Transforming Markets in the Built Environment: Adapting to Climate Change

Susan Roaf

Jan 2012 · Earthscan

About this ebook

There is an urgent need to build human capacity to make the often vulnerable and exposed buildings and communities we live and work in more resilient to the changing social, economic and physical environments around us. Extensive research has been done over the last decades on both mitigation and adaptation to climate change in the built environment, but the outputs of much of this research have failed to result in the wider uptake of effective greenhouse gas emission reduction solutions. This volume introduces credible 'fresh thinking' on how this may be done.

For the first time an emerging generation of research is brought together that is directly concerned with understanding, influencing and leading the transformation of markets and thinking in the built environment. Chapters cover:

• defining values
• setting targets
• consumer motivation
• selling existing ideas better
• developing new design principles, paradigms and programmes
• optimizing solutions to ensure that when change does happen, it does so in the right direction.

Papers are contributed by leading experts in fields ranging from philosophy, the social, political and physical sciences, engineering, architecture, mathematics and complexity science. The resulting volume will be essential reading for all those involved with changing the mindsets of a generation on the need to, and ways to, build resilience to rapid change and transforming markets in the built environment.

About the author

Professor Susan Roaf is the Chair of Architectural Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. She is the author of 'Closing the Loop: Benchmarks for Sustainable Buildings' (2004) ; 'Ecohouse 3: A design Guide' (2007) and 'Adapting Buildings and Cities for Climate Change' (2009).