Books That Matter

Paul Hawken (Natural Capitalism, Ecology of Commerce) presents the history leading to a natural merger between the environmental and social justice movements.  This convergence offers perhaps the best hope that the world's worst problems will be solved.  Hawken's book inspires the reader to recognize their place in a bottoms-up revolution.

Margonelli has written about the culture and economy of energy for publications such as Wired, Discover, Salon, and the San Francisco Chronicle. In the summer of 2003, she started hanging out at independent gas stations, where owners might clear pennies per gallon of gas, surviving on impulse sales of junk food and soda. Her journey takes us up the delivery chain, spending a typical day with a tanker truck driver, hanging out with suppliers, touring refineries, and seeing what life is like at an oil rig. Whether visiting "wildcatters" in Texas, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the Gulf of Mexico, or the oil pit at the New York Mercantile Exchange, Margonelli charms her way into the good graces of insiders to report on the vast petroleum network. Her voyage takes us to Venezuela, Chad, Nigeria, and ultimately the Persian Gulf, where she spends time at the Salmon oil fields in Iran. Filled with rich history, industry anecdotes, and politics, Margonelli's book brings a deeper appreciation of the complicated and often tenuous process that we take for granted. David Siegfried Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

The Climate Institute's new book promises to be a leading reference work for those seriously interested in risks of global warming and practical measures that can be taken both to adapt to and slow the apparent acceleration in the pace of climate change. Written by a transdisciplinary group of internationally respected researchers at the Washington Summit on Climate Stabilization held September 18-21 2006, Sudden and Disruptive Change explores the significance for society of such changes and efforts already undertaken by a wide range of individuals and groups.

In Nature, Landscape, and Building for Sustainability, a diverse group of contributors considers the concept of sustainability, both philosophically and practically. Some take a broad view of the divisions between nature and humanity, exploring the incomprehensible scale of human intervention in the natural world, the relationship between how we feel about nature and what we do about it, and the commodification of the natural world. Other essays focus on sustainable design practices: sustainability’s roots in the American conservation tradition, its utility as a framework for future design practice, and the necessity of moving beyond demonstration projects into the mainstream.

To help managers and academics keep their eye on the ever-moving target of sustainability, award-winning author and academic Marc Epstein's provides an authoritative and comprehensive guide to implementing corporate sustainability initiatives and to measuring both their social and financial impacts.

In Unbowed, Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai recounts her extraordinary journey from her childhood in rural Kenya to the world stage. When Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977, she began a vital poor people’s environmental movement, focused on the empowerment of women, that soon spread across Africa. Persevering through run-ins with the Kenyan government and personal losses, and jailed and beaten on numerous occasions, Maathai continued to fight tirelessly to save Kenya’s forests and to restore democracy to her beloved country. Infused with her unique luminosity of spirit, Wangari Maathai’s remarkable story of courage, faith, and the power of persistence is destined to inspire generations to come.

James Gustave Speth, renowned as a visionary environmentalist leader, warns that in spite of all the international negotiations and agreements of the past two decades, efforts to protect Earth’s environment are not succeeding. Still, he says, the challenges are not insurmountable. He offers comprehensive, viable new strategies for dealing with environmental threats around the world.

In this book Gus Speth, the dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, begins with the observation that the environmental community has grown in strength and sophistication, but the environment has continued to decline, to the point that we are now at the edge of catastrophe. Speth contends that this situation is a severe indictment of the economic and political system we call modern capitalism. Our vital task is now to change the operating instructions for today’s destructive world economy before it is too late. The book is about how to do that.

"The Urban Homestead" is the essential handbook for a fast-growing new movement: urbanites are becoming gardeners and farmers. Rejecting both end-times hand wringing and dewy-eyed faith that technology will save us from ourselves, urban homesteaders choose instead to act. By growing their own food and harnessing natural energy, they are planting seeds for the future of our cities.

