Books
David Gottfried has published three memoirs about his life and the rise of the green building movement, including the award-winning Explosion Green, which received three Next Generation Indie Book Awards and became a bestseller.
His fourth book, Regen360: An Operating System for a Regenerative Earth, publishes October 2026 at Greenbuild New York City and is available for preorder here. The book proposes an Earth Code of 15 governing equations for a regenerative civilization - a fourth world. Part memoir, part systems blueprint, it asks what happens when the founder of the green building movement concludes that the movement isn't enough and puts his systems brain into high gear.
Books by David Gottfried
The Transformation of an Industry and a Life
From chasing wealth as a D.C. real estate developer to founding the U.S. and World Green Building Councils, this is the origin story: a personal reckoning that became the unlikely spark for a global movement.
Order here.
A Green Building Pioneer Takes on His Most Challenging Project
Having transformed the global building industry, David Gottfried turns the principles of sustainability inward, exploring the surprising disconnect between a groundbreaking career and a personal life in need of its own renovation.
Order here.
One Man's Journey to Green the World's Largest Industry
A richly detailed, award-winning insider account of the green building movement's twenty-year rise — how an entire industry confronted climate change, reinvented itself, and built a multibillion-dollar market along the way.
Order here.
Coming October 2026
An Operating System for a Regenerative Earth
Humanity doesn't have a care problem; it has a systems problem. This book introduces the Earth Code: a practical framework for realigning how we live, lead, and build with the self-sustaining logic of the planet itself.
Preorder here.