35 Best 「sustainability」 Books of 2024| Books Explorer

In this article, we will rank the recommended books for sustainability. The list is compiled and ranked by our own score based on reviews and reputation on the Internet.
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Table of Contents
  1. Grow the Pie
  2. Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take
  3. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
  4. Sustainability Is the New Advantage: Leadership, Change, and the Future of Business (Anthem Environment and Sustainability Initiative (Aesi))
  5. The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America―and How to Undo His Legacy
  6. The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth
  7. The XX Edge: Unlocking Higher Returns and Lower Risk
  8. Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World
  9. The Overstory
  10. Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist
Other 25 books
No.1
100

Grow the Pie

Edmans, Alex
Cambridge University Press

A Financial Times Book of the Year 2020! Should companies be run for profit or purpose? In this ground-breaking book, acclaimed finance professor and TED speaker Alex Edmans shows it's not an either-or choice. Drawing from real-life examples spanning industries and countries, Edmans demonstrates that purpose-driven businesses are consistently more successful in the long-term. But a purposeful company must navigate difficult trade-offs and take tough decisions. Edmans provides a roadmap for company leaders to put purpose into practice, and overcome the hurdles that hold many back. He explains how investors can discern which companies are truly purposeful and how to engage with them to unleash value for both shareholders and society. And he highlights the role that citizens can play in reshaping business to improve our world. This edition has been thoroughly updated to include the pandemic, the latest research, and new insights on how to make purpose a reality.

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No.2
98

A Financial Times Best Business Book of the YearNamed one of 10 Best New Management Books for 2022 by Thinkers50"An advocate of sustainable capitalism explains how it's done" — The Economist"Polman's new book with the sustainable business expert Andrew Winston…argues that it's profitable to do business with the goal of making the world better." — The New York TimesNamed as recommended reading by Fortune's CEO Daily"…Polman has been one of the most significant chief executives of his era and that his approach to business and its role in society has been both valuable and path-breaking." — Financial TimesThe ex-Unilever CEO who increased his shareholders' returns by 300% while ensuring the company ranked #1 in the world for sustainability for eleven years running has, for the first time, revealed how to do it. Teaming up with Andrew Winston, one of the world's most authoritative voices on corporate sustainability, Paul Polman shows business leaders how to take on humanity's greatest and most urgent challenges—climate change and inequality—and build a thriving business as a result.In this candid and straight-talking handbook, Polman and Winston reveal the secrets of Unilever's success and pull back the curtain on some of the world's most powerful c-suites. Net Positive boldly argues that the companies of the future will profit by fixing the world's problems, not creating them.Together the authors explode our most prevalent corporate myths: from the idea that business' only function is to maximise profits, to the naïve hope that Corporate Social Responsibility will save our species from disaster. These approaches, they argue, are destined for the graveyard. Instead, they show corporate leaders how to make their companies "Net Positive"—thriving by giving back more to the world than they take. Net Positive companies unleash innovation, build trust, attract the best people, thrill customers, and secure lasting success, all by helping create stronger, more inclusive societies and a healthier planet. Heal the world first, they argue, and you’ll satisfy your investors as a result.With ambitious vision and compelling stories, Net Positive will teach you how to find the inner purpose and courage you need to embrace the only business model that will matter in the years ahead. You will learn how to lead others and unlock your company's soul, while setting and delivering big and aggressive goals, and taking responsibility for all of your company's impacts. You'll find out the secrets to partnering with others, including your competition and critics, to drive transformative change from which you will prosper. You'll build a company that serves your people, your customers, your communities, your shareholders—and your children and grandchildren will thank you for it.Is this win-win for business and humanity too good to be true? Don't believe it. The world's smartest CEOs are already taking their companies on the Net Positive journey and benefitting as a result. Will you be left behind?Join the movement at netpositive.world

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No.3
89

A manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism"Reduce, reuse, recycle" urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. But as this provocative, visionary book argues, this approach perpetuates a one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that dates to the Industrial Revolution and casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world?In fact, why not take nature itself as our model? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we do not consider its abundance wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective; hence, "waste equals food" is the first principle the book sets forth. Products might be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new-either as "biological nutrients" that safely re-enter the environment or as "technical nutrients" that circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles, without being "downcycled" into low-grade uses (as most "recyclables" now are).Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, William McDonough and Michael Braungart make an exciting and viable case for change.

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No.4
81

During the last 150 years, we have stressed the oceans, warmed the planet and overextended almost every natural resource. To create real change will require a generation of leaders and businesses that think and act differently. "Sustainability Is the New Advantage" identifies the skill sets, best practices, and new ideas needed to teach a new generation to start, grow, and manage sustainable organizations.

