Books

Recast Your City: How to Save Your Downtown with Small-Scale Manufacturing by Ilana Preuss | An Island Press book
How to Save Your Downtown with Small-Scale Manufacturing

Too many U.S. cities and towns have been focused on a model of economic development that relies on recruiting one big company (such as Amazon), a single industry (usually in technology), or pursuing other narrow or short-term fixes that are...

192 pages
6 x 9
12 figures

Smart Planning for Emerging Transportation Technologies

New transportation technologies can expand our world. During the last century, motorized modes increased our mobility by an order of magnitude, providing large benefits, but also imposing huge costs on individuals and communities. Faster and more...

208 pages
6 x 9
19 figures (including au photo)

Smart Policies for Health and the Planet

Producing food industrially like we do today causes tremendous global economic losses in terms of malnutrition, diseases, and environmental degradation. But because the food industry does not bear those costs and the price tag for these losses...

320 pages
6 x 9
38 illustrations

Schools that Heal: Design with Mental Health in Mind by Claire Latane | An Island Press book
Design with Mental Health in Mind

What would a school look like if it was designed with mental health in mind? Too many public schools look and feel like prisons, designed out of fear of vandalism and truancy. But we know that nurturing environments are better for learning....

280 pages
6 x 9
74 figures

Lessons for a Better Future

Before COVID-19 hit, the biggest problem in the world of travel was overtourism. Crowds threatened to spoil natural environments and make daily life unbearable for residents of popular travel destinations. Then, seemingly overnight, tourism...

400 pages
6 x 9
32 photos

Uniting Design, Economics, and Policy

Tens of millions of Americans are at risk from sea level rise, increased tidal flooding, and intensifying storms. The design and policy decisions that have shaped coastal areas are in desperate need of updates to help communities better adapt to...

312 pages
6 x 9
35 figures

Getting to the Heart of Science Communication by Faith Kearns | An Island Press book
A Guide to Effective Engagement

At a community fire day in a northern California town several years ago, author Faith Kearns gave a talk on building fire-safe houses able to withstand increasingly common wildfires. Much to her surprise, Kearns was confronted by an audience...

280 pages
6 x 9

Our current food system has decimated rural communities and confined the choices of urban consumers. Even while America continues to ramp up farm production to astounding levels, net farm income is now lower than at the onset of the Great...

304 pages
6 x 9
20 figures

Flames of Extinction by John Pickrell | An Island Press book
The Race to Save Australia's Threatened Wildlife

In the early months of 2020, the world’s attention was riveted on Australia, where the nation’s iconic wildlife fought for survival in the face of unprecedented wildfires. Images of koalas drinking from firefighters’ water...

296 pages
6 x 9

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