In 1972, three scientists from MIT created a computer model that analyzed global resource consumption and production. Their results shocked the world and created stirring conversation about global 'overshoot,' or resource use beyond the carrying capacity of the planet. Now, preeminent environmental scientists Donnella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows have teamed up again to update and expand their original findings in The Limits to Growth: The 30 Year Global Update. Meadows, Randers, and Meadows are international environmental leaders recognized for their groundbreaking research into early signs of wear on the planet. Citing climate change as the most tangible example of our current overshoot, the scientists now provide us with an updated scenario and a plan to reduce our needs to meet the carrying capacity of the planet.

In this compelling argument for a new direction in US energy policy, world-renowned engineer and best-selling author Robert Zubrin lays out a bold plan for breaking the economic stranglehold that the OPEC oil cartel has on our country and the world. Zubrin presents persuasive evidence that our decades-long relationship with OPEC has resulted in the looting of our economy, the corruption of our political system, and now the funding and protection of terrorist regimes and movements that are committed to our destruction. Debunking the false solutions and myths that have deterred us from taking necessary action, Zubrin exposes the fakery that has allowed many politicians — including current US president George W. Bush — to posture that they are acting to resolve this problem while actually doing nothing significant toward that goal.

Filled cover to cover with best practices, tips and resources for making your meeting or conference an environmentally friendly event. Whether you are just getting started or a veteran in the industry, this book will increase your know-how and give you the tools to make green meetings work.

In a book that will generate controversy, Daly turns his attention to the major environmental debate surrounding "sustainable development." Daly argues that the idea of sustainable development--which has become a catchword of environmentalism and international finance--is being used in ways that are vacuous, certainly wrong, and probably dangerous. The necessary solutions turn out to be muc h more radical than people suppose.

In the first chapter of 'Small Is Beautiful', "The Problem of Production", Schumacher points out that our economy is unsustainable. The natural resources (especially fossil fuels), are treated as expendable income, when in fact they should be treated as capital, since they are not renewable and thus subject to eventual depletion. He further points out that similarly, the capacity of nature to resist pollution is limited as well. He concludes that government effort must be concentrated on reaching sustainable development, because relatively minor improvements like education for leisure or technology transfer to the Third World countries will not solve the underlying problem of unsustainable economy.

Bill McKibben's first book, the bestselling The End of Nature, offered a devastating portrait of the harm human civilization has done to the planet. Hope, Human and Wild sets out on a dramatically different journey to provide examples and hope for a sustainable future, one in which our society's wealth is measured less by its material productivity and more by its spiritual richness; less by its consumption of resources and more by the extent to which we live in harmony with the natural world.

In this powerful and provocative manifesto, Bill McKibben offers the biggest challenge in a generation to the prevailing view of our economy. Deep Economy makes the compelling case for moving beyond “growth” as the paramount economic ideal and pursuing prosperity in a more local direction, with regions producing more of their own food, generating more of their own energy, and even creating more of their own culture and entertainment. Our purchases need not be at odds with the things we truly value, McKibben argues, and the more we nurture the essential humanity of our economy, the more we will recapture our own.

The now classic text from Paul Hawken that outlines a visionary program that businesses can follow to help restore the planet.

The environmental damage caused by burning fossil fuels is causing global problems that top-level scientists say are a bigger threat to national security than terrorist attacks. Is there a viable alternative? In his new book Josh Tickell has spoken to leading energy and industry experts to answer just this question. Whether you are a farmer, an economist, a politician, an environmentalist or a concerned citizen this book provides vital information for anyone concerned with current and future energy security.

