10 Sustainable Living Books to Read This Year
Ready for some transformative summer reading? Here’s an excellent list of 10 sustainable living books to check out this year!
If you have some down time this summer, it’s a great time to educate yourself on how you can make a real difference in this crazy world we’re living in! Not everyone realizes how important it is to live in balance with nature, and even if you do, you may not be quite sure just how to make this happen. If you’re ready to start taking steps to live a more sustainable life, the sustainable living books below are a great place to start!
From what you wear, to what you eat, and how you travel, you’ll learn tips for reducing waste, minimalistic living, and other methods of reducing your negative impact on the planet and making a positive difference for the future of our world.
Here are 10 sustainable living books to check out this summer, from WTVOX.com:
1. Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change, by George Marshall
Most of us recognize that climate change is real, yet we do nothing to stop it.
What is the psychological mechanism that allows us to know something is true but acts as if it is not?
George Marshall’s search for the answers brings him face to face with Nobel Prize-winning psychologists and Texas Tea Party activists.
What he discovers is that our values, assumptions, and prejudices can take on lives of their own. These views gain authority as we share them, dividing people in their wake.
The essence of the book is that once we understand what motivates us, we can rethink everything.
We can rethink climate change and how we can turn it from an impossible challenge to a fixable problem.
2. EcoBeauty: Scrubs, Rubs, Masks, Rinses, and Bath Bombs for You and Your Friends, by Lauren Cox & Janice Cox
This is an ultimate natural-beauty “cookbook.”
It has easy and eco-friendly recipes for getting gorgeous with fresh ingredients from the kitchen, as well as lessons on how to make beauty products like scrubs, bath bombs, and face masks, all at home.
It is a great way to save money and help the environment. Moreover, if you follow and put in practice you’ll have gorgeous skin and hair.
A must-have for anyone who wants to be healthy, save money and make the world a more eco-beautiful place.
3. Plastic Purge: How to Use Less Plastic, Eat Better, Keep Toxins Out of Your Body, and Help Save the Sea Turtles, by Michael SanClements
Plastic is everywhere we look. Our computers and children’s toys are made out of it. Our water and slices of cheese are packaged in it.
But why is there so much and what is it doing to our bodies?
And is it possible to use lesser plastic, be happier and healthier?
Approachable and engaging, ‘Plastic Purge’ is a sustainable living book that provides easy-to-follow advice.
Learn how to use fewer plastics, reap the benefits of eating a healthier diet, see how you can live with less clutter.
The author divides plastics into three separate categories: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Then, SanClements shows you how to deal with these types of plastics.
- Embrace the good (items like your phone or medical equipment).
- Avoid the bad (food storage containers and toys that contain toxic chemicals).
- Use less of the ugly (single-use plastic that’s just plain wasteful).
Excellent book, highly recommended.
4. Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, by Elizabeth L. Cline
‘Overdressed’ does for T-shirts and leggings what ‘Fast Food Nation’ did for burgers and fries.
As cheap fashion has become a serious problem, Cline sets out to uncover the true nature of the cheap fashion juggernaut.
Discounting stores such as Target and traditional chains like JCPenny now offer the newest trends at unprecedentedly low prices.
Even worse; consumers have little reason to repair and keep wearing the clothes they already own. Especially now, when styles change so fast and it is cheaper to just buy more.
What are we doing with all these cheap clothes?
And more importantly, what are they doing to us, our society, our environment, and our economic well-being?
5. Minimal: How to Simplify Your Life and Live Sustainably, by Madeleine Olivia
We are facing an urgent climate crisis and we must all take action now.
However, it can be difficult to know where to start when bombarded with overwhelming facts and statistics every day.
We all want to make a difference, but what can we do?
Minimal makes simple and sustainable living attainable for everyone, using practical tips for all areas of everyday life to reduce your impact on the earth.
Leading environmentalist Madeleine Olivia shares her insights on how to care for yourself in a more eco-friendly way, and how to introduce a mindful approach to your daily habits.
Learn how to declutter your life, reduce your waste and consumption, recipes for eating seasonally, how you can make your own natural beauty and cleaning products, and more.
Learn how to minimize the areas that aren’t giving you anything back and discover a happier and more fulfilled life, while looking after the Earth we share.
6. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver
With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along a fascinating journey.
Away from the industrial-food pipeline, to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it.
Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, and a route towards a food culture that’s better for the neighborhood, but also better on the table.
Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’ makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.
7. The Story Of Stuff, by Annie Leonard
We have a problem with ‘Stuff’.
With just five percent of the world’s population, America consumes 30 percent of the world’s resources while creating 30 percent of the world’s waste.
In this book, Leonard reveals the true story behind our possessions. See why it’s cheaper to replace a broken TV than to fix it.
Discover how “perceived obsolescence” encourages us to toss everything from shoes to cell phones while they’re still in perfect shape.
Learn how factory workers in Haiti or mine workers in Congo pay for our cheap goods with their health, safety, and quality of life.
It is a system in crisis, but Leonard shows us how we can stop the environmental damage, social injustice, and health hazards caused by polluting production and excessive consumption.
8. 101 Ways To Go Zero Waste, By Kathryn Kellogg
We all know how important it is to reduce our environmental footprint. But, it can be daunting to know where to begin.
Enter Kathryn Kellogg, who can fit all her rubbish from the past two years into a 16-ounce jar. How?
She starts by saying “no” to straws and grocery bags and “yes” to a reusable water bottle and compostable dish scrubbers.
In 101 Ways to Go Zero Waste, Kellogg shares these tips and more, along with DIY recipes for beauty and home.
Get sound advice for responsible consumption and making better choices for home goods, fashion, and the office. Find small secrets on how to go waste-free at the airport.
This is a practical, friendly blueprint of realistic lifestyle changes for anyone who wants to reduce their waste production and minimize their waste footprint.
9. Building a Better World in Your Backyard, by Paul Wheaton
Part of the “Sustainable Lifestyle Books” series, this book will help you make a huge and positive difference from your own home.
Prioritize comfort over sacrifice while saving thousands of dollars. Explore dozens of solutions and their impacts on carbon footprint, petroleum footprint, toxic footprint, and other environmental issues.
If 20 percent of the population implemented half the solutions in this book, it would solve the biggest global problems – all without writing to politicians, joining protests, signing petitions, or being angry at the people that are causing the problems.
Good solutions are often different from conventional environmental wisdom. The average American adult has a carbon footprint of 30 tons per year. Replacing a petroleum car with an electric car will cut 2 tons. But if you live in a cold climate and you switch from electric heat to a rocket mass heater, you will cut 27 tons!
Join Paul and Shawn on a journey featuring simple alternatives that you may have never heard of — alternatives which are about building a more symbiotic relationship with nature so we can all be even lazier – while protecting the planet at the same time.
10. Food Fix: How to Save Our Health, Our Economy, Our Communities, and Our Planet–One Bite at a Time, By Dr. Mark Hyman
In this new bestselling book, Dr. Mark Hyman explores what’s wrong with our food system, and how we can fix it.
While most of us don’t really think much about it, what we eat has tremendous implications not just for our waistlines, but also for the planet, society, and the global economy.