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No.5
81

New York Times BestsellerNew York Times reporter and “Corner Office” columnist David Gelles reveals legendary GE CEO Jack Welch to be the root of all that’s wrong with capitalism today and offers advice on how we might right those wrongs.In 1981, Jack Welch took over General Electric and quickly rose to fame as the first celebrity CEO. He golfed with presidents, mingled with movie stars, and was idolized for growing GE into the most valuable company in the world. But Welch’s achievements didn’t stem from some greater intelligence or business prowess. Rather, they were the result of a sustained effort to push GE’s stock price ever higher, often at the expense of workers, consumers, and innovation. In this captivating, revelatory book, David Gelles argues that Welch single-handedly ushered in a new, cutthroat era of American capitalism that continues to this day.Gelles chronicles Welch’s campaign to vaporize hundreds of thousands of jobs in a bid to boost profits, eviscerating the country’s manufacturing base and destabilizing the middle class. Welch’s obsession with downsizing—he eliminated 10% of employees every year—fundamentally altered GE and inspired generations of imitators who have employed his strategies at other companies around the globe. In his day, Welch was corporate America’s leading proponent of mergers and acquisitions, using deals to gobble up competitors and giving rise to an economy that is more concentrated and less dynamic. And Welch pioneered the dark arts of “financialization,” transforming GE from an admired industrial manufacturer into what was effectively an unregulated bank. The finance business was hugely profitable in the short term and helped Welch keep GE’s stock price ticking up. But ultimately, financialization undermined GE and dozens of other Fortune 500 companies.Gelles shows how Welch’s celebrated emphasis on increasing shareholder value by any means necessary (layoffs, outsourcing, offshoring, acquisitions, and buybacks, to name but a few tactics) became the norm in American business generally. He demonstrates how that approach has led to the greatest socioeconomic inequality since the Great Depression and harmed many of the very companies that have embraced it. And he shows how a generation of Welch acolytes radically transformed companies like Boeing, Home Depot, Kraft Heinz, and more. Finally, Gelles chronicles the change that is now afoot in corporate America, highlighting companies and leaders who have abandoned Welchism and are proving that it is still possible to excel in the business world without destroying livelihoods, gutting communities, and spurning regulation.

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No.6
80

An international best seller embraced and endorsed by policy makers, scientists, writers and energy industry executives from around the world, Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers contributed in bringing the topic of global warming to national prominence. For the first time, a scientist provided an accessible and comprehensive account of the history, current status, and future impact of climate change, writing what has been acclaimed by reviewers everywhere as the definitive book on global warming.With one out of every five living things on this planet committed to extinction by the levels of greenhouse gases that will accumulate in the next few decades, we are reaching a global climatic tipping point. The Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Originally somewhat of a global warming skeptic, Tim Flannery spent several years researching the topic and offers a connect-the-dots approach for a reading public who has received patchy or misleading information on the subject. Pulling on his expertise as a scientist to discuss climate change from a historical perspective, Flannery also explains how climate change is interconnected across the planet.This edition includes an new afterword by the author.

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No.7
80

In The XX Edge, Patience Marime-Ball and Ruth Shaber envision a new paradigm of gender-focused investing where more women are placed in decision-making roles and able to optimize their skills across all capital markets--leading to higher returns for individual investors and greater economic growth. There's a simple but often overlooked investment strategy to earning higher returns--include women as financial decision-makers within your organization or team. That's The XX Edge.  Seasoned executives and investors Patience Marime-Ball and Ruth Shaber demonstrate the new paradigm where women are at the center of investing as agents and actors--not just as beneficiaries. If you manage investments--either your own or others'--you'll want to understand the data and discover the financial power of The XX Edge: Gender-inclusive teams are 21% more likely to see outperformance in profitability relative to peers  Female CFOs deliver a 6% increase in profits and an 8% stock performance bump compared to overall performance under male predecessors New companies with a female founder performed 63% better than those with all-male teams over an observed ten-year period  Women-run hedge funds outperformed the average of larger hedge funds by a margin of 6% over a six-and-a-half-year period   You'll discover the inherent gender differences between women and men and why these differences make women excellent financial decision makers and investment collaborators. Patience and Ruth unpack the evidence that proves this point across all asset classes. The XX Edge shows that when women make financial decisions and apply their skills across all capital markets, it leads to higher returns for individual investors and greater economic growth--a true win-win for all.  

