LibGuides: Design a Sustainable Village (Holmgren 9th Grade): Online Resources

Suggested Websites

asknature.org
AskNature is a bio-inspiration website where innovators can learn from nature's solutions, biologists can find a whole new audience for their research, students can be inspired through science, and collaborators from different disciplines can work together to create innovative, sustainable, bio-inspired designs.
The Biomimicry Institute
The Ecotipping Points Project
William McDonough: Company Website
William McDonough: Personal Website
Arizona-Sonoma Desert Museum (Tucson, Arizona)

Saguaro National Park Website

Park Website

Green Building Websites

EPA on Green Building
Website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
U. S. Green Building Council (LEED)
LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is redefining the way we think about the places where we live, work and learn. As an internationally recognized mark of excellence, LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

Information on Climate and Weather

World Weather Information Service
Find hours of daylight here.
World Climate
Climate information.
WeatherBase
Find temperature, wind, precipitation, etc.

Keywords

Suggested keywords for your search. Combine them under "advanced search."

gray water/recycling/low flow uses
recycling
energy conservation/building materials/light sources (LED, solar)
xeris landscaping
ecologically sensitive/landfill/sewage
solar energy
biomimicry
ecosystem
sustainable design
green design
William McDonough
southwest native american culture/farming practices/adobe buildings

Databases and Journal Articles

Tennessee Electronic Library
Use the Advanced Search feature and try using the suggested keywords above, for example, gray water as one keyword phrase and recycling as another.

NOTE: Indexes Audubon, Sierra, and other environmental magazines.
Science in Context
Contains journal articles and ebooks in environmental science, the field that is concerned with the study of the natural environment and the effects on that environment of human activity and natural events.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window Includes archives of over one thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. The entire corpus is full-text searchable, offers search term highlighting, includes high-quality images, and is interlinked by millions of citations and references.

GreenFILE/EBSCO Research Databases
GreenFILE offers information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. The database provides indexing and abstracts together with links to Open Access full text.
Global Issues in Context
Coverage of countries and issues, emphasizing a global perspective, which includes podcast, videos, primary sources, world newspaper articles, reference encyclopedias, links to government and organization websites, and interactive graphs, tables, and charts.
National Geographic Virtual Library
Magazine articles from 1988 to the present as well as a cross-searchable collection of National Geographic books, maps, images, and videos.

Google Scholar

After exhausting some of the resources on this page, Google Scholar would be a good choice, or the Advanced Search feature in Google.

About Ecosystems

U.S. Geological Survey
Information on the health of ecosystems and environment, natural hazards, natural resources, impacts of climate and land-use change, and core science systems.
The Encyclopedia of Earth
This encyclopedia is an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society (Wikipedia). Contributors to the Encyclopedia of Earth are made up of scientists, educators, and professionals within the environmental field who are vetted by the Environmental Information Coalition (EIC) Stewardship Committee.

General Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia Britannica

Great for finding general information about ecosystems. Remember, you'll need usernames and passwords if you are researching off campus. See the box on this page for the off-campus link.

Off Campus Access to Databases and Ebooks

Off Campus Information