Books

Sustainability Handbook

Understanding of Sustainability in practice and theory

This book combines the academic and practical experience from a collection of authors. The content has been used, tested and refined over many iterations, and now serves as a primary resource for academic courses and programmes around the world. Any student or practitioner looking for more clarity on how to strategically plan and act towards sustainability in a structured, scientific, and collaborative manner will find value inside.

Because of the generic nature of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, it can be useful for any discipline, from engineering, to product-service innovation, to business management, to urban and regional planning, and beyond.

The New Sustainability Advantage: Seven Business Case Benefits of a Triple Bottom Line (Tenth Anniversary Edition)

The New Sustainability Advantage shows how the benefits of the "triple bottom line" can increase a typical company's profit by at least 51 to 81% within five years, depending on the company's size and industry sector, while avoiding risks that could jeopardize its financial wellbeing.

Fully revised and updated, this 10th anniversary edition clearly demonstrates that, by focusing on seven powerful yet easy-to-grasp sustainability strategies, businesses can:

  • Increase revenue
  • Improve productivity
  • Reduce expenses
  • Decrease risks

The Natural Step Story: Seeding a Quiet Revolution (NEW: Now available in audiobook format!)

NOW AVAILABLE IN AUDIOBOOK FORMAT! See details below...

It may be unlikely that a Swedish karate champion, family man, and cancer scientist could be at the center of developing a systems approach to life on Earth that could revolutionize the way humans operate in the world, but this is the story of just that: the idea and the man behind it.

As a cancer specialist, Karl-Henrik Robèrt faced a stream of parents who would sacrifice anything to save their children. Yet that same selflessness did not seem to extend to saving the environment, as debate on how to achieve sustainability was divided, with no agreement on universal principles. But Robèrt's experience convinced him that consensus on how to meet the most basic requirements of life should be possible.

The Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities

After decades of food delivered by industrial agriculture based on cheap oil, we are learning the health costs to our own bodies and the biosphere are too great. A revolution in food – where, how, and when it’s grown is now sweeping urban centres. Read this book to see why it matters and how we can do it.

—David Suzuki, Co-Founder, David Suzuki Foundation

Our reliance on industrial agriculture has resulted in a food supply riddled with hidden environmental, economic and health care costs and beset by rising food prices. With only a handful of corporations responsible for the lion’s share of the food on our supermarket shelves, we are incredibly vulnerable to supply chain disruption.

The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook: How to Transform your Company

Bob Willard, a long-time supporter, partner and board member of The Natural Step, has published a new book - The Sustainability Champion’s Guidebook: How to Transform your Company. The book is available now from New Society Publishers in both print and as an ebook.

Bob is an expert on leadership, culture change, and organisational development and author of two previous books - The Sustainability Advantage and The Next Sustainability Wave. These first volumes made a compelling business case for embracing sustainability. His latest book details lessons learned about cultural transformation and provides guidance on how to imbed sustainability into corporate cultures.

The Natural Step: Towards a Sustainable Society

In this book, David Cook tells the story of the evolution of The Natural Step organisation from its start in Sweden to the present day.  Whilst the fundamentals of TNS remain the same, it has responded to the ever-evolving sustainability debate.  Based upon science and systems-thinking, the basic components of the The Natural Step framework are laid out in the text. 

The Natural Step for Business: Wealth, Ecology and the Evolutionary Corporation

The Natural Step for Business examines how four very successful "evolutionary" corporations in Sweden and the United States - including IKEA and Scandic Hotels in Sweden, and Collins Pine and Interface in the U.S. - are positioning themselves for long-term competitiveness using The Natural Step as a central part of their corporate strategy. Nattrass and Altomare puncture the myth that a company must choose between profitability and care for the natural environment, and present a timely and practical application of this exciting model for global sustainability.

Dancing With the Tiger: Learning Sustainability Step by Natural Step

Making social and ecological change happen is not easy. At both the planetary and organizational levels, it is a dance that is fraught with danger for both the change agents themselves and their organizations. It is like dancing with a tiger.

For corporations, communities and other organizations, the choreography of the dance toward sustainability has been systematized by The Natural Step: a framework that provides the science, analysis, methodologies and tools to use in the quest for sustainability. Dancing with the Tiger presents the stories of individuals, teams and organizations learning about change and sustainability, and then acting on that learning. Case studies include some of the most successful companies and communities in North America:

The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities and Towns can Change to Sustainable Practices

Sustainability may seem like one more buzzword, and cities and towns like the last places to change, but The Natural Step for Communities provides inspiring examples of communities that have made dramatic changes toward sustainability, and explains how others can emulate their success.

Chronicled in the book are towns like Övertorneå, whose government operations recently became 100 per cent fossil fuel-free, demonstrating that unsustainable municipal practices really can be overhauled. Arguing that the process of introducing change -- whether converting to renewable energy or designing compact development -- is critical to success, the authors outline why well-intentioned proposals often fail to win community approval, and why an integrated approach -- not "single-issue" initiatives -- can surmount challenges of conflicting priorities, scarce resources, and turf battles.