Positive Development: From Vicious Circles to Virtuous Cycles through Built Environment Design

431 Pages·2008·3.713 MB·English

by  Janis Birkeland

Positive Development
praise for Positive Development
‘This is a wonderful book that should be on the desk of every architect and planner. It shows how
our decisions about the built environment can be a positive contribution to shaping a sustainable
future.’
Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe, President, Australian Conservation Foundation
‘One of the best books on sustainability I’ve read in a long time … clear, compelling, and dead on. The
challenges of sustainability are fundamentally design problems and Janis Birkeland is a remarkably
insightful guide to the transformation. Must reading.’
David Orr, Oberlin College, author of The Nature of Design and Ecological Literacy
‘Birkeland’s book takes the next step beyond Ian McHarg’s design with nature and Janine Benyus’s
design like nature. It argues that design for nature, or “design for eco-services”, is long overdue, and
explains how we can do it.’
Hunter Lovins, President and founder of the Natural Capitalism Solutions
‘A heralding work of how a positive and innovative design agenda for the built environment,
underlined by an uncompromising valuation of ecology and nature’s services, can mobilize our
efforts in becoming native to the planet.’
Michael Braungart, Professor of Material Flow Management at University Lüneburg, Germany
and co-author of Cradle to Cradle
‘Drawing on her expertise in law, planning and design, Janis Birkeland always has something startling
to say. And in an area dominated by so much utopian dreaming, she puts politics as well as careful
analysis into sustainability. This book is an unusual, and heartening, combination of the radical and
the realistic.’
Clive Hamilton, former Executive Director of The Australia Institute, author of Growth Fetish
and co-author of Affluenza
‘While some are beginning to realise that we cannot continue to take resources from, and dump

waste freely back on, our planet, there still pervades the notion that sustainable development is about
minimizing the impacts of these actions. Birkeland convincingly argues that this cannot continue.
She then shows us how we can “develop” in a way that replenishes and increases the planet’s life-
giving services through “Net Positive Design”. I urge that this book be read and championed equally
by our infrastructure designers as well as those working traditionally with buildings.’
David A. Hood, FIEAust CPEng, Chairman, Australian Green Infrastructure Council
‘This book provides a framework for an approach that brings together environmental management,
policymaking, planning and sustainable design. It shows how design can increase the ecological base
and public estate over pre-development site conditions. It is invaluable not just to designers but to
all those whose work impinges on the environment.’
Ken Yeang, Architect, Llewelyn Davies Yeang, UK
‘Birkeland is one of the world’s leading thinkers on sustainable built environments. In this book
she distils her wealth of experience into a very accessible text on how we can achieve net positive
development, for urban and regional planning and design.’
The Natural Edge Project, authors of The Natural Advantage of Nations
Positive Development
From Vicious Circles to Virtuous Cycles
through Built Environment Design
Janis Birkeland

publishing for a sustainable future
London • Sterling, VA
First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 2008
Copyright © Janis Birkeland, 2008
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-1-84407-578-2 hardback
978-1-84407-579-9 paperback
Typeset by Safehouse Creative
Printed and bound in the UK by MPG Books, Bodmin
Cover design by Rob Watts
For a full list of publications please contact:
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Earthscan publishes in association with the International Institute
for Environment and Development
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Birkeland, Janis, 1945-
Positive development : from vicious circles to virtuous cycles through built environment design /
Janis Birkeland.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-84407-579-9 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-84407-578-2 (hardback) 1. Ecological engineering.
2. Sustainable development. 3. Sustainable architecture. I. Title.
GE350.B58 2008
628--dc22
2008011448
The paper used for this book is FSC-certified.
FSC (the Forest Stewardship Council) is an
international network to promote responsible
management of the world’s forests.
To my ancestors, family and progeny

