The Top 50 Sustainability Books?

Interested in the most prominent sustainability books? Greenleaf Publishing has an interesting publication summarizing the thinking of new and timeless classics. "The Top 50 Sustainability Books" is written by Wayne Visser, founder of CSR International and very active in the field. Like with every ranking you could argue about the criteria but anyway there us much inspiration in and to learn from these books. You can order at a 20% discount at Greenleaf.

The Top 20 in order with some excerpts accessible:

1. An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, by Al Gore, 2006
   
2. Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, 1962
   
3. The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, by Nicholas Stern, 2007
   
4. Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, by E.F. Schumacher, 1973
   
5. Capitalism as if the World Matters, by Jonathon Porritt, 2005
   
6. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, by Jared Diamond, 2005
   
7. Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, 2000
   
8. Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, by James Lovelock, 2000
   
9. Our Common Future, by The World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987
   
10. Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business, by John Elkington, 1999
    
11. The Limits to Growth, by Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows and Jorgen Randers, 1972
    
12. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by William McDonough (A) and Michael Braungart (A), 2002
    
13. Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits, by C.K. Prahalad, 2004
    
14. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, by Jeffrey Sachs, 2005.
    
15. Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning, by George Monbiot, 2006
    
16. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine Benyus, 2003
    
17. The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability, by Paul Hawken, 1994
    
18. Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the battle Against World Poverty, by Muhammad Yunus, 1999
    
19. The Turning Point: Science Society and the Rising Culture, by Fritjof Capra, 1984
    
20. Development as Freedom, by Amartya Sen, 2000

Enjoy catching up with your reading list :)

Video: Eckhart Tolle, Spiritual Master, on the Economic Crisis and Change

Ever since the recent crises, namely climate, financial and economic I have been contemplating about the reasons and what to learn from the challenges. On a professional level, I have been learning through my consulting work at the United Nations and my honorary work for the Mali Initiative. On a more personal level, I have been on a journey of in-sights and in-tution through personal development and meditation.

Through these ways, I have experienced to appreciate challenges as 'signs' that change or transformation is required. I find the connection between our own state of consciousness (inside) and state of economy and environment (outside) intriguing. Therefore, I am going to increasingly share with you content on 'conscious business' and 'inspired leadership'. Hope you are open-minded and interested?

Eckhart Tolle, bestseller author and spiritual Master, talks in the following video about the current economy, its crises and the underlying reasons. He describes why the collapse of ego-based institutions is necessary for the planet and for humanity to survive.

Watch on YouTube or embedded below:

Search and Save the Planet: Green Google Alternatives

Short and sweet, I want to bring to your attention two real Business4Good candidates. Both are 'eco-friendly' search engines giving you the choice of saving rainforest and making you 'googling' CO2-neutral.

1. Ecosia: www.ecosia.org
Eevery search saves about 2 m² of rainforest, according to Ecosia which cooperates with the WWF. It's results are based on Bing and Yahoo.

2. Znout: www.znout.org
Accordning to Znout, you can make your Internet searches CO2 neutral. Based on Google.

Next two these two, there are more green search engines in the market. Even they don't have built in some fancy Google features the green alternatives are certainly good enough for usual searches. Computers are a significant and growing consumer of electricity and therefore producer of CO2 and climate change.

"Electricity generation required for information and communication technologies is currently responsible for 2% of global CO₂ emissions" (Techcrunch)

I just switched to green 'googling' and made one of them my default search engine. Just waiting for the moment when giant Google wakes up by searchers walking off green and then starts greening itself. Goliath, the green Davids are coming.

Happy green searching.