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

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Positive Development

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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

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Positive Development
From Vicious Circles to Virtuous Cycles 
through Built Environment Design
Janis Birkeland
London • Sterling, VA
publishing for a sustainable future

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First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 2008
Copyright © Janis Birkeland, 2008