How can we live more sustainable? Well, reading some of the best sustainable living books is a great start to go green. By educating ourselves about what we can do to live more sustainable, we can help to save our planet. At the same time, we can share our knowledge to motivate others to do their part too.
Therefore, there’s a need to live a sustainable lifestyle that ranges from organic eating, wearing ethically produced attires, reducing plastic pollution, minimizing food waste, and creating cruelty-free products. Small eco-conscious actions can help us solve climate change.
In fact, most people would put more effort into living more ethically but don’t know where to start. It’s easy to say that you will start being more sustainable, but it can be a bit overwhelming to figure out where to start.
Changing the world starts with knowledge! And that’s why you should educate yourself by reading the following sustainability books.
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What is sustainable living?
Sustainable living involves reducing the amount of Earth’s resources used in order to help protect it. In fact, the aim of sustainable living is to achieve sustainability.
There are many ways you can live more sustainable, including limiting the amount of energy you use, using eco-friendly products and changing your diet – but more about that later!
Always keep in mind: Not everything you perceive to be “green” is actually “green”! And this is because of greenwashing!
In a nutshell, to live a sustainable lifestyle you should try to have as little of an impact on the Earth as possible, while also trying to replace the resources you do use.
However, it is not easy to live sustainable… And that is why it is so important to get educated and read sustainable living books!
The Top 15 Sustainable Living Books
1. '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. In fact, most people find it hard to tackle climate change and live more sustainable because it can be highly paradoxial.
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’, probably the best sustainable living book out there, Kellogg shares these tips and more, along with DIY recipes for beauty and home, advice for responsible consumption and making better choices for home goods, fashion and the office, and even secrets for how to go waste free at the airport.
It’s not about perfection, she says. It’s about making better choices. This is a practical, friendly blueprint of realistic lifestyle changes for anyone who wants to reduce their waste.
2. 'The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide’ by Jen Gale
Easy, do-able, and down-to-earth ideas and suggestions for everyone to help save the planet.
If you want to save the planet, but your to-do list is already pretty long and remembering your re-usable coffee cup feels like a Herculean task, then this is the book for you.
Covering every aspect of our lives from the stuff we buy and the food we eat to how we travel, work, and celebrate, this book provides stacks of practical, down to earth ideas to slot into your daily life, alongside a gentle kick up the butt to put your newfound knowledge into action.
Furthermore, ‘The Sustainable Living Guide’ also gives a little bit of context why sustainable products are often more expensive and how you can save money by living sustainable.
Practical tips include unsubscribing from all the tempting emails that drop into your inbox with details of the newest clothing range or the latest sale, and keeping a mug next to your kettle to work out how much water you actually need to boil each time, as over-filling kettles costs US households more than $70 million on energy bills each year.
Find out how to fit sustainable living into your life, in a way that works for you. Change your impact without radically changing your life and figure out the small steps you can make that will add up to make a big difference.
3. 'All You Need Is Less' by Madeleine Somerville
Most sustainable living books start with terror-inducing lists of the carcinogenic chemicals you are liberally slathering all over every single surface in your house, painting most people as unwitting eco-villains, happily Lysol-ing your way straight to hell.
Well, readers can just relax and unpack the (plastic) bags – no guilt trips today!
At this point, we all know that cleaning with bleach is bad and pop cans should go into the recycling – we’re beyond that, yes?
‘All You Need is Less’, one of the best sustainable living books, is about realistically adopting an eco-friendly lifestyle without either losing your mind from the soul-destroying guilt of using a plastic bag because you forgot your reusable ones in the trunk of your car (again), or becoming a preachy know-it all whom everyone loathes from the tips of her organically-shampooed hair to the toes of her naturally sourced recycled sandals. It’s all gotten kind of complicated, hasn’t it?
These days you’re not “green” enough unless you quit your day job and devote your entire life to attaining an entirely carbon neutral lifestyle (saving water & energy) or throw out all of your possessions and replace them with their new “green” alternatives.
