Housing is probably the second largest consumer of non-renewable resources after the automobile. This book is on building in a way that provides everything you need in a house, but doing so with a minimal impact on the earth.
The first step is building a house that is satisfactory but not so big as has become normal in the US, and designing it for energy efficiency. Well insulated houses are easier to keep warm in the winter, cool in the summer.
After the design is completed, then comes the selection of components and materials to be used in the construction of the house. That's where this book comes in. In going through the book you can find ideas that will help you in the design, but more importantly, you will find components that fall into the general rules of 'reuse/recycle.' Here is lumber recovered from older buildings, lumber made from plastic that from recycled packaging. Here are high performance appliances, insulation made from recycled components.
This book takes the form of a listing of suppliers, broken down by category. I find that by looking at these procucts, many of which I didn't even know existed, the design of the house is changed to fit.
These people have done an excellent job of research as to what's avaialble.
