Environmental design sources

I'd like to draw your attention to two resources that have the potential to be basic tools in addressing the most immediate of the 2010 Imperative challenge to professional design schools: that "all projects be designed to engage the environment in ways that dramatically reduce or eliminate the need for fossil fuels."

The first is a subscription database/site to which UNLV Libraries subscribes: BuildingGreen Suite. Since it is by subscription the instructions on how to access it apply only to UNLV library patrons. Go to http://www.library.unlv.edu/search/databases/index.html#B and select BuildingGreen from the alphabetical list. On the BuildingGreen site is a substantial directory of green building products and Environmental Building News. The Suite itself is described on the site thusly: "The BuildingGreen Suite integrates online versions of GreenSpec, Environmental Building News, and a database of more than 100 high-performance building case studies."

The second is a freely available site from the University of Minnesota College of Architecture. Their Sustainable Design Guide http://www.sustainabledesignguide.umn.edu/default.htm is seen as a design tool. It provides goals and strategies in six areas: waste, water, materials, energy, site, and interior environment. Each section is divided into subsections. Each subsection has resources, actions, and examples. Students wanting to apply this guide to their projects will be rewarded with both guidance and information. There is also a documents section which provides the framework for project evaluation, in environmental terms.