To free the U.S. of fossil fuel dependency while boosting the economy, we need the kind of visionary leadership that led to the Apollo moon landings in 1969, according to Inslee and Hendricks in this energetic articulation of a clean-energy future. That vision is sadly lacking under the current administration, reports Washington State Congressman Inslee in several caustic sidebars about his contentious energy discussions with President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. His first-person anecdotes lighten this otherwise earnest book, based on initiatives of the Apollo Alliance, an advocacy group and think tank uniting unions, environmental groups and business organizations committed to fostering a green economy. Redesigning the car, investing in solar power, mining wind for power, exploring the nascent technology of wave energy, using energy more efficiently and working clean coal and safe nuclear power into the equation are among the authors' prescriptions. Inslee is primary congressional sponsor of the New Apollo Energy Act and on the Apollo Alliance advisory board; coauthor Hendricks is a member of the alliance's steering committee. A brief foreword by Bill Clinton waxes enthusiastic about the synergy between the book, the alliance and the proposed legislation. (Nov. 2) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

"Zoom puts oil in its sights and squeezes off one telling round after another.Car lovers will see a sunny future with other fuels; OPEC a steadily darkening twilight."-R. James Woolsey, VP, Booz Allen Hamilton; former Director of Central Intelligence"

Freedom from Oil takes the reader to the highest levels of government, as Cabinet members and White House aides debate how to break our addiction to oil. In a fast-moving narrative, David Sandalow shows how to solve this problem while offering a unique window into the White House at work. A White House veteran, Sandalow explores what would happen if the next President made breaking the United States' addiction to oil a top priority. In crisp and clear prose, Sandalow explains the size of the challenge and then offers a powerful message of hope.

Forty percent revised, this sourcebook for green building provides descriptions and manufacturer contact information for more than 1,800 environmentally preferable products and materials for residential construction, grouped by function, including tips for what to look for in green products.

In THE HIGH-PURPOSE COMPANY: The Truly Responsible (and Highly Profitable) Firms That Are Changing Business Now, corporate strategist and researcher Christine Arena shows readers why corporate responsibility is necessary for success in today's business world, and tells how to distinguish between the extraordinary companies driven by purposeful ideals and those companies that merely pretend to be responsible.

Arena defines high purpose as the sum of a company’s values and its daily practices. A high-purpose company does not spend millions telling the public about their values without putting them into action.

Coinciding with Governor Richardson's campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for president, his proposals for reducing our dependence on foreign oil is substantial, despite their transparent vote-getting tenor. Drawing on his 15 years in the U.S. Congress, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and as energy secretary in the Clinton administration, as well as his New Mexico governorship, Richardson provides useful insights into the resistance of powerful entities such as the automobile industry, coal industry and, of course, the oil industry to alternative energy sources. Writing in a folksy style, with personal anecdotes that leaven his wonkishness, Richardson is not shy about trumpeting the breadth and depth of his experience; at times he's almost insufferable, but his battles with those who care more about quick profit than about clean air, clean water and energy-related national security suggest he has earned the right to say, "I told you so." -- Publisher's Weekly

Here, from Bill Clinton, is a call to action. Giving is an inspiring look at how each of us can change the world. First, it reveals the extraordinary and innovative efforts now being made by companies and organizations—and by individuals—to solve problems and save lives both “down the street and around the world.” Then it urges us to seek out what each of us, “regardless of income, available time, age, and skills,” can do to help, to give people a chance to live out their dreams.

Energy Switch details this momentous transition and proposes that the remaining non-renewable resources be used to develop a long-term supply of renewable energy. A renewable energy leader two decades ago, the US now lags behind Germany and Japan. Energy Switch pays special attention to Europe's success, especially that of Germany, exploring what can be learned from their experience. It asks whether a mix of renewables is feasible as a major source of energy, at what cost, with what drawbacks, and in what time period.

The Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings is a one-stop resource for consumers who want to improve their home's energy performance and reduce costs. Zeroing in on the most useful response can be a challenge—this 9th edition guide cuts through the confusion. Well-organized and highly readable, The Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings begins with an overview of the inter-relationships between energy use, economics and the environment.

Green Building A to Z is an informative, technically accurate and highly visual guide to green building, for both decision-makers and interested citizens. It begins with an introduction to the importance of green buildings and a brief history of the green building movement, outlines the benefits and costs of green buildings, and shows how you can influence the spread of green buildings. The book touches on key issues, such as enhancing water conservation, reducing energy use and creating a conservation economy.