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No.8
79

NATIONAL BESTSELLER "An optimistic view on why collective action is still possible--and how it can be realized." --The New York Times "As far as heroic characters go, I'm not sure you could do better than Katharine Hayhoe." --Scientific American "A must-read if we're serious about enacting positive change from the ground up, in communities, and through human connections and human emotions." --Margaret Atwood, Twitter United Nations Champion of the Earth, climate scientist, and evangelical Christian Katharine Hayhoe changes the debate on how we can save our future. Called "one of the nation's most effective communicators on climate change" by The New York Times, Katharine Hayhoe knows how to navigate all sides of the conversation on our changing planet. A Canadian climate scientist living in Texas, she negotiates distrust of data, indifference to imminent threats, and resistance to proposed solutions with ease. Over the past fifteen years Hayhoe has found that the most important thing we can do to address climate change is talk about it--and she wants to teach you how. In Saving Us, Hayhoe argues that when it comes to changing hearts and minds, facts are only one part of the equation. We need to find shared values in order to connect our unique identities to collective action. This is not another doomsday narrative about a planet on fire. It is a multilayered look at science, faith, and human psychology, from an icon in her field--recently named chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy. Drawing on interdisciplinary research and personal stories, Hayhoe shows that small conversations can have astonishing results. Saving Us leaves us with the tools to open a dialogue with your loved ones about how we all can play a role in pushing forward for change.

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No.9
78

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in FictionWinner of the William Dean Howells MedalShortlisted for the Man Booker PrizeOver One Year on the New York Times Bestseller ListA New York Times Notable Book and a Washington Post, Time, Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year"The best novel ever written about trees, and really just one of the best novels, period." ―Ann PatchettThe Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of―and paean to―the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours―vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

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No.10
78

A Financial Times "Best Book of 2017: Economics” 800-CEO-Read “Best Business Book of 2017: Current Events & Public Affairs” Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times. Pity then, or more like disaster, that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet are still taught in college courses worldwide and still used to address critical issues in government and business alike. That’s why it is time, says renegade economist Kate Raworth, to revise our economic thinking for the 21st century. In Doughnut Economics, she sets out seven key ways to fundamentally reframe our understanding of what economics is and does. Along the way, she points out how we can break our addiction to growth; redesign money, finance, and business to be in service to people; and create economies that are regenerative and distributive by design. Named after the now-iconic “doughnut” image that Raworth first drew to depict a sweet spot of human prosperity (an image that appealed to the Occupy Movement, the United Nations, eco-activists, and business leaders alike), Doughnut Economics offers a radically new compass for guiding global development, government policy, and corporate strategy, and sets new standards for what economic success looks like. Raworth handpicks the best emergent ideas―from ecological, behavioral, feminist, and institutional economics to complexity thinking and Earth-systems science―to address this question: How can we turn economies that need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive, into economies that make us thrive, whether or not they grow? Simple, playful, and eloquent, Doughnut Economics offers game-changing analysis and inspiration for a new generation of economic thinkers.

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No.11
77

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A riveting, adrenaline-fueled tour of a vast, lawless, and rampantly criminal world that few have ever seen: the high seas.There are few remaining frontiers on our planet. But perhaps the wildest, and least understood, are the world's oceans: too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to rampant criminality and exploitation.Traffickers and smugglers, pirates and mercenaries, wreck thieves and repo men, vigilante conservationists and elusive poachers, seabound abortion providers, clandestine oil-dumpers, shackled slaves and cast-adrift stowaways—drawing on five years of perilous and intrepid reporting, often hundreds of miles from shore, Ian Urbina introduces us to the inhabitants of this hidden world. Through their stories of astonishing courage and brutality, survival and tragedy, he uncovers a globe-spanning network of crime and exploitation that emanates from the fishing, oil, and shipping industries, and on which the world's economies rely.Both a gripping adventure story and a stunning exposé, this unique work of reportage brings fully into view for the first time the disturbing reality of a floating world that connects us all, a place where anyone can do anything because no one is watching.

