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