Sustainable Landscape Construction: A Guide to Green Building Outdoors, Second Edition

Front Cover
Island Press, Nov 13, 2007 - Architecture - 416 pages

Published at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Sustainable Landscape Construction took a new approach to what was then a nearly new subject: how to construct outdoor environments based on principles of sustainability. This enormously influential book helped to spur a movement that has taken root around the U.S. and throughout the world. The second edition has been thoroughly updated to include the most important developments in this landscape revolution, along with the latest scientific research in the field. It has been expanded to provide even more ideas for designing, building, and maintaining environmentally sensitive landscapes. It is essential reading for everyone with an interest in “green” landscape design.



Like its predecessor, the new edition of Sustainable Landscape Construction is organized around principles that reflect the authors’ desire to put environmental ethics into practice. Each chapter focuses on one over-arching idea. These principles of sustainability are clearly articulated and are developed through specific examples. More than 100 projects from around the globe are described and illustrated. A new chapter details ways in which landscape architectural practice must respond to the dangers posed by fire, floods, drought, extreme storms, and climate change.



Sustainable Landscape Construction is a crucial complement to basic landscape construction texts, and is a one-of-a-kind reference for professionals, students, and concerned citizens.


About the author (2007)


J. William Thompson is story editor for Landscape Architecture, the magazine

of the American Society of Landscape Architects.



Kim Sorvig is a research assistant professor at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of New Mexico, and co-author of the Sustainable Building Technical Manual, published by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Bibliographic information