Communicative Tools in Sustainable Urban Planning and Building

Scientific and technological progress in the field of sustainable planning and building has been considerable in the 1990's, the decade following the Brundtland Report. The issue of sustainable development was high on the agenda, and especially the built environment, being responsible for enormous flows of materials, energy and water, was targeted as one of the sectors that could make a substantial contribution to sustainable development. Acknowledging the potential environmental gains that could be made in the built environment, new concepts and technologies for sustainable building and planning have been developed. Despite this progress, however, not much has changed in the day-to-day practice of building and planning: putting the progress into practice is evidently a problem.
This book presents the challenge for sustainable planning and building from a communicative point of view. By gearing these tools to the specific culture of the building and planning world the tools are expected to actually make building and planning more sustainable.