Plug-in Hybrids points out that, whereas hydrogen fuel-cell cars won't be ready for decades, the technology for plug-in hybrids exists today. Unlike conventional hybrid cars which can't run without gasoline, plug-in hybrids use gasoline or cheaper, cleaner, domestic electricity - or both. Although not yet for sale, demand for plug-in hybrids is widespread, coming from characters across the political spectrum, such as: * Chelsea Sexton, the automotive insider: working for General Motors, Sexton fought attempts to destroy the all-electric EV1 car and describes how car companies are resisting plug-in hybrids -- and why they'll make them anyway. * Felix Kramer and the tech squad: Kramer started a non-profit organization using the Internet to tap into a small army of engineers who built the first plug-in Prius hybrids. * R. James Woolsey, former CIA director and national security hawk: seeing the end of oil supplies looming, Woolsey is demanding plug-in hybrids to wean us from petroleum.

Making a Living While Making a Difference is a timely and highly informative guide to a working life built on principled choices and an entrepreneurial attitude. It’s “about” greener enterprises and technologies, socially responsible business, innovative nonprofit work, and reinventing government. It’s really about putting the pieces together with creativity and hope.

The Zero-Carbon Car reviews the issues of climate change/carbon rationing, peak oil, urban sprawl and geopolitical and socio-economic disruption related to fossil fuel use. The book argues that, while there is no way to avoid the eventual demise of the automobile, there is an opportunity for the automotive industry to develop and governments to support an ultra-efficient, zero-carbon emission automobile.

Building on current mainstream trends in solar energy and wind power, Electric Water offers a clear vision of how the world's energy and water infrastructure could be transformed. The book provides: * an outline of the major issues that need addressing, including global warming * a fascinating explanation of key technologies in plain water * a vision of business and job opportunities in restoration * real-life examples, including the post-Katrina Louisiana Coastal Restoration program * websites for further information. Unlike many other books on this subject, Electric Water uses accessible language to propose a workable plan for a revolutionary integration of technology and quality of life that will be of special interest to planners, engineers and architects.

Peak Everything addresses many of the cultural, psychological and practical changes we will have to make as nature rapidly dictates our new limits. This latest book from Richard Heinberg, author of three of the most important books on Peak Oil, touches on the most important aspects of the human condition at this unique moment in time. A combination of wry commentary and sober forecasting on subjects as diverse as farming and industrial design, this book tells how we might make the transition from The Age of Excess to the Era of Modesty with grace and satisfaction, while preserving the best of our collective achievements. A must-read for individuals, business leaders and policy makers who are serious about effecting real change.

Branded outlines the ability of NGOs to affect corporate markets. It shows how the development of certification systems for corporate social and environmental practices has created some intriguing questions: * Why are retail giants paying premiums for ethically-produced products and not overcharging their customers? * How have NGOs gained such power and credibility? * What are the challenges of these new modes of corporate accountability for both NGOs and corporations? * What are the unexpected opportunities for newly accountable corporations? Branded! is a "must-read" book for corporate executives, NGOs and concerned consumers. It is rich with vignettes of firms, NGOs, campaigns, failures, successes, memorable personalities and hard-fought battles.

"Ottman knows her stuff, and you'd do well to heed her wisdom if you plan to pursue a green-marketing strategy. Lots of good advice and perspective, backed with real-life stories from the trenches."

--Joel Makower, Editor, Green Business Letter

The oceans of the world rank foremost among humankind's last great frontiers, and their climatological and ecological workings remain mysterious to all but specialists. In this lively, well-written survey, marine scientist Carl Safina encourages readers to take a wider interest in the oceans, especially because so much of that great blue expanse is now threatened by human progress.

