‘This is a wonderful book that should be on the desk of every architect and planner. It shows how

Surely green designers recognize that they have to take the initiative?
Green designers are generally beleaguered, like other environmentalists. Even now that most people 
accept the idea of climate change, no one is saying ‘greenies’ might also be right about other things 
as well. Deep green designers are few in number and have few resources in comparison with large 

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Positive Development
development firms. Yet they are expected to do for free what large firms with huge budgets refuse 
to do until others ‘prove’ to them that change is painless and profitable. Many green building non-
government organizations (NGOs) have formed to educate the industry and increase demand for 
green buildings, but they tend to serve their members’ business interests. Their primary aim is 
therefore raising consumer awareness and demand for existing products – not deep social, structural 
and institutional transformation or paradigm shifts. Of several strategies canvassed by the workshop 
participants, therefore, the preferred option was to tap local, state and federal funding programmes.
Getting funds for a demonstration case study to educate people was deemed the best way to proceed, 
whether that meant a private home that opened to the public periodically or a permanent display 
home. The strategy adopted was to develop a business plan to convince government of the merits of 
financing a green demonstration project. However, the funding of a green home would be unlikely, 
given that this was hardly a new idea. ‘Best practice’ retrofitted homes are already displayed in 
popular, annual ‘solar home tours’ around Australia and presumably elsewhere.
So what’s wrong with the current best practice approach to green design?
Green design is still aimed at making conventional design more energy efficient, rather than 
sustainable.
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We have already flagged some examples of basic principles and practices that do little 
to further eco-logical design:
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