Global Perspectives on Sustainable Design

It didn't all start with LEED. Efforts to reconcile the demands of the contemporary built environment with the demands of the natural world and finite resources have been going on around the world for at least the last fifty years -in some places they have been going on for millenia. For at least the last thirty years, significant green advances in building products, systems, planning and design, and design theory have been going on in Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia-New Zealand as well as in North America. This course will examine the most innovative and exciting green design approaches, projects, policies and programs from around the world. While not all of these are transferable across cultural and geographic boundaries, this course is offered in the belief that as we face the increasingly urgent need to build sustainably, we can all learn from each other. The key lies in global and local solutions.

Interested in a certificate program? This course is part of the Sustainable Design Certificate.