Sustainable building from the ground up - the pros and cons of the latest green and natural materials and technologies

The business of creating our built environment remains largely siloed and disconnected today. Owners, designers, construction managers, and trade contractors each defend their profit margins by shifting risk to others and focusing on their own piece of the puzzle. Lean thinking promises to change all this, yet has proven particularly difficult to implement in the building industry. Better Building provides a practical model for putting lean thinking into action and improving the experience of project work. Based on years of experience shifting mindsets and behaviors, this model answers the most often asked questions and provides a roadmap for navigating the toughest parts of a lean transformation journey in the project-driven environment.

A practical and inspirational guide for anyone who sees sustainability not as limiting, but rather as a creative opportunity. An essential reference for everyone who wants to build a better home.

How can we co-opt digital tools to build a more beautiful future? In the spring of 2020-amidst a global pandemic, economic depression, and transformational movement for racial equity-we talked to artists and activists about tech's potential to help reinvent our shared realities. Published by Pioneer Works Press in collaboration with The Creative Independent and Are.na, Software for Artists Book: Building Better Realities is edited by Willa Köerner, and features contributions from Salome Asega, Stephanie Dinkins, Grayson Earle, ann haeyoung, Rindon Johnson, Ryan Kuo, and Tsige Tafesse-plus 47 Digital Diary entries from our community. A free PDF version of the book will be released on the occasion of Software for Artists Day 6, happening on July 18 & 19, 2020.

"This book offers insight into how redevelopment policy is implemented on the ground, articulates the political and social benefits of collective skepticism for communities of color, and critiques the partial perspectives dominant in social capital and community development studies"--

Pretty Good House provides a framework and set of guidelines for building or renovating a high-performance home that focus on its inhabitants and the environment--but keeps in mind that few people have pockets deep enough to achieve a "perfect" solution. The essential idea is for homeowners to work within their financial and practical constraints both to meet their own needs and do as much for the planet as possible. A Pretty Good House is: * A house that's as small as possible * Simple and durable, but also well designed * Insulated and air-sealed * Above all, it is affordable, healthy, responsible, and resilient.

As the turmoil of interlinked crises unfolds across the world—from climate change to growing inequality to the rise of authoritarian governments—social scientists examine what is happening and why. Can communities devise alternatives to the systems that are doing so much harm to the planet and people? Sociologists Stephanie A. Malin and Meghan Elizbeth Kallman offer a clear, accessible volume that demonstrates the ways that communities adapt in the face of crises and explains that sociology can help us understand how and why they do this challenging work. Tackling neoliberalism head-on, these communities are making big changes by crafting distributive and regenerative systems that depart from capitalist approaches. The vivid case studies presented range from activist water protectors to hemp farmers to renewable energy cooperatives led by Indigenous peoples and nations. Alongside these studies, Malin and Kallman present incisive critiques of colonialism, extractive capitalism, and neoliberalism, while demonstrating how sociology’s own disciplinary traditions have been complicit with those ideologies—and must expand beyond them. Showing that it is possible to challenge social inequality and environmental degradation by refusing to continue business-as-usual, Building Something Better offers both a call to action and a dose of hope in a time of crises.