"Offering a new voice and direction in tackling the integration of sustainability into society and the current commercial marketplace, Birkeland (Queensland Univ. of Technology) points a way toward ecosolutions framed in design solutions to reverse negative environmental conditions. Environmental design and architectural leadership are called for in environmental policy-making and planning initiatives. This book refocuses the requirements for environmental development to promote ecological resilience and planning for communities and ecosystems. It overlays the interconnectedness of healthier design decisions for humankind and nature with an inherent ethical understanding of intra- and intergenerational justice and democracy. The author reviews the whole system of environmental, economic, and social factors associated with environmental problems and related current policies. She pushes beyond current discussions lamenting failed development, ineffective mainstream governance, and the accepted negative deficit of ecological losses and environmental sacrifices required for social benefits. Concluding the book is discussion of a "Smart Mode" process integrating planning and design to increase a sustained ecology and generate improved public health. A reader's map, glossary of conventional and special terms, and reference boxes provide complementary information for guidance and a framework for community planning/design decisions for basic changes required at the urban level. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students through professionals/practitioners."

- Choice

“One of the best books on sustainability I've read in a long time...clear, compelling, and dead on.”
- David Orr, author of The Nature of Design and Ecological Literacy , Oberlin College

”Birkeland’s book takes the next step.…it argues that design for nature, or ‘design for eco-services’, is long overdue, and explains how we can do it.”
- Hunter Lovins, President and Founder , Natural Capitalism Solutions

”A heralding work of how a positive and innovative design agenda for the built environment, underlined by an uncompromising valuation of ecology and nature’s services, can mobilize our efforts in becoming native to the planet.”
- Michael Braungart, co-author of Cradle to Cradle and Professor of Material Flow Management , University Lüneburg, Germany

”Invaluable not just to designers but to all those whose work impinges on the environment.”
- Ken Yeang, Architect , Llewelyn Davies Yeang, UK

”An unusual, and heartening, combination of the radical and the realistic.”
- Clive Hamilton, author of Growth Fetish, co-author of Affluenza and former Executive Director , The Australia Institute

”Birkeland is one of the world’s leading thinkers on sustainable built environments. In this book she distils her wealth of experience into a very accessible text on how we can achieve net positive development."
- The Natural Edge Project, authors of The Natural Advantage of Nations

”Birkeland convincingly argues that we can "develop" in a way that replenishes and increases the planet’s life-giving services. I urge that this book be read and championed by our infrastructure designers as well as all others.”
- David A Hood, Chairman , Australian Green Infrastructure Council