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

The sustainability standard [Chapter 5]
Currently, we use complex tools to predict the negative future impacts of projects compared to 
standard buildings of similar types or functions. Thus standard buildings have been the benchmark 
for new development, not sustainability. Instead, the pre-existing natural capital, biodiversity and 
ecosystem services should be the baseline: a project should provide a net gain over original site 
conditions. By comparing a proposed development to pre-development conditions, and comparing 
the health of the urban area before and after a new development or retrofit, we will have a better idea 
of net positive progress. The following initial questions can be asked during the design process.
Will the action expand the ecological base, future options and/or be reversible? In other words,
will it:
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Increase natural capital?
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Increase natural security?
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Be reversible, adaptable, diverse?
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Increase and distribute renewable resources?
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Replace fossil with solar resources?
The Green Optimum rule [Chapter 9]
Tools for ‘choosing’ among existing courses of action, policies or developments in the existing 
context are not adequate to bring about systems re-design. Sustainable development requires 
design: the creation of synergies, syntheses and symbioses. By establishing the basic decision rule 
that development should try to increase benefits to everyone, we can encourage design that creates 
positive synergies and off-site benefits. The Green Optimum decision rule aims to overturn the 
Pareto Optimum. The latter holds that a policy or action is good if it benefits individuals or groups 
without disadvantaging individuals, which can obscure long-term, widely dispersed externalities.
The following initial questions can be asked during the design process.
Will the action expand the public estate and make everyone (the general public) better off? In other 
words, will it:
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Deliver net positive outcomes? 
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Increase participatory democracy and community engagement?
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Provide freedom from harm and protect human rights?
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Foster responsibility and accountability?
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Increase the range of responsible lifestyle and consumer choices?
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Increase the diversity of sustainable pathways and cultural diversity?