Books to Lead a More Sustainable Life

Heal Your Living is about more than just getting rid of your stuff: it’s a holistic approach to a more fulfilling life, in harmony with your deepest aspirations. Youheum Son, the founder of the YouTube lifestyle channel with over 250,000 subscribers, identifies four areas that comprise the Heal Your Living approach: mindfulness—meditation and insight, sustainability—low-waste, eco-friendly lifestyle, minimalism—simple living, and wellness—self-care and healing. It is time to embark on a transformational journey.

Transitioning to a zero-waste lifestyle means eliminating unnecessary clutter from your home and reducing your dependence on disposable goods, but it also comes with practical challenges that can seem daunting. In Simply Sustainable, perfection is not required. Whether you are looking for easy changes to get you started, or more advanced, high-impact tips for your low-waste home, these simple, effective steps will forever change your relationship to disposable plastic products.

In How Cycling Can Save the World, Walker takes readers on a tour of cities like Copenhagen and Utrecht, where everyday cycling has taken root, demonstrating cycling’s proven effect on reducing smog and obesity, and improving quality of life and mental health.

From journalist, fashionista, and clothing resale expert Elizabeth L. Cline, “the Michael Pollan of fashion,”* comes the definitive guide to building an ethical, sustainable wardrobe you’ll love.

More than 100 beautifully simple recipes that teach you the basics of a great vegan meal centered on real food, not powders or meat substitutes—from the James Beard Award-winning chef and author of Afro-Vegan.

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.

Beginning in the vast North American Boreal Forest that stretches through Canada, and roving across the continent, from the Northern Sierra to Alabama’s Paint Rock Forest, from the Appalachian Trail to a ranch in Mexico, Tony Hiss sets out on a journey to take stock of the “superorganism” that is the earth: its land, its elements, its plants and animals, its greatest threats–and what we can do to keep it, and ourselves, alive. Hiss not only invites us to understand the scope and gravity of the problems we face, but also makes the case for why protecting half the land is the way to fix those problems.

Swap food waste and fast fashion for homegrown produce, delicious vegan dishes, and a contemporary capsule wardrobe with the help of fashion designer, dressmaker, and writer Bella Gonshorovitz. Whether you’re looking to rethink your lifestyle, embrace slow fashion, try a plant-based diet or simply give grow your own a go, Bella’s friendly, accessible approach to sustainable living will help you get started, create more and waste less.

Our take-make-waste economy has cost consumers and taxpayers billions while cheating us out of a habitable planet. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The Waste-Free World makes a persuasive, forward-looking case for a circular economic model, a “closed-loop” system that wastes no natural resources. Entrepreneur, CEO and sustainability expert Ron Gonen argues that circularity is not only crucial for the planet but holds immense business opportunity.

We all want to do the right thing for the planet, but with so many factors at play, it can be difficult to work out which is the greenest way. With answers to more than 140 everyday green-living questions, Is It Really Green? cuts through the confusion and gives you the facts.

With easy, no-nonsense steps for cutting plastic out of your everyday life, this is the perfect gift for anyone ready to start fighting the war on plastic. These easy nudges will guide you to change your habits bit by bit so that cutting out plastics becomes second nature.

Simple steps can make an impact on our planet. From BuzzFeed’s Goodful, these 75 plant-based recipes plus plenty of low-waste strategies will guide you to a sustainable life you can feel good about. Beautifully photographed, this cookbook is super practical and impactful, with surprising and easy ways to reduce environmental impact, shopping guides and meal plans, information about repurposing food waste, plus a guide to growing your own ingredients.

The remarkable, amusing and inspiring adventures of a Canadian couple who make a year-long attempt to eat foods grown and produced within a 100-mile radius of their apartment.

Hope Jahren is an award-winning scientist, a brilliant writer, a passionate teacher, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. In The Story of More, she illuminates the link between human habits and our imperiled planet. In concise, highly readable chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions—from electric power to large-scale farming to automobiles—that, even as they help us, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere like never before. She explains the current and projected consequences of global warming—from superstorms to rising sea levels—and the actions that we all can take to fight back.