Contents
Figures and Tables x
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Reader’s Map xiv
Introduction: Sustainability versus Negativity xv
Section A: Redefining the Problem and Goals 1
Chapter 1: Design for Eco-services
From design for sterility to design for fertility 3
Chapter 2: The Case for Eco-retrofitting
From impact mitigation to net positive impacts 23
Chapter 3: Sustainable Urban Form
From spatial minimization to spatial amplification 43
Section B: Critique of Methods,Tools and Processes in Building Design 61
Chapter 4: Development Standards and Criteria
From ‘designed waste’ to zero waste 63
Chapter 5: Building Rating Tools
From best practice to a sustainability standard 83
Chapter 6: Design Methods
From eco-efficient to eco-productive buildings 97
Section C: Critique of Methods, Tools and Processes in Environmental Management 115
Chapter 7: Urban Sustainability Assessment
From predicting negative impacts to adding value 117
Chapter 8: Regional Sustainability Audits
From invisible to transparent resource transfers 131
Chapter 9: Sustainability Reporting
From environmental accounting to management accountability 147
Section D: Critique of Trends in Strategies, Incentives and Planning 163
Chapter 10: Futures Thinking Tools
From predicting the unpredictable to expanding future options 165
Chapter 11: Eco-service Trading Schemes
From emissions tradeoffs to eco-service credits 181
Chapter 12: Bioregional Planning
From choosing among current options to designing futures 201
Positive Development
Section E: A framework for Eco-governance and Management 217
Chapter 13: Constitution for Eco-governance
From interest balancing to ethical frameworks 219
Chapter 14: Reversing Resource Transfers
From pyramidal to positive resource distribution 235
Chapter 15: The SmartMode Process
From technocratic to integrated planning and design 251
Section F: Boxes 275
Box 1 Net Positive Development 277
Box 2 Eco-logical design defined 278
Box 3 Examples of net Positive Development 279
Box 4 Green Scaffolding versus double skins 281
Box 5 Green Scaffolding retrofit 282
Box 6 Deconstruction (Neil Seldman) 283
Box 7 Excuses for not retrofitting 284
Box 8 Retrofitting the suburbs 285
Box 9 Solar Core 286
Box 10 Linear-reductionist urban analysis 287
Box 11 Urban density, compactness and urban form (Greg Bamford) 288
Box 12 The social dimension of urban consolidation (Patrick Nicol Troy) 289
Box 13 Water and sewage management (Sarah West) 290
Box 14 Advantages of eco-roofs (Linda S. Velazquez) 292
Box 15 Net Positive (physical) Development criteria 294
Box 16 Making positive impacts (Sonia Sales Mendoza) 295
Box 17 Urban wind energy 296
Box 18 Solar powering the future (Keith Lovegrove) 299
Box 19 E-waste (Robin Tennant-Wood) 300
Box 20 Designing for successful failure (Paul Bannister) 301
Box 21 The case of the steel-frame housing 302

Box 22 Green building guidelines 303
Box 23 Digital modelling for sustainability (Robin Drogemuller and John Frazer) 307
Box 24 Typology of green aesthetic orientations 309
Box 25 Solar design myth-conceptions 310
Box 26 Contextual design (the case of plastic) 311
Box 27 Spectrum of design approaches 312
Box 28 Green building and product procurement (David Baggs) 313
Box 29 Tools for specifying green building products (David Baggs) 314
Box 30 Evolution toward Positive Development 315
Box 31 Potential of flows analyses 316
Box 32 Tools for capturing regional synergies (Glen Corder) 317
Box 33 Enhancing supply chain performance (Kumar Venkat) 318
viii
Box 34 Making progress (Richard Eckersley) 319
Box 35 From SoE to sustainability reporting for cities (Peter W. Newton) 320
Box 36 Certification and labelling (Tim Cadman) 321
Box 37 Ethical investment (Konrad Knerr) 322
Box 38 Engaging the public in sustainability planning (Dave Biggs) 323
Box 39 Closing loops between sectors 324
Box 40 Linking policies to outcomes (Ian Swain) 325
Box 41 Eco-service offsets versus credits 327
Box 42 Economic valuation of eco-services 329
Box 43 Problems with pricing eco-services 331
Box 44 Measuring living wall performance (Yael Stav) 332
Box 45 Decision trees – Terminal and reversible 333
Box 46 Community management of ecosystems (David Eastburn) 334
Box 47 Wagga Wagga Eco-industrial Park (Sharon Stacy) 335
Box 48 Equity Mapping (James Byrne) 336
Box 49 Conventional approach to regulation 337
Box 50 Organic waste to farms (Gerry Gillespie) 338
Box 51 Precycling insurance (James Greyson) 339
Box 52 Negative resource transfers 340
Box 53 Converting negatives into positives 341
Box 54 Reversing the role of fashion (Fabia Pryor) 342
Glossary 343
Notes 351
Biographies of contributors 387
Index 393

ix