This whole eco-friendly thing seems to have devolved into a horrific cycle of guilt, shaming and one-upping, and as a result people are becoming exhausted and getting annoyed and, oh my god, we are living in a world where one of my grocery bags says “This reusable bag makes me better than you.”
It doesn’t have to be this way. It is possible to take easy baby-steps towards a more earth-friendly lifestyle without stress, guilt, or judgy eco-shaming. Top eco-blogger Madeleine Somerville is here with really original ideas on how to save money and the planet. Her ideas are even fun! Somerville has emerged as the voice of reason on urban homesteading that is stress-free, sanity-based and above all do-able.
All of this is making ‘All You Need Is Less’ one of the most powerful sustainable living books.
4. 'Be a Hobbit, Save the Earth' by Steve Bivans
This one is probably the most fun and eye-opening sustainable living books out there!
Would you rather live in Middle Earth? Escaping your troublesome modern existence? Eating organic mushrooms for second breakfast before heading out to burgle Smaug?
Do the challenges of our modern world – climate change, toxic big ag, and plastic pollution – seem a whole lot like the threat of Sauron and The Ring?
Are you afraid you’ll awaken, one day, to a silent spring? Does the chaos of government corruption and corporate greed feel like the work of orcs, trolls, and ringwraiths?
How can one person ever hope to make a dent in such enormous challenges? They seem too big for any individual to tackle.
Don’t you think Frodo felt the same way?
But the hobbits were the very ones responsible for bringing an end to Sauron and Saruman! And YOU can be a modern hobbit! All it takes is the courage to step out of your door and be swept away into a real life adventure, against real life challenges!
Best-selling author, Steve Bivans, spent decades researching the effects of Mordor on our modern world. Instead of giving in to despair, he developed a plan, a map if you will, to guide us to a better world, to build a modern Shire on Earth, one step at a time.
How can we transform our chaotic world into a Shire?
It’s not easy, but it is simple:
We begin by transforming our own minds:
- Essentially evolving from Homo Sapiens to Homo Hobbitla, becoming a modern hobbit!
- And no, you don’t have to move into a hole in the ground, or into the country. You can do it in a condo, or in the burbs.
We transform our homes into hobbit holes:
- Minimizing our stuff.
- Eating healthier and tastier food from our organic, home gardens and from local farmers markets.
- Using less plastic, and more sustainable materials, like hemp, bioplastics, reclaimed wood, stone, and glass. All to have a positive human environment interaction.
Then we get to work in our communities and neighborhoods to turn them into little Shires!
- Building community gardens and farmers markets.
- Reading gardening magazines.
- Utilizing the sharing economy & circular economy.
- Working to maximize compassion, understanding, and acceptance instead of fear.
And last, we export Shireness to all the world!
- Cutting back on our use of fossil fuels.
- Supporting clean energy initiatives and help to clean up our oceans.
- Adapting to climate change.
- Voting out the Sarumans and Saurons, and voting in fellow hobbits.
5. 'No One is Too Small to Make a Difference' by Greta Thunberg
‘Everything needs to change. And it has to start today’.
In August 2018, a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl and famous sustainability leader, Greta Thunberg, decided not to go to school one day. Her actions ended up sparking a global movement for action against the climate crisis, called Fridays For Future, inspiring millions of pupils to go on strike for our planet every Friday, forcing governments to listen, and earning her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
This book brings you Greta in her own words, for the first time. Collecting her speeches that have made history across Europe, from the UN to mass street protests, ‘No One Is Too Small to Make A Difference’ is a must-read sustainable living book and a rallying cry for why we must all wake up and fight to protect the living planet, no matter how powerless we feel. Our future depends upon it!
6. 'The Plastic Problem' by Lonely Planet Kids
This playful storybook is one of the best sustainable living books for kids!
Look around you – plastic is everywhere!
It’s in your shoes, pens, toothbrush, car, toys, TV, water bottles, food packaging… It’s so popular that it’s almost impossible to get through one day without using it. And it’s creating major problems for our planet, wildlife and ourselves.