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No.12
77

Product Description \\nONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR\\n“The best science-fiction nonfiction novel I’ve ever read.” —Jonathan Lethem "If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future." —Ezra Klein (Vox)\\nThe Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year, this extraordinary novel from visionary science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis.\\n"One hopes that this book is read widely—that Robinson’s audience, already large, grows by an order of magnitude. Because the point of his books is to fire the imagination."―New York Review of Books"If there’s any book that hit me hard this year, it was Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future, a sweeping epic about climate change and humanity’s efforts to try and turn the tide before it’s too late." ―Polygon (Best of the Year) "Masterly." —New Yorker"[The Ministry for the Future] struck like a mallet hitting a gong, reverberating through the year ... it’s terrifying, unrelenting, but ultimately hopeful. Robinson is the SF writer of my lifetime, and this stands as some of his best work. It’s my book of the year." —Locus"Science-fiction visionary Kim Stanley Robinson makes the case for quantitative easing our way out of planetary doom." ―Bloomberg Green\\nReview \n"[A] compelling work of speculative fiction about solving the climate crisis around the world... This story is heavy but important. Be prepared to lose sleep as you won't want to pause for anything."―\nAudioFile on The Ministry for the Future\\n"Score a point for the audacity of hope....Robinson digs deep into how, with institutional support and some off-the-books black ops, revolutionary ideas could still seize our world."―\nShelf Awareness on The Ministry for the Future\\n"[A] gutsy, humane view of a near-future Earth...Robinson masterfully integrates the practical details of environmental crises and geoengineering projects into a sweeping, optimistic portrait of humanity's ability to cooperate in the face of disaster. This heartfelt work of hard science-fiction is a must-read for anyone worried about the future of the planet."―\nPublishers Weekly (starred) on The Ministry for the Future\\n"If there’s any book that hit me hard this year, it was Kim Stanley Robinson’s\nThe Ministry for the Future, a sweeping epic about climate change and humanity’s efforts to try and turn the tide before it’s too late."―\nPolygon (Best of the Year) on The Ministry for the Future\\n"In\nThe Ministry for the Future, his twentieth novel, science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson creates something truly remarkable."―\nYale Climate Connections on The Ministry for the Future\\n"Tremendously engaging."―\nChicago Review of Books on The Ministry for the Future\\n"Science-fiction visionary Kim Stanley Robinson makes the case for quantitative easing our way out of planetary doom."―\nBloomberg Green on The Ministry for the Future\\n"If I could get policymakers, and citizens, everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future... Robinson is one of the greatest living science fiction writers."―\nEzra Klein on The Ministry for the Future\\n"So far, the best descriptions of what this new world could be like come from Kim Stanley Robinson, a science-fiction author who specializes in depicting the kinds of delights that a world that took our predicament seriously might produce."―\nThe New Yorker on The Ministry for the Future\\n"\nThe Ministry for the Future ranks among Robinson's best recent works, a collection of actions and observations that adds up to more than the sum

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No.13
75

Whether you are an employee, a manager, an entrepreneur or a CEO, The Sustainable MBA Second Edition provides the knowledge and tools to help you ‘green’ your job and organization, to turn sustainability talk into action for the benefit of your bottom line and society as a whole. Based on more than 150 interviews with experts in business, international organizations, NGOs and universities from around the world, this book brings together all the pieces of the business and sustainability puzzle including: \nWhat sustainability is, why you should be interested, how to get started, and what a sustainable organization looks like. A wide range of tools, guidelines, techniques and concepts that you can use to implement sustainability practices. Information on how to be a sustainability champion or intrapraneur in your organization including how to sell these ideas to your team and how to incorporate them into any job. A survey of the exciting trends in sustainable business happening around the world. A wealth of links to interesting resources for more information. \nThe Sustainable MBA Second Edition is organized like a business school course, allowing you easy access to the relevant information you need about sustainability as it relates to Accounting, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Ethics, Finance, Marketing, Organizational Behavior and HR, Operations and Strategy. The Sustainable MBA Second Edition has been updated to reflect global developments in this evolving field to remain the definitive guide to sustainable business. Additional resources to accompany the book are available at www.thesustainablemba.com.

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No.14
69

Even leading capitalists admit that capitalism is broken. Green Swans is a manifesto for system change designed to serve people, planet, and prosperity. In his twentieth book, John Elkington--dubbed the "Godfather of Sustainability"--explores new forms of capitalism fit for the twenty-first century. If Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "Black Swans" are problems that take us exponentially toward breakdown, then "Green Swans" are solutions that take us exponentially toward breakthrough. The success--and survival--of humanity now depends on how we rein in the first and accelerate the second.Green Swans draws on Elkington's first-hand experience in some of the world's best-known boardrooms and C-suites. Using case studies, real-world examples, and profiles on emergent technologies, Elkington shows how the weirdest "Ugly Ducklings" of today's world may turn into tomorrow's world-saving Green Swans. This book is a must-read for business leaders in corporations great and small who want to help their businesses survive the coming shift in global priorities over the next decade and expand their horizons from responsibility, through resilience, and onto regeneration.

