GreenBuilt Tours: How to Organize a Successful Tour of Sustainable Architecture

by Kathryn Houser and Michael Myers, 2002. Published by Sustainable Living Alliance, PO Box 33368, Austin, TX 78764, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The manual and CD-ROM are available free of charge while supplies last. E-mail your request with contact information to rainfall@swbell.net or call 512-326-4636.

GreenBuilt Tours is a thorough and detailed spiral-bound manual on how to organize a green building tour. The book answers all manner of questions about green building tours—with everything from tips on corresponding with architects to a reproducible poster asking visitors to remove their shoes.

Based on their experience with tours, the authors have come up with a series of invaluable recommendations to keep a novice organizer on the right track. Included are timelines, schedules for how to best use volunteers’ time, tips and bottom lines for financing such a venture, and even graphic design advice for producing a tour book.

This book is not the kind to curl up with, and it is not a coffee table book. It’s a highly practical manual based on eight years of trial and error. The level of detail in

GreenBuilt Tours should give any motivated person the confidence to put together a successful green building tour. An accompanying CD-ROM has the entire book in PDF format, along with additional printable forms and information to simplify the work involved in organizing a green building tour.

– CK