Bringing together insights from studies of environmental justice, sustainable agriculture, critical race theory, and food studies, Cultivating Food Justice highlights the ways race and class inequalities permeate the food system, from production to distribution to consumption. Not only does this book document how racial and social inequalities are built into our food system, but it also communicates how communities are creating environmentally sustainable and socially just alternatives.

It’s “sew” simple to give your wardrobe an eco-chic edge! With fast fixes and clever techniques, this accessible, fully illustrated sewing book has everything you need to mend, customize and care for your clothes.

In her decade of living with as little plastic, food waste, and stuff as possible, Anne-Marie Bonneau, who blogs under the moniker Zero-Waste Chef, has learned that “zero-waste” is above all an intention, not a hard-and-fast rule. In her debut book, Bonneau gives readers the facts to motivate them to do better, the simple (and usually free) fixes to ease them into wasting less–you can, for example, banish plastic wrap by simply inverting a plate over your leftovers–and, finally, the recipes and strategies to turn them into more sustainable, money-saving cooks.

Do you worry about the world’s waste? The bad news is, humans throw away too much trash. But the good news is, there are lots of easy ways you can get involved and make a difference! From ditching straws and banning glitter to hosting a plastic-free birthday party, helping to save the planet is not as difficult as you think. So, take control of your future!

From the award-winning culinary superstar and all-around “Queen of the Greens,” a cookbook that perfectly reflects the way we want to cook and eat today: vegetarian food that is stylish, sustainable, and packed with flavor. One: Pot, Pan, Planet is a splendid cookbook that is all good: for you, for your pocket, for the planet—and, of course, for your palate!

We all understand just how dire the circumstances facing our planet are and that we all need to do our part to stem the tide of climate change. When we look in the mirror, we can admit that we desperately need to go on a climate diet. But the task of cutting down our carbon emissions feels overwhelming and the discipline required hard to summon. With The Climate Diet, award-winning food and environmental writer Paul Greenberg offers us the practical, accessible guide we all need. It contains fifty achievable steps we can take to live our daily lives in a way that’s friendlier to the planet–from what we eat, how we live at home, how we travel, and how we lobby businesses and elected officials to do the right thing.

In Vegetable Simple, Ripert turns his singular culinary imagination to vegetables: their beauty, their earthiness, their nourishing qualities, and the many ways they can be prepared. From vibrant Sweet Pea Soup to Fava Bean and Mint Salad, from warming Mushroom Bolognese to Roasted Carrots with Harissa, Eric Ripert articulates a vision for vegetables that are prepared simply, without complex steps or ingredients, allowing their essential qualities to shine and their color and flavor to remain uncompromised.

Say goodbye to your bursting toiletries bag, fast fashion, and all the plastic crowding your pantry. It’s time to build less trashy habits for a more sustainable and ethical life. Learn how to dramatically reduce the waste you produce—and your stress levels—one sanity-saving step at a time in this accessible, practical guide from the creator of The Zero Waste Collective.

This book includes science-backed information on how to make the most-climate friendly choices–from examining the impact of the supply chain for the foods that end up on our plates to evaluating the carbon footprint of various plant-based options we have. The Low-Carbon Cookbook also features 140 plant-based recipes made almost exclusively with locally sourced ingredients.

From a leader in the world of natural beauty, Wild Beauty is an inspiring and highly usable guide to harnessing the miraculous power of plants to make your own face oils, body balms, hairspray, bath salts, and more.

With In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan proposes a new (and very old) answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Pollan’s bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.

A cautionary but optimistic book about the world’s changing climate and the fate of humanity, from Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac—who led negotiations for the United Nations during the historic Paris Agreement of 2015. 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.

In Green Enough, Mamavation blogger Leah Segedie uncovers the truth behind the food and household products that are misleadingly labeled “all-natural” and healthy but are actually filled with chemicals and toxins. From furniture to packaged food, Leah guides you through detoxifying your home, diet, and lifestyle, showing you how to make the best choices possible.

The Sustainable Economy looks at many of the most pressing climate issues, such as melting ice caps and farm-killing droughts, but by viewing them through the revealing lens of economics, the book delivers a fresh perspective. Devine shows how the basic mechanisms of supply and demand fail when it comes to global warming and the environment. Fortunately, he also lays out a path to an improved economy that can boost our well-being while also fostering a healthy environment.