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No.15
69

Are purpose and profit in conflict, or can both be achieved simultaneously with the right mindset and tools? What are the forces that are reshaping the relationship between the two? What can we all do to strengthen the relationship between purpose and profit as entrepreneurs, managers, employees, consumers, and investors? Backed by cutting-edge research, Purpose and Profit provides answers to these fundamental questions that are increasingly defining the business landscape all around the world. Distinguished Harvard Business School Professor George Serafeim takes readers on a research-driven journey to understand: How and why environmental and social issues are becoming increasingly relevant for organizations worldwide; The ways that companies can design and implement strategies that generate greater impact; The six archetypes of value creation enabled by these new trends; The role of investors in driving greater recognition of ESG issues; and How we can all look at the choices we make and careers we pursue in a way that maximizes purpose and profit in our own lives.

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No.16
69

From the authors of Cradle to Cradle, we learn what's next: The UpcycleThe Upcycle is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Cradle to Cradle, one of the most consequential ecological manifestoes of our time. Now, drawing on the green living lessons gained from 10 years of putting the Cradle to Cradle concept into practice with businesses, governments, and ordinary people, William McDonough and Michael Braungart envision the next step in the solution to our ecological crisis: We don't just use or reuse and recycle resources with greater effectiveness, we actually improve the natural world as we live, create, and build.For McDonough and Braungart, the questions of resource scarcity and sustainability are questions of design. They are practical-minded visionaries: They envision beneficial designs of products, buildings, and business practices―and they show us these ideas being put to use around the world as everyday objects like chairs, cars, and factories are being reimagined not just to sustain life on the planet but to grow it. It is an eye-opening, inspiring tour of our green future as it unfolds in front of us.The Upcycle is as ambitious as such classics as Rachel Carson's Silent Spring―but its mission is very different. McDonough and Braungart want to turn on its head our very understanding of the human role on earth: Instead of protecting the planet from human impact, why not redesign our activity to improve the environment? We can have a beneficial, sustainable footprint. Abundance for all. The goal is within our reach.

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No.17
67

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe.Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal.He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise.As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.

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No.18
66

Eating Animals

Foer, Jonathan Safran
Little, Brown and Company

Part memoir and part investigative report, Eating Animals is the groundbreaking moral examination of vegetarianism, farming, and the food we eat every day that inspired the documentary of the same name.Bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his life oscillating between enthusiastic carnivore and occasional vegetarian. For years he was content to live with uncertainty about his own dietary choices but once he started a family, the moral dimensions of food became increasingly important.Faced with the prospect of being unable to explain why we eat some animals and not others, Foer set out to explore the origins of many eating traditions and the fictions involved with creating them. Traveling to the darkest corners of our dining habits, Foer raises the unspoken question behind every fish we eat, every chicken we fry, and every burger we grill.Part memoir and part investigative report, Eating Animals is a book that, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, places Jonathan Safran Foer "at the table with our greatest philosophers" -and a must-read for anyone who cares about building a more humane and healthy world.

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No.19
65

The Responsible Business offers a new and strategic approach to doing business that holistically integrates responsibility into all aspects of an organization, allowing for returns at every level, business and social. This book goes beyond the often well-intentioned but limited attempts at sustainability to present a framework that allows organizations to bring responsibility into everything they do and re-imagine measuring of success. From innovation, product development, and production processes to business management, strategic planning, and shareholder development, the author shows how being a Responsible Business is a practical skill that can be applied day-to-day at every level and function of the business.No longer just the role of a department or the job of CSR professionals, successful responsibility and business efforts start at the business level, are considered at the corporate level, and are applied throughout the organization. The Responsible Business outlines a framework for building a responsibility and consciousness infrastructure that applies a living systems view to the business and inspires all of its stakeholders, including shareholders.Throughout the book, illustrated by case stories from technology to manufacturing, large and small, public and private, Sanford demonstrates how to make responsibility integral to all aspects of a business as an engine for innovation, profitability, and purpose.

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No.20
65

A practical and comprehensive guide to surviving the greatest disaster of our time, from New York Times bestselling self-help author and beloved CBS Sunday Morning science and technology correspondent David Pogue. You might not realize it, but we're already living through the beginnings of climate chaos. In Arizona, laborers now start their day at 3 a.m. because it's too hot to work past noon. Chinese investors are snapping up real estate in Canada. Millennials have evacuation plans. Moguls are building bunkers. Retirees in Miami are moving inland. In How to Prepare for Climate Change, bestselling self-help author David Pogue offers sensible, deeply researched advice for how the rest of us should start to ready ourselves for the years ahead. Pogue walks readers through what to grow, what to eat, how to build, how to insure, where to invest, how to prepare your children and pets, and even where to consider relocating when the time comes. (Two areas of the country, in particular, have the requisite cool temperatures, good hospitals, reliable access to water, and resilient infrastructure to serve as climate havens in the years ahead.) He also provides wise tips for managing your anxiety, as well as action plans for riding out every climate catastrophe, from superstorms and wildfires to ticks and epidemics. Timely and enlightening, How to Prepare for Climate Change is an indispensable guide for anyone who read The Uninhabitable Earth or The Sixth Extinction and wants to know how to make smart choices for the upheaval ahead.

