Product Description

This excellent hands-on guide to designing environmentally friendly buildings -- those made from materials that preserve the earth's natural legacy for future generations -- is written by two nationally known experts on the subject. You'll find practical information on green product selection, product specification, and construction processes. You'll also learn just what green building materials are, where you can find them, and how you can use them effectively. This edition includes updated information on LEED requirements and how to integrate them into the specifications process and new sections on commissioning and on construction waste management. Other features are guidelines on how to evaluate the "greenness" of building materials, helpful sample forms to aid in selecting and specifying materials, and a brief history of relevant environmental legislation. Order your copy today!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #517198 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

From the Back Cover

To properly select and specify green building materials, successful architects need authoritative, real-world advice on how to select and use nontoxic, recycled, and recyclable products, and how to integrate these products into the design process in order to capitalize on the many practical and economic advantages of "going green." Green Building Materials, Second Edition is the most reliable, up-to-date resource to meet today's green building challenges–from reducing waste and improving energy efficiency to promoting proper code compliance and safeguarding against liability claims.

Written by two nationally known experts on green building methods and materials, Green Building Materials, Second Edition offers in-depth, practical information on the product selection, product specification, and construction process. This new Second Edition is an excellent hands-on guide to today's newest range of green building materials–what they are, where to find them, how to use them effectively, and how to address LEED requirements. Organized by CSI MasterFormat® category for fast access to specific information, it features:

• New sections on commissioning and construction of waste management
• Important guidance on how to evaluate the "greenness" of building materials, including a section-by-section specification summary of environmental issues
• Helpful sample forms to aid in selecting and specifying green materials
• A brief history of relevant environmental legislation and the evolution of environmentally conscious design
• An appendix listing useful sources of additional information

About the Author
Ross Spiegel, RA, FCSI, CCS, CCCA, is Senior Specification Writer with the Connecticut based architectural/engineering firm Fletcher-Thompson, Inc of Shelton, CT. He has been a member of the Construction Specifications Institute since 1978, where he has served in numerous positions on the chapter, region and Institute levels. In 1994, Ross was appointed as CSI's liaison to the U.S. Green Building Council, a position he continues to serve in today. Ross served on the U.S. Green Building Council's Board of Directors and is currently chairing the Steering Committee for the Council's International Green Building Conference & Expo.

Dru Meadows, AIA, CSI, CCS, is cofounder of the GreenTeam, Inc., a strategic environmental consulting firm that specializes in building industry issues. The firm's clients primarily include Fortune 500 corporations and governmental agencies. She is a board member of the Oklahoma State University–Environmental Institute and chair for ASTM International's Committee on Sustainability in Building.

Customer Reviews

An excellent and long-needed guide to green specifications!
This is an absolute MUST-HAVE addition to the libraries of every firm and organization that deals with designing, constructing, maintaining, or restoring commercial and public buildings. It should be required reading in every architectural school. It also offers much value to residential builders, even though they seldom use the sophisticated specification systems of the commercial building trade.

For some three decades, articles and books on environmentally-sound architecture have focused on the design side. And most have focused on residential construction. Spiegel & Meadow's new book breaks new ground in two respects, by dealing with the product/material side of (primarily) commercial buildings.

The specification aspect of green construction -- in which the appropriate materials and products are prescribed -- has been largely unaddressed. This is partly because the commercial building industry, in general, has culturally been behind the curve in terms of concern for the environment, but also because even the most conscientious firms have serious difficulty finding and obtaining green building products.

There are two reasons for this difficulty of specifying green materials: 1) Few architects receive any meaningful level of training regarding specification in their schooling, preferring to focus on the more glamorous process of design; and, 2) Neither the commercially-available master guide specifications (such as SpecLink and MasterSpec) nor the product catalogs (such as First Source, SpecData, and Sweets) have figured out how to provide a useful and accurate means of helping specifiers compare the greeness of one item over another.

While Green Building Materials can't solve the industry's lack of useful tools, it provides designers with the first comprehensive education on the specification process as it relates to green building.

New tools are finally entering the market, such as the LEED system (from the U.S. Green Building Council) for measuring the greeness of a building, which will soon be incorporated into the Construction Specification Institute's new PerSpective software for performance specifying.

Used in combination with this book, architects and building owners are finally beginning to get what they need to create buildings that are healthy for both their occupants and the world's environment.

The authors have a level of intimacy with their subject that oozes out of each page. Readers come away with the distinct impression that this book is a product of both passion and deep expertise, and is obviously not some publisher's attempt to quickly plug a serious gap in the literature.

A rapidly-growing number of public and private owners are requiring a level of greeness to all of their new buildings. Green Building Matierals is the tool the owners need in order to get what they want. It's also what designers and builders need to respond successfully to such demands.

"Green Remodeling" would be a good companion guide
Green materials are definitely an important aspect of green building; however, I think we need to be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking green materials *are* green building. We need to think more holistically - for example, asphalt roofing may not be "green," but it will last 40 years and save me significant money over a sterotypically "green" recycled-tile or slate roof. I can use this money towards green-ing other features of my home. Most of us need to spend our money wisely, so we need to pick and choose green features for homes as best we can. I highly recommend the book "Green Remodeling" as a companion guide to this book that will offer much needed practical remodeling advice and whole-systems thinking.

Great book
This book gives great detail to the open ends of the negative effects of our market, and where to turn to correct them.