Top 50 Sustainability Books

WAYNE VISSER is Founder and CEO of the thinktank CSR International, as well as Senior Associate of the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership.

If you don't have time to read books ... but want to know what the good ones say, then you should take a look at this splendid array of best sellers about sustainability and related issues. As books go, it's quite unique because you get 50 for the price of one – and in a compact package of 250+ pages. Do the math – that's 5 pages per book. Students – and let's admit it, their teachers, too – will love the shortcut. For each one of the Top 50 books, author Wayne Visser gives you key ideas, a one-page synopsis, illustrative quotations, author bio, follow-up interviews with most authors, and citations to related books and website listings. So armed, you can bluff your way through any social gathering (or student classroom) as if you had read the whole thing. Books are treated chronologically, beginning in 1949 with Aldo Leopold's powerful case for land conservation, A Sand County Almanac, followed by the better known Silent Spring, Rachel Carson's 1962 classic about the dangers of DDT pesticide use. Toward the end are two books about climate change: Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and The Economics of Climate Change by the UK's Nicholas Stern as No. 50. In between are many examples illustrating the pro and con public dialogue about preserving the Earth's ecosystems seen as under siege by mindless, reckless, greedy corporations pursuing profits at all costs ... Reading through from front to back carries you along enjoyably and informatively on the emerging currents of thought generated by business leaders, corporate consultants, academic experts, NGO critics of corporate behavior, and – perhaps most intriguingly as a harbinger of future thinking – a few bioethicists and ecosystem specialists who draw directly on natural processes for making sustainability stick. Taking this journey from the 1940s through the early years of the 21st century is well worth the trip. A Worthwhile Book The Top 50 is overall a good read. Work your way through it from beginning to end, thereby capturing the growing awareness of 50+ leading thinkers about unfolding planetary ecosystem disasters in the making. Without doubt, the collective power of giant corporations just may be the key to resolving, or at least lessening, the most monstrous impacts and human tragedies envisioned by futurist thinkers. But remember, beyond these valuable perspectives, you should also seek out the plethora of newly-emerging research about what might be done by the major players to confront and grapple with the entire sustainability agenda.

• IntroductionPolly Courtice, Director, Cambridge for Sustainability Leadership 1. A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold (1949) 2. Silent Spring Rachel Carson (1962) 3. Unsafe At Any Speed Ralph Nader (1965) 4. The Population Bomb Paul L. Ehrlich (1968) 5. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth R. Buckminster Fuller (1969) 6. The Limits to Growth Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jorgen Randers and William W. Behrens III (1972) 7. Small Is Beautiful E.F. Schumacher (1973) 8. Gaia James Lovelock (1979) 9. The Turning Point Fritjof Capra (1982) 10. Our Common Future ('The Brundtland Report') World Commission onEnvironment and Development (1987) 11. The Dream of the Earth Thomas Berry (1988) 12. A Fate Worse Than Debt Susan George (1988) 13. Staying Alive Vandana Shiva (1989) 14. Blueprint for a Green Economy David Pearce, Anil Markandya and Edward B. Barbier (1989) 15. For the Common Good Herman Daly and John B. Cobb Jr (1989) 16. Human Scale Development Manfred Max-Neef (1989) 17. Changing Course Stephan Schmidheiny and Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) (1992) 18. The Ecology of Commerce Paul Hawken (1993) 19. Maverick Ricardo Semler (1993) 20. When Corporations Rule the World David C. Korten (1995 )21. Biomimicry Janine M. Benyus (1997) 22. Cannibals with Forks John Elkington (1997) 23. The Hungry Spirit Charles Handy (1997) 24. Banker to the Poor Muhammad Yunus (1998) 25. The Crisis of Global Capitalism George Soros (1998) 26. Factor Four Ernst von Weizsaecker, Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins (1998) 27. False Dawn John Gray (1998) 28. Development as Freedom Amartya Sen (1999) 29. No Logo Naomi Klein (1999) 30. Natural Capitalism Paul Hawken, Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins (1999) 31. Business as Unusual Anita Roddick (2000) 32. The Mystery of Capital Hernando de Soto (2000) 33. The Civil Corporation Simon Zadek (2001) 34. Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser (2001) 35. The Skeptical Environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg (2001) 36. Cradle to Cradle William McDonough and Michael Braungart (2002) 37. Globalization and its Discontents Joseph E. Stiglitz (2002) 38. The Corporation Joel Bakan (2004) 39. Presence Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski and Betty Sue Flowers (2004) 40. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid C.K. Prahalad (2004) 41. The River Runs Black Elizabeth C. Economy (2004) 42. Capitalism as if the World Matters Jonathon Porritt (2005) 43. Capitalism at the Crossroads Stuart L. Hart (2005) 44. Collapse Jared Diamond (2005) 45. The End of Poverty Jeffrey D. Sachs (2005) 46. The Chaos Point Ervin Laszlo (2006) 47. Heat George Monbiot (2006) 48. An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore (2006) 49. When the Rivers Run Dry Fred Pearce (2006) 50. The Economics of Climate Change Nicholas Stern (2007)ConclusionMike Peirce, Deputy Director, Cambridge for Sustainability Leadership