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No.21
65

How Bad Are Bananas? was a groundbreaking book when first published in 2009, when most of us were hearing the phrase 'carbon footprint' for the first time. Mike Berners-Lee set out to inform us what was important (aviation, heating, swimming pools) and what made very little difference (bananas, naturally packaged, are good!).This new edition updates all the figures (from data centres to hosting a World Cup) and introduces many areas that have become a regular part of modern life - Twitter, the Cloud, Bitcoin, electric bikes and cars, even space tourism. Berners-Lee runs a considered eye over each area and gives us the figures to manage and reduce our own carbon footprint, as well as to lobby our companies, businesses and government. His findings, presented in clear and even entertaining prose, are often surprising. And they are essential if we are to address climate change.

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No.22
64

Work Better. Save the Planet is for business leaders with vision, who value employee happiness and the planet's future. With this practical research-driven book, you can create a healthy workplace for the post-pandemic world that won't cost the Earth. Learn the 7 PLLANET tenets to create a work environment and culture where people can't wait to get to work: Purpose - clarify organizational purpose and unify your workforce, Language - choose your words carefully to create successful change, Less - use less space and fewer resources to create a more efficient environment that is kinder to the Earth, Ask - use a participatory method to ensure all voices are heard when undergoing work transformation, Net Zero - learn practical strategies you can employ that will make a difference on climate change, Equity - Understand the challenges pre-pandemic offices caused for many people and what you can do differently this time, and Time - why now is the time for you to take action.

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No.23
64

This is an eye-opening look at economic power in America today and the political struggle among the major power blocs - the unions, the corporate/financial community, the northern industrial states, and the sunbelt - to control it. Jeremy Rifkin and Randy Barber provide a completely new approach to solving the growing economic crisis in America and answer the questions millions of Americans, particularly workers in the depressed Northeast, are asking about it. They argue that the economic decline of the industrial North and of organized labor are intertwined, the crux of the problem being the massive migration of capital from North to South and abroad. A substantial part of this capital comes from some $400 billion of employee pension funds: the very money designed to protect the economic security of the workers is being used to destroy it.

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No.24
64

Using a rigorous, straightforward scorecard as a guide, this book shows business leaders and innovators how to create breakthrough sustainable products and processes that are good for the planet, human health, and profits.\\nNatural resource inputs to business operations are getting scarcer and more expensive, while climate-change-related economic shocks pose a risk to seamless operations and, more importantly, threaten business continuity. How can organizations integrate sustainable design in their overarching operations and align it with profitability and corporate strategy?\\nBased on Paul Anastas’s foundational Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry, the Sustainability Scorecard is the first scientifically rooted, data-driven methodology for creating inherently sustainable and profitable products and processes. By redesigning with sustainability as a key design element, firms open themselves to unexpected solutions, leapfrog innovations, and sources of value that simply don’t occur when sustainability is leveraged purely as a risk-avoidance and compliance measure.\\nUrvashi Bhatnagar and Anastas offer dozens of examples of how sustainable operations can yield benefits such as expanding market share, creating new service lines, and transforming supply-chain and sourcing models to drive the most consistent and highest long-term value. With this comprehensive framework, your firm will be able to identify truly innovative, inherently sustainable products as opposed to “less bad” products and processes that don’t provide the exponential value that only breakthrough products can.

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No.25
64

A cautionary but optimistic book about the world’s changing climate and the fate of humanity, from two of the architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement. • "One of the most inspiring books I've ever read." —Yuval HarariChristiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac outline two possible scenarios for our planet. In one, they describe what life on Earth will be like by 2050 if we fail to meet the Paris Agreement’s climate targets. In the other, they lay out what it will be like to live in a regenerative world that has net-zero emissions. They argue for confronting the climate crisis head-on, with determination and optimism. The Future We Choose presents our options and tells us what governments, corporations, and each of us can, and must, do to fend off disaster.

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No.26
64

A Financial Times Book of the Year 2020! What is a responsible business? Common wisdom is that it's one that sacrifices profit for social outcomes. But while it's crucial for companies to serve society, they also have a duty to generate profit for investors - savers, retirees, and pension funds. Based on the highest-quality evidence and real-life examples spanning industries and countries, Alex Edmans shows that it's not an either-or choice - companies can create both profit and social value. The most successful companies don't target profit directly, but are driven by purpose - the desire to serve a societal need and contribute to human betterment. The book explains how to embed purpose into practice so that it's more than just a mission statement, and discusses the critical role of working collaboratively with a company's investors, employees, and customers. Rigorous research also uncovers surprising results on how executive pay, shareholder activism, and share buybacks can be used for the common good.