With ‘The Plastic Problem’, kids can discover loads of brilliant and easy ways to cut plastic out of your life! By becoming a ‘plastic patroller’ instead of a plastic polluter, your actions will help protect our world, and inspire friends and family to do the same. Inside this practical guide, you’ll find out how to:
- Pack a zero waste travel kit to help your family reduce its rubbish on trips.
- Take better care of your clothes, swap items with friends, and get excited about hand-me-downs.
- Switch your toothpaste for natural tooth powders and choose an electric, non-throwaway toothbrush.
- Take your lunch to school in a reusable container and bring reusable cutlery.
- Reduce the amount of things you buy, reuse what you have, and recycle what you no longer need.
- Take reusable bags to the supermarket or with you when you go shopping.
Today is the perfect time for a change. As a future guardian of the planet, you can say no to plastic. Your actions, however small, can make a big difference every day. And with each change, you’ll help our oceans become a little cleaner and our planet a little healthier.
Are you up to the challenge?
7. 'Minimal: How to Simplify your Life and Live Sustainably' by Madeleine Olivia
An aspirational guide which makes simple and sustainable living attainable for everyone, by environmental influencer, Madeleine Olivia. In fact, this in one of the most popular sustainable living books.
Love yourself. Love the planet.
We are facing an urgent climate crisis and we must all take action now to save our planet. 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, as well as how to introduce a mindful approach to your habits.
This includes how to declutter your life, reduce your waste and consumption to support a circular economy, recipes for eating seasonally and making your own natural beauty and cleaning products. 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.
8. 'Vegan(ish)' by Jack Monroe
Delicious and creative vegan recipes from no 1 bestselling writer and award-winning campaigner Jack Monroe.
If you adopted a few more plant-based meals into your diets on a weekly basis, not only would your food bills go down, but so would your environmental impact.
This full-colour collection of one hundred simple, affordable recipes is perfect for committed vegans or anyone who wants to give vegan cooking a try. Packed with inventive, easy and 100% vegan dishes, this gorgeous sustainable living book is sure to appeal – whether you are looking to take the leap, want to be a little kinder to the planet, need ideas to cook for a vegan friend, or simply want to put some more plant power in your everyday cooking.
From Breakfast Muckmuffins to Beet Wellington, and Kinda-Carbonara to Bakewell Tart, Jack’s easy, vibrant home cooking is tasty, tempting and surprisingly uncomplicated.
9. 'Turning the Tide on Plastic' by Lucy Siegle
Enough plastic is thrown away every year to circle the world 4 times. More than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans each year. 300 million tonnes of new plastic is produced every year. An estimated 15-51 trillion pieces of plastic now litter the world’s oceans. 100 million plastic bottles are used every day in the US. A million plastic bottles are used per minute around the world. 500 million plastic straws are used per year.
Without big action, at the current rate, pieces of plastic will outnumber fish in the ocean by 2050. That is the legacy we are leaving our children and grandchildren.
Plastic flows into our lives from every direction and most of it is not recycled. Instead it is incinerated or ends up in landfill, where it will sit for hundreds of years, or enters the world’s seas where it fragments into tiny pieces to become microplastics – the environmental scourge of our times.
‘Turning The Tide On Plastic’ is here just in time. In this sustainable living book, journalist, broadcaster and eco lifestyle expert Lucy Siegle provides a powerful call to arms to end the plastic pandemic along with the tools we need to make decisive change. It is a clear-eyed, authoritative and accessible guide to help us to take decisive and effective personal action. In fact, it is one of the most sold sustainable living books.
Because this matters. When it comes to single-use plastics, we are habitual users, reaching out for plastic water bottles, disposable coffee cups, plastic straws and carrier bags multiple times a day. If only 12 of us adopt Lucy’s ‘reduce, rethink, refill, refuse’ approach, we could potentially ditch 3K-15K single items of plastic in a year. When we consider our power as influencers – whether at school, the hairdressers, at work or on the bus – we suddenly become part of something significant.
So now is the time to speak up, take action and demand the change you want to see in the ocean, in the supermarket aisles and on the streets. It’s time to turn the tide on plastic, and this book will show you how.
10. '12 Small Acts to Save Our World' by WWF
Ever wanted to save the world?