Real Goods Solar Living Source Book-Special 30th Anniversary Edition is the ultimate guide to renewable energy, sustainable living, green building, homesteading, off-the-grid living, and alternative transportation, written by experts with decades of experience and a passion for sharing their knowledge. This fully updated edition includes brand-new sections on Peak Oil, climate change, relocalization, natural burial, biodynamics, and permaculture.

Permaculture is humans working with, not against, nature. It's about causing land, water, plants and animals to synergistically cause multiple benefits and to improve an ecosystem simultaneously. It maximizes functional connections so that the many parts become a whole.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed examines why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart. Not every collapse has an environmental origin, but an eco-meltdown is often the main catalyst, he argues, particularly when combined with society's response to (or disregard for) the coming disaster.

Chris Balish makes a compelling argument that we’d all be better of if we ditched our cars and the associated payments, health problems and dangers. His realistic strategies for simplifying your life and finances are definitely food for thought – even for an admitted car buff.

Rachel Carson’s seminal 1962 book, which raised our awareness of the impact of pesticides and other environmental poisons on our food supply and our health, remains as relevant as ever.

Authors John De Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor hit us with a slap-in-the-face reminder that money does not equal happiness and that America’s rampant consumerism has trapped us in a dangerous reality where we believe “living" equals "buying."

Harvard Economist and Federal Reserve Board Advisor Benjamin Friedman argues that economic growth is a prerequisite for a liberal, open society. By exploring two centuries of historical evidence, Friedman argues, among other things, that technological innovation will allow for continued economic growth without environmental sacrifice.

This groundbreaking work from Paul Hawken, L. Hunter Lovins and Amory Lovins shows how leading edge companies can take advantage of a "new type of industrialism" that allows them to increase efficiency and become more environmentally friendly while at the same time increasing profits and creating jobs.

Renowned economist Stephen Leeb’s sometimes alarmist but meticulously researched book shows how China and India’s increasing energy demands will eventually outstrip supply, threatening our economy and even our civilization if we don’t begin to change our behavior. He shows how this crisis will impact consumers, and how investors can best position themselves for the challenges ahead.

Author Patricia Aburdene – half of the formerly married couple that brought us the first two MegaTrends books – argues that ethics, values and socially responsible investing are powerful trends taking hold now and that understanding this shift is essential to success in tomorrow’s business world.

The deceptively simple supermarket choice echoed in the title symbolizes the dilemma of a society on a collision course with the planet's life-support systems. Do we clearcut forests, process pulp, and bleach it with chlorine to make paper bags? Or do we make a pact with demon hydrocarbon, refining ancient sunlight into handy plastics?

Paper or plastic? Neither, say William McDonough and Michael Braungart. Why settle for the least harmful alternative when we could have something that is better--say, edible grocery bags! In Cradle to Cradle, the authors present a manifesto calling for a new industrial revolution, one that would render both traditional manufacturing and traditional environmentalism obsolete.

Greentech is the next big thing. And this book is an important read for anyone--venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, scientists, business strategists, or consumers--interested in the next wave of technological innovation.

- John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Chris Mooney’s in-depth reporting on the science and politics of the poorly understood link between hurricanes and global warming is appealing, both because hurricanes have such a terrifying grip on the popular imagination and because the attendant controversy is in its own way a sort of perfect storm of media, politics and science.

Full review from TerraPass here

Business guru Tom Peters argues "It is the foremost task – and responsibility – of our generation to re-imagine our enterprises and institutions, public and private."

There isn't much we can do in today's society without the use of oil. While some may consider the smog and occasional oil spill a small price to pay, author Terry Tamminen assesses the cost of petroleum consumption in a sobering guide through our degraded public health. He describes the thousands of lives that are needlessly ruined by petroleum and offers a guide for eliminating the wasteful burning of oil.

Authors Amory Lovins and Co at the Rocky Mountain Institute state "...it will cost less to displace all of the oil that the United States now uses than it will cost to buy that oil. Oil's current market price leaves out its true costs to the economy, national security, and the environment. But even without including those now "externalized" costs, it would still be profitable to displace oil completely over the next few decades."