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No.27
64

This New York Times bestselling “Eco Bible” (Time magazine) teaches us that economic growth must be responsibly balanced with the needs of communities and the environment.“Embracing what Schumacher stood for--above all the idea of sensible scale--is the task for our time. Small is Beautiful could not be more relevant. It was first published in 1973, but it was written for our time.” — Bill McKibben, from the ForewordSmall Is Beautiful is Oxford-trained economist E. F. Schumacher’s classic call for the end of excessive consumption. Schumacher inspired such movements as “Buy Locally” and “Fair Trade,” while voicing strong opposition to “casino capitalism” and wasteful corporate behemoths. Named one of the Times Literary Supplement’s 100 Most Influential Books Since World War II, Small Is Beautiful presents eminently logical arguments for building our economies around the needs of communities, not corporations.

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No.28
64

The Climate Book

Thunberg, Greta
Allen Lane

We still have time to change the world. From Greta Thunberg, the world's leading climate activist, comes the essential handbook for making it happen.\\nYou might think it's an impossible task: secure a safe future for life on Earth, at a scale and speed never seen, against all the odds. There is hope - but only if we listen to the science before it's too late.\\nIn The Climate Book, Greta Thunberg has gathered the wisdom of over one hundred experts - geophysicists, oceanographers and meteorologists; engineers, economists and mathematicians; historians, philosophers and indigenous leaders - to equip us all with the knowledge we need to combat climate disaster. Alongside them, she shares her own stories of demonstrating and uncovering greenwashing around the world, revealing how much we have been kept in the dark. This is one of our biggest challenges, she shows, but also our greatest source of hope. Once we are given the full picture, how can we not act? And if a schoolchild's strike could ignite a global protest, what could we do collectively if we tried?\\nWe are alive at the most decisive time in the history of humanity. Together, we can do the seemingly impossible. But it has to be us, and it has to be now.

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No.29
64

A revolutionary guide to designing humane, eco-conscious homes, buildings, and cities of the future.It is estimated that the earth's population will expand to an unprecedented nine billion people over the next century. This explosion in population is predicted to place further stress on our environment, deplete our natural resources, and lead to increases in anxiety and depression due to overcrowding. In this visionary and uplifting book, Teresa Coady offers readers new hope. Rebuilding Earth is her blueprint for designing and building the cities, buildings, and homes of tomorrow, resulting in more conscious, sustainable, and humane living. Coady shows us how we can shift from an outdated Industrial-Age framework to a more humane, Digital-Age framework. This revolutionary approach will enable communities to harness various forms of green energy and reduce the amount of material needed to build infrastructure while contributing to a healthier planet (and society). We can then experience a new sense of purpose, health, and happiness. Meaningful and lasting change, the author tells us, can only come through designing interconnected communities that are vibrant, resilient, and communal. Unlike most predictions of doom and gloom, Coady presents a refreshingly optimistic view of humanity and its future. This book will appeal to those in the construction, design and development finance industries, as well as anyone interested in improving their lives through understanding the connections between the environment and health.

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No.30
64

Should business and finance play larger roles in resolving the great social and environmental challenges of our time? Proponents of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing say yes. They argue that ESG financial strategies can help reverse runaway carbon emissions and fix income and gender inequalities, among other ills. ESG-integrated investments already encompass more than $120 trillion in financial assets. Are they working as promised? If not, how can they be improved?\\nIn Sustainable, a finance-industry veteran offers an insider’s look at the promises, prospects, and perils of ESG investing. Terrence Keeley argues that many ESG advocates have been overly optimistic about what it can accomplish. Divestment threats are ineffective tools for altering corporate behavior, and verifiably “good” companies do not systematically generate great returns. Most importantly, business and finance cannot cure social ills on their own: regulators, public policies, civil society, and individuals must all play specific, complementary roles to shape the future we want. Keeley provides comprehensive solutions that would promote more inclusive, sustainable growth. In particular, he recommends reallocating capital from some indexed products toward an emerging class of strategies with more verifiable social and environmental benefits. Keeley identifies dozens of alternative “impact investing” strategies that could generate true double bottom lines. He also highlights promising civic organizations with proven methodologies for achieving widely shared benefits at scale.\\nProposing practical, actionable, and in many cases profitable solutions to social and environmental problems, Sustainable offers an incisive vision of the roles business and finance can and should play in building a flourishing society.

