Brenda Vale is an architect and Professorial Research Fellow, at the School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Working with Robert Vale, she wrote her first book on sustainable design in 1975. Following their award winning and energy saving commercial buildings in the UK for which they were both the architects, by 1998 they had designed and built the award winning first autonomous house and the first zero-emissions settlement there. After coming to New Zealand in 1996 they converted an existing house to be zero energy. They also developed the Australian Government’s National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS), now in operation. Their current research is in the field of ecological footprints and behaviour, which has led to two published books (Time to eat the dog? the real guide to sustainable living and Living within a fair share ecological footprint).