Online Essays and Publications about Greener, Healthier Communities
Much of Kaid’s most recent writing can be found at kaidbenfield.com.
With Hazel Borys and other colleagues, Kaid co-authored three major publications for the planning firm PlaceMakers: Green Infrastructure Toolkit: Manual for making crusty places into spongy places (2023); PANDEMIC TOOLKIT: Manual for rebuilding community health & opportunity post-COVID (2020); and Code Score: 135 reasons why urbanism works (2019).
Kaid’s articles for HuffPost can be found here.
A curated selection of Kaid’s writing for Bloomberg CityLab, The Atlantic, GreenBiz, and Smart Cities Dive can be found here.
And a collection of over a thousand articles written by Kaid between 2007 and 2014 for the blog Switchboard, hosted during those years by the Natural Resources Defense Council, can be found at kaidbenfieldarchive.com.
(Journal and magazine essays and articles in print media not included in this list.)
Books
Click on titles to see about purchasing.
People Habitat: 25 Ways to Think About Greener, Healthier Cities (2014, distributed by Island Press) (“The book, a collection of essays from one of America’s best urban thinkers, combines wit, pop culture, idealism and technical insights to create a thought-provoking, soul-searching and inspiring look at environmental urbanism, smart growth, urban design and architecture” – Mariia Zimmerman, MZ Strategies.)
Solving Sprawl: Models Of Smart Growth In Communities Across America (with Jutka Terris and Nancy Vorsanger, 2001, Island Press) (“One of the most important books to emerge from the Smart Growth movement – a valuable handbook for developers, public officials, and ordinary citizens” – Richard Moe, former president, National Trust for Historic Preservation)
Once There Were Greenfields: How Urban Sprawl is Undermining America’s Environment, Economy, and Social Fabric (with Matthew D. Raimi and Donald D.T. Chen, 1999, Natural Resources Defense Council) (“The prose is elegant, the information very clearly presented – a valuable addition to the literature, both fact-filled and easy to read” – Bruce Katz, director, Nowak Metro Finance Lab, Drexel University; founder and longtime director, Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program)
A Citizen’s Guide to LEED for Neighborhood Development: How to Tell if Development is Smart and Green (with Aaron Welch and Matt Raimi, 2011, Natural Resources Defense Council) (“A user-friendly and accessible handbook to help anyone learn the highest environmental standards for green land development and become an advocate for implementing these standards in their own communities”)
“Round, Round, Get Around: Reducing Transportation Burdens in the Green Community,” included in Green Community, ed. by Susan Piedmont-Palladino and Timothy Mennel (2009, National Building Museum and the American Planning Association, now distributed by Routledge)
“The Runaway American Dream,” included in Smart Growth in a Changing World, ed. by Jonathan Barnett (2007, American Planning Association, now published by Routledge)
“The Roads More Traveled: Sustainable Transportation in America – or Not?” (with Michael Replogle), included in Stumbling Toward Sustainability, ed. by John C. Dernbach (2002, Environmental Law Institute)
Reaping the Revenue Code: Why We Need Sensible Tax Reform for Sustainable Agriculture (with Justin R. Ward and Anne E. Kinsinger, 1989, Natural Resources Defense Council)