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No.31
63

The most important book yet from the author of the international bestseller The Shock Doctrine, a brilliant explanation of why the climate crisis challenges us to abandon the core “free market” ideology of our time, restructure the global economy, and remake our political systems.In short, either we embrace radical change ourselves or radical changes will be visited upon our physical world. The status quo is no longer an option.In This Changes Everything Naomi Klein argues that climate change isn’t just another issue to be neatly filed between taxes and health care. It’s an alarm that calls us to fix an economic system that is already failing us in many ways. Klein meticulously builds the case for how massively reducing our greenhouse emissions is our best chance to simultaneously reduce gaping inequalities, re-imagine our broken democracies, and rebuild our gutted local economies. She exposes the ideological desperation of the climate-change deniers, the messianic delusions of the would-be geoengineers, and the tragic defeatism of too many mainstream green initiatives. And she demonstrates precisely why the market has not—and cannot—fix the climate crisis but will instead make things worse, with ever more extreme and ecologically damaging extraction methods, accompanied by rampant disaster capitalism.Klein argues that the changes to our relationship with nature and one another that are required to respond to the climate crisis humanely should not be viewed as grim penance, but rather as a kind of gift—a catalyst to transform broken economic and cultural priorities and to heal long-festering historical wounds. And she documents the inspiring movements that have already begun this process: communities that are not just refusing to be sites of further fossil fuel extraction but are building the next, regeneration-based economies right now.Can we pull off these changes in time? Nothing is certain. Nothing except that climate change changes everything. And for a very brief time, the nature of that change is still up to us.

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No.32
63

One of The Observer’s ‘Thirty books to help us understand the world’Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat. These are some of the ways that we’ve been told we can save the planet. But are individuals really to blame for the climate crisis?Seventy-one per cent of global emissions come from the same hundred companies, but fossil-fuel companies have taken no responsibility themselves. Instead, they have waged a thirty-year campaign to blame individuals for climate change. The result has been disastrous for our planet.In The New Climate War, renowned scientist Michael E. Mann argues that all is not lost. He draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters ― fossil-fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and petro-states ― and outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change.

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No.33
63

A true force for change, Gary Hirshberg has been at the forefront of movements working for environmental and social transformation for 30 years. From his early days as an educator and activist to his current position as President and CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm, the world's largest organic yogurt company, Hirshberg's positive outlook has inspired thousands of people to recognize their ability to make the world a better place.\nIn Stirring it Up, Hirshberg calls on individuals to realize their power to effect change in the marketplace - "the power of one" - while proving that environmental commitment makes for a healthier planet and a healthier bottom line. Drawing from his 25 years' experience growing Stonyfield Farm from a 7-cow start-up, as well as the examples of like-minded companies, such as Newman's Own, Patagonia, Wal-Mart and Timberland, Hirshberg presents stunning evidence that business not only can save the planet, but is able to simultaneously deliver higher growth and superior profits as well.\nHirshberg illustrates his points with practical information and advice, as well as engaging anecdotes from what he calls `the bad old days' of his yogurt company: how a power outage left him milking cows by hand, how a dumpster fire revealed the need for better packaging, and his camel manure taste test challenge to a local shock jock. He also describes hands-on grassroots marketing strategies -- printing yogurt lids with provocative, politically charged messages, handing out thousands of free samples to subway commuters to thank them for using public transit, and devising the country's first organic vending machine -- explaining how these approaches make a much more powerful impact on consumers than traditional advertising.\nAn inspiring book for business owners and managers as well as anyone interested in saving the environment, Stirring It Up demonstrates how companies can work to save the planet, while achieving greater profits and satisfaction, and how we can all use the power of conscious consumption to encourage green corporate behavior.

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No.34
63

This book provides the blueprint for implementation, breaking down barriers, and the steps required to integrate sustainability successfully into any business. It is laid out in easily digestible chapters, with action steps backed up from interviews with sustainability thought leaders, case studies, and the real life experience of the author, as well as over 40 interviews with CSR and Sustainability Directors at various companies on how to “get things done” based on their successes and temporary setbacks. It provides the step-by-step roadmap for implementing sustainability successfully and focuses on “how” companies can realize the benefits of sustainability by engaging the head, heart, and hands of their employees. Also included is a checklist for implementation and tips on how to regain momentum or get “un-stuck” at the end of each chapter as well as additional helpful resources and exercises to overcome the most common barriers towards implementation.

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No.35
63

A New York Times BestsellerA Washington Post BestsellerNamed a "Best Essay Collection of the Decade" by Literary HubAs a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings―asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass―offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

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