Journey to a Sustainable Society: An Essential Reading List

All of my hope, optimism, and knowledge come from the wisdom of social and environmental leaders, sprinkled with my own insights. Their knowledge is most easily spread through books. I’d like to share with you all the profoundly life-changing books I’ve read that have shaped me into who I am today. Reading these authors has solidified my belief that we can create the sustainable society we’ve dreamed of. I’ve compiled a more extensive list of books in my World-Changing Reading List, which you can find under Resources. If you aren’t familiar with concepts in sustainable society and economics, these books are great to start with.

The point behind reading these slightly more technical books is not to become an expert in the topic, but to gain an appreciation for what our society and economics might look like if run sustainably, and an idea of how we might transition from here to there. Also, if you’re feeling skeptical and doubtful of the future, it helps to have a more concrete picture, from someone who’s thought about it for their career.  For more on fear, see my perspective on Battling Fear in the Face of Ecological Destruction.

• The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, by David C. Korten
• The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability, by Paul Hawken
• Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth, by Juliet B. Schor
• Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, by Janine Benyus
• Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose – Doing Business By Respecting the Earth, by Ray Anderson
• Prosperity Without Growth?, a report by the UK Sustainable Development Commission

Notes:

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, by David C. Korten

The title is taken from American Buddhist Joanna Macy, used to describe the great paradigm shift that is necessary for our future survival as human beings. David C. Korten, a long-time social activist, describes that our current culture is one based on dominator relationships – one person, usually a male, maintains control over others through fear and violence. This relationship format is repeated from the family household to small and large corporations, all the way to our government. This is the way our societies have been ruled for centuries, since early Egyptian and Mesopotamian societies through Greek and Roman times, and still persists today. Korten calls this style of governance ‘Empire’, which reflects the needs of the ruling elite to constantly seek out more power and dominance over the rest of the world.

The Great Turning will shift us from Empire to ‘Earth Community’, Korten’s name for a governing style based on communal, collaborative partnership. Earth Community describes the egalitarian, sustainable society of the future. There is no more control, only cooperation. The Great Turning points to enlightened, mature, and conscious adults as the leaders who will create this new community for real democracy. Korten points to the stories we tell as the real key to change. Start talking about things that matter, tell stories about them. Eventually, minds will change and grow.

The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability, by Paul Hawken

Where did I get this radical notion that every business transaction could restore natural resources? Here in this book. Paul Hawken is an environmental entrepreneur who started the garden supply store, Smith & Hawken, and has inspired many businesspeople to rethink their actions and embrace a socially and ecologically conscious mindset. The Ecology of Commerce introduces a new definition of business, one that is meant to enhance overall well-being.

Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth, by Juliet B. Schor

Plenitude introduces a new economics based on happiness and personal prosperity. It describes the destruction of our old economy, which provides the opportunity to build a much better economy. Plenitude advocates that a shift in citizen lifestyles as well as business and government will be necessary to create true wealth. It is similar to The Ecology of Commerce, but is written in a much more colloquial fashion, is more personally relevant, and is easier to read through for the average person.

Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired By Nature, by Janine Benyus

Biomimicry generally describes anything that looks to nature for design inspiration, whether that’s engineering, architecture, or any other field. Janine Benyus is a science writer who travels to research facilities around the world to meet with scientists and engineers who are developing innovative new technologies based on what they learn from nature. For example, the most efficient way to harvest solar energy is through photosynthesis. Could we possibly mimic photosynthesis? Researchers have indeed developed small protein chains that can take the energy of a photon and transport it through a chain of electrons via small proteins, much like how a leaf turns photons into biochemical energy. Biomimicry offers a pathway to sustainability, because it allows us to learn about resource-efficiency from nature, the master of sustainability.

Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose – Doing Business By Respecting the Earth, by Ray Anderson

Ray Anderson describes himself as a die-hard, cold-eyed capitalist. He is the founder and former CEO of Interface, Inc., a global leader in manufacturing modular carpet tiles. One fateful day in 1994, an important customer asked what Interface was doing for the environment. Someone gave Anderson a copy of Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce, and a spear was struck through his chest.

Hawken told the story of a small island that became overcrowded with non-native reindeer, and eventually fell into ecological collapse. The original colony of 1,600 reindeer grew to a population of 6,000. When the biologist responsible returned to the island again 3 years later, the colony was no longer lush with vegetation. It was brown and barren, scattered with reindeer bones. The population of reindeer left? 42

Immediately, Ray knew that this was a larger metaphor for the Earth. If we maintained the status quo, we humans would surely end up like those reindeer. And so, the next day he changed the course of his entire company. He called for complete sustainability, zero ecological footprint, which would later be named Mission Zero. This was a daunting task for a carpet manufacturer. But now Interface has decreased its greenhouse gas emissions by 70%, waste by 66%, and has built a solar plant in Southern California to power its plant there while providing renewable electricity to the residents nearby, among numerous other projects in renewable energy and sustainability.

Confessions of a Radical Industrialist is his story of how Interface, a typical industry polluter, became a shining example of human innovation and sustainable industry.

Prosperity Without Growth?, produced by the UK Sustainable Development Commission

This report was commissioned to explain the causes of the global recession, produced by the UK Sustainable Development Commission (SDC). The SDC points to our obsession with persistent economic growth as the problem. The need for more and more profit caused financial firms to make risky decisions in the name of short-term profit, and to only hire those managers willing to make risky decisions. They also continually sought deregulation from the government in order to make more profit. Seeing this obsession with profit as the problem, the SDC asks what should we be working for instead? Prosperity, says the SDC. Prosperity means happiness, personal well-being, and community engagement. In terms of economics, we probably can’t have perpetual growth, though a little might be necessary.

This was the first report I read that opened my world to sustainable economics. There are many activists who have already devised policy ideas that could be incorporated in a sustainable world. So if the ideas are already there, then we are only missing willpower.

That’s all! I hope you take some interest in these books – they’ve definitely changed my world!