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

Step 11: Ensure Measurements have Meaning
Ecological waste (EW) analysis [Chapter 4]
By considering the loss of ecosystems, and the time needed to replace them, planning and design 
decisions might begin to respect natural systems as living things, not just inputs and outputs. We 
usually use energy and materials as surrogates for ecology, which encourages us to measure ecosystems 
as if they were inert substances. To consider the full life-cycle of, say, a forest or fishery, we would need 
to think in terms of ecological time. Some measurement concepts that have been discussed are:
•
Ecological waste – which weighs in the loss of natural ecosystems and the time and cost
of replacing them (ie living ecosystems, not dead resources). EW (a negative) is roughly the
opposite of the ecological base (a positive).
• 
Environmental space – which is the available resource per capita (a Friends of the Earth term).
The Earth can absorb a certain amount of carbon or produce a certain amount of topsoil,
so these amounts, divided by the relevant population, is the allowable consumption rate. 
• 
Negative space – which is the conversion of (public) non-renewable resources and natural
capital. It is a measure of the distributional impacts resulting from the alienation of natural
capital, land and eco-services to private development.
• 
Unjust enrichment – which draws attention to the fact that developers or owners can enjoy 
benefits that are disproportionate to their contribution to the public environment. It could
be seen as environmental space ‘per capitalist’.
Opportunity costs [Chapter 7]
We have looked at the cost of inaction in terms of the environmental, economic and social costs of 
doing nothing to reverse negative impacts.

However, we also need to look at the future benefits we 

are foregoing by acting later rather than sooner. Some pointers in this direction are:
•
By identifying the contextual problems in the region surrounding a proposed development, 
we can draw attention to both the costs of inaction and the serious ‘opportunity costs’ of
conventional land-use, planning and design decisions.
• 
Free-riders, whose air, water, temperature and vistas are improved by the development at no 
cost, are not a ‘problem’ in design. Comfort and happiness are not zero sum. The more
people who benefit, the better, especially where a retrofit pays for itself anyway.
• 
In the future, due to increasing scarcity, the value of nature will increase along with that of its
marketable components, such as water. Where appropriate, an ‘eco-factor’ can be used to
reflect this, instead of discounting the future.

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Positive Development