Sustainable living : the role of the whole life costs and values

Achieving a sustainable building is not just a matter of design and construction: what happens once the building is occupied is absolutely critical. This book shows how the choices designers, developers and building users make impact on sustainability over the life span of the building. The authors show how a holistic approach considering costs, energy use, environmental impact, global warming potential as well as items which a usually disregarded such as finishes, furniture and appliances is needed to achieve best practice. * How-to assess life-time costs and environmental impact of buildings* Predict and assess the impact of user behaviour on sustainability* Uses case studies to illustrate the importance of different factors I have not read this book but did see an article on Yahoo entitled "Polluting pets: the devastating impact of man's best friend" where it states among other things that "man's best friend could be one of the environment's worst enemies", "owning a dog is really quite an extravagance, mainly because of the carbon footprint of meat" (which dogs eat), "cats and dogs devastate wildlife, spread disease and pollute waterways", "keeping your cat indoors at night when it has a particular thirst for other, smaller animals' blood", "make sure your animal is duel purpose the Vales urge. Get a hen...or rabbit, prepared to make the ultimate environmental sacrifice by ending up on the dinner table". I think the problem would be solved if we just ate the Vales. "This book shows how the choices made by designers, developers and building users impact on sustainability over the life span of the building. It explains how best practice can be achieved through a holistic approach that considers costs, energy use, environmental impact and global warming potential as well as items that are usually disregarded such as finishes, furniture and appliances. The book will help all professionals involved in building design, such as architects, building services engineers, civil and structural engineers, to deliver buildings that are sustainable for life."--BOOK JACKET Achieving a sustainable building is not just a matter of design and construction: what happens once the building is occupied is absolutely critical.

This book shows how the choices designers, developers and building users make impact on sustainability over the life span of the building. The authors show how a holistic approach considering costs, energy use, environmental impact, global warming potential as well as items which a usually disregarded such as finishes, furniture and appliances is needed to achieve best practice. Holistic approach to obtaining a sustainable building