listings’ that give contact details for trade bodies, interest groups, professionals and tradespeople, and products. There are also advertisements
throughout the book, which have all been accepted on the basis that the companies
offer products and services that have a clear environmental advantage.

However, I’m not entirely convinced that the book quite reaches ‘bible’ status. Given the title and the strap-line on the front cover, you might expect detailed guidance on all
things green-building. Although the 200-pages of short essays cover a wide range of
green topics - from materials selection to dealing with grey water - some of them
assume a little too much background knowledge to be of real use to homeowners. For
example, one or two articles stray into debating policy developments - which only
serves to confuse new-comers to sustainability. My advice to readers is to check out the contributors’ credentials (at the back of the book) when reading the essays.

On the other hand, many of the articles are well-written and informative. Chris Morgan,
for example, has produced three interesting items; and there is an excellent piece by
Gideon Richards on ‘Smoothing the planning process’.

Overall then, a useful reference work for any sustainable builder’s bookshelf.

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