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

Identify specific initiatives [Chapter 14]
NGOs can use workshops or focus groups to help identify worthwhile developments or innovations 
for each community, explore local systems design challenges, or oppose negative projects through 
counterplans (as in advocacy planning). Where possible, NGOs should consult the local community 
in conducting needs assessments, or ensure urban planners do so, before a design is conceived. Again, 
ensure workshops move beyond the process of listing problems and impediments and engage people 

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The SmartMode Process
in collective, creative pursuits to:
•
Identify wider off-site public needs (eg social, economic, physical and ecological) in relation
to the site and brief (eg the local need for childcare facilities). That is, add value to the
community (individuals and civil society) not just meet minimalist owner criteria. 
• 
Identify alternative means to satisfy needs and preferences in less resource-intensive ways,
rather than focusing on inputs and outputs, such as by including ‘dual’ community uses (eg
evening and weekend uses of facilities).
• 
Establish needs-assessment processes that can form the basis for identifying specific
impediments to be addressed and, more important, ways of value-adding. Impacts and
needs should not be discussed in isolation from potential solutions. 
Articulate design objectives [Chapter 6]
Most negative impacts can be avoided early in the design, so the emphasis should be on constructive 
mechanisms to encourage better collaborative design processes, involving local NGOs and other 
potential stakeholders. The design process itself should be 
demystified
through participation in design, 
to ensure that clients and stakeholders are aware of the wider consequences of design and the potential 
for ongoing environmental improvements. Some considerations that pertain to design include:
•
Directing attention to the 
sources
of energy and materials (eg fossil versus solar resources).
Operating costs could be negligible if passive solar design is used, so ecological and embodied
waste should be considered.
• 
Where possible, increasing multiple human and natural use of spaces, such as greenhouse 
atriums, vertical landscapes or Living Machines, integrating internal and external open space,
and providing infrastructure for eco-services. 
• 
Considering increasing the longevity of existing construction by adding Green Scaffolding
and double skins to create multiple ecological and human health and security benefits. (This
can reduce temperature swings, need for mechanical backup, the urban heat sink, etc.)
• 
Identifying past ecological damage, harmful materials (eg asbestos and radon), possible
quakes or cyclones, or other problems that the design should address. It may be better to
‘encase’ an old building than ship it to landfill.
• 
Respecting indigenous and bio-climatic design traditions, and attempting to use materials
sourced from the local region. Where appropriate, retrofit the International Style – which
has eliminated regional difference – with indigenous design and plants, etc.
• 
Considering the rebound effect. Where there is a ‘rebound effect’, there may be no net gain.
The solution is an environment where there are a lot of low-impact choices and lifestyles that
replace high-impact ones.
• 
Focusing on positive resource security and safety, rather than ‘defensive design’ where
buildings are conceived of in negative ways (eg as a shelter or bastion from hostile nature).
Buildings can be reconceived as ‘gardens for living’.