The Greening of America's Building Codes: Promises and Paradoxes

A deeply researched introduction to sustainability in the context of residential building codes, financial incentives, design, construction, planning, and public policy. An extraordinary timeline outlines the history and evolution of building codes and environmental legislation.

As severe weather events and other environmental conditions have an increasingly direct impact on our homes, a greater understanding of the codes and regulations meant to protect us is essential. Ecology of the American House investigates the history of building codes and regulations as it analyzes the legally binding regulations responsible for the environmental impact of contemporary construction practices.

Architecture and sustainable design professor Aleksandra Jaeschke traces the coevolution of US residential building codes and environmental regulations to expose how the socioeconomic forces that influenced early code development continue to define the character of current building codes and by extension determine how we regulate environmental impact and define sustainability today.