Optimal: The Book and The Team Optimal Books, a division of Optimal Environments, Inc., is the publisher of Robert Gifford’s textbook, Environmental Psychology: Principles and Practice, now in its 5th edition. See its own tab above. Optimal Environments is a research and consulting firm with over half a century of combined experience. The OE team helps organizations plan, design, improve, or renovate buildings, parks, and public spaces. Helping organizations learn more about the needs, preferences, and behavior of the people who work in, live in, or visit their settings is the team’s passion. OE has worked to improve and increase knowledge about physical settings ranging from wilderness parks to space vehicles. We work with everyday settings and the people in them, including offices, schools, libraries, health buildings, daycare centers, facilities for the disabled, parks, and industrial buildings. Optimal Environments conducts high-quality research for the betterment of all who use them. The principal team at Optimal Environments includes an architect and a behavioral scientist, both with PhDs, who combine the best in creative and scientific solutions. They are familiar with building design, interviewing, survey development, advanced statistics, behavior mapping and tracking, qualitative methods, space syntax, and other methods. Optimal Environments’ team members are the authors of over 125 refereed articles and book chapters, and maintain their up-to-date knowledge by participating in international scientific congresses. Their expertise is recognized by invitations to deliver keynote addresses at congresses around the world.