Books

This page lists all of the books recommended by the OSU Sustainability Community for the Sustainability Resource Library. These books explain important sustainability concepts, demonstrate how sustainability can be achieved in a university setting, and tell stories about real-world applications of sustainable concepts.  

9 Elements of a Sustainable Campus by Mitchell Thomashow 

Alternatives to Deforestation: Steps Toward Sustainable Use of the Amazon Rainforest by Anthony B. Anderson

Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came Into Being by Paul Hawken 

Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine M. Benyus 

The Bioregional Imagination: Literature, Ecology, and Place by Tom Lynch, Cheryll Glotfelty, Karla Armbruster, and Ezra J. Zeitler 

Building a Better Nest by Evelyn Searle Hess

Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business by John Elkington

The Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook: Community Solutions to a Global Crisis by Greg Pahl

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough 

Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse by David Orr 

The Earth's Blanket: Traditional Teachings for Sustainable Living by Nancy J. Turner 

Ecoliterate: How educators are cultivating emotional, social, and ecological intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Lisa Bennett, and Zenobia Barlow 

Ecological Economics and Sustainable Development by Herman Daly

Ecological Economics and the Ecology of Economics: Essays in Criticism by Herman Daly 

Ecological Education in Action by Gregory Smith and Dilafruz Williams 

Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World by Michael K. Stone and Zenobia Barlow

Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World by David Orr 

The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken

Ecotopia Emerging by Ernest Callenbach 

Educating for an ecologically sustainable culture: rethinking moral education, creativity, intelligence, and other modern orthodoxies by C. A. Bowers

Educating for Humanity: Rethinking the Purposes of Education by Mike Seymour 

The End of Nature by Bill McKibben

Environmental Decision Making: A Multidisciplinary Perspective by Richard A. Chechile and Susan Carlisle 

Greening the College Curriculum: A Guide to Environmental Teaching in the Liberal Arts by Jonathan Collet and Stephen Karakashian 

Getting a Grip: Clarity, Creativity, and Courage in a World gone Mad by Frances Moore Lappe 

Higher Education for Sustainability: Cases, Challenges, and Opportunities from Across the Curriculum by Lucas F. Johnston 

Hope, Human and Wild: True Stories of Living Lightly on Earth by Bill McKibben 

Hope is an Imperative: The Essential by David Orr 

Inside and out: Universities and education for sustainable development by Robert Forrant and Linda Silka

Kitchen Table Sustainability: Practical Recipes for Community Engagement with Sustainability by Wendy Sarkissian and Nancy Hofer 

Learning, Food, and Sustainability: sites for resistance and change by Jennifer Sumner 

Let them eat data: How computers affect education, cultural diversity, and the prospects of ecological sustainability by C. A. Bowers 

Look to the mountain : an ecology of indigenous education by Gregory Cajete 

Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken 

The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention by David Orr 

The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World by Peter M Senge 

No Impact Man by Collin Beavan

Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities by David Sobel 

The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century's Sustainability Crisis by Richard Heinberg and Daniel Lerch 

Problem-based Learning into the Future: Imagining an Agile PBL Ecology for Learning by Megan Kek, Chyn A. Yih, and Henk Huijser 

Reinventing Fire by Amory Lovins, Marvin Odum, and John W. Rowe

Schumacher Briefings 6: Sustainable Education: Revisioning Learning and Change by Stephen R. Sterling 

Second Nature: A Gardener's Education by Michael Pollan 

Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global by Ursula K. Heise 

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher

Smart by Nature by Michael Stone/Center for Ecoliteracy

Sustainability by Kent E. Portney 

Sustainability Education: Perspectives and Practice across Higher Education by Stephen Sterling 

Sustainability Education: Revisioning Learning and Change (Schumacher Briefings) by Stephen Sterling 

Sustainability on Campus: Stories and Strategies for Change by Peggy F. Bartlett and Geoffrey W. Chase 

The Sustainability Revolution Portrait of a Paradigm Shift by Andres R. Edwards

Sustainable Development and Learning: Framing the Issues by William Scott and Stephen Gough 

Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously by Kent E. Portney

Teaching Ecocriticism and Green Cultural Studies by Greg Garrard 

Through a green lens: fifty years of writing for nature by Robert Michael Pyle

This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein

Toward An Ecological Society by Murray Bookchin 

The web of life: A new scientific understanding of living systems by Fritjof Capra