It’s easy to feel like we can’t make a difference. But small, easy actions, if taken by enough people, can move mountains – and save planets.
Written in collaboration with leading environmental experts from WWF, this short book provides simple changes we can all make to our everyday lives, from morning to night.
These aren’t the only things you can do. Nor are they things you have to do. But these 12 small acts are basic steps anybody can take, and if even one of them sticks, our children will inherit a better world.
Acts like:
- Turning off devices instead of leaving them on standby, to minimize e-waste
- Buying less cotton clothing (a t-shirt needs 2,400 litres of water to make!)
- Using reusable straws when possible
- Turning off the tap while you brush your teeth to save water
will take only moments, but if enough people commit to them, we can make a real difference to our planet.
11. 'Sustainable Kitchen' by Jayne McCloskey and Heather Wolfe
Cook more healthfully, eat more sustainably, live more faithfully.
We know that daily food choices help or harm our bodies, families, communities, and the planet. But its not always easy to find resources that enable us to grow, shop for, prepare, cook, and eat food in ways that connect us to our creator and creation. Dietitian Heather Wolfe and designer
Jaynie McCloskey bring years of experience in holistic nutrition, health coaching, homesteading, and scratch cooking to this practical guide for home cooks, one of the best susainable living books.
Abundant gifts of flavor, nourishment, and community shine through in this handbook for those seeking to prepare plant-based, planet-conscious meals their families will love. Vibrant photographs and tantalizing recipes empower home cooks to:
- Cook using local, seasonally available foods.
- Find flexibility in recipes.
- Prepare nourishing foods from scratch.
- Decrease food waste and conserve energy.
- Limit processed, refined foods.
- Eat a plant-based diet.
- Reflect on food choices that matter.
Nourishing, tasty recipes include:
- Veggie-Studded Frittata
- Morning Glory Muffins
- Bow Thai Salad
- Cilantro Lime Slaw
- Spring Veggie and Pesto Pasta
- Three Sisters Succotash Enchiladas
- Cran-Apple Crisp
12. 'Zero Waste' by Shia Su
Easy, effective strategies to jumpstart a sustainable, waste-free lifestyle.
We have a worldwide trash epidemic. The average American disposes of 4.5 pounds of trash per day, and our landfills hold 140 million tons of waste.
What if there were a simple-and fun-way for you to make a difference? What if you could take charge of your own waste, reduce your carbon footprint, and make an individual impact on an already fragile environment?
A zero waste lifestyle is the answer – and Shia Su is living it.
Every single piece of unrecyclable garbage Shia has produced in one year fits into a mason jar-and if it seems overwhelming, it isn’t! In Zero Waste, Shia demystifies and simplifies the zero waste lifestyle for the beginner, sharing practical advice, quick solutions, and tips and tricks that will make trash-free living fun and meaningful.
Learn how to build your own zero waste kit, prepare real food-the lazy way, make your own DIY household cleaners and toiletries, be zero waste even in the bathroom, and more.
Be part of the solution! Implement these small changes at your own pace, and restructure your life to one of sustainable living for your community, your health, and the earth that sustains you.
13. 'It’s Easy Being Green' by Crissy Trask
Surveys find that over 80 percent of Americans agree with the goals of the environmental movement. Sadly, most Americans admit to doing little more than basic recycling when it comes to acting on that disposition.
What is the reason for this great divide between environmental sentiment in this country and individual actions?
Author and environmental consultant Crissy Trask seeks to answer this question – and solve the disparity-with a new book that makes it easy to be an environmentalist, no matter how busy or hectic your lifestyle.
This is a day to day guide with simple, practical suggestions that anyone can put into action, like:
- Install rain gutters and rain barrels to collect rainwater from your roof to use in the garden.
- Shift appliance use to off-peak hours. Some utility companies offer off-peak rates, so you’ll save money!
- How to make effective household cleaners instead of relying on toxic commercial products.
- Submerge a plastic bottle in your toilet tank to save one quarter of water per flush and thousands of gallons a year.
Start making changes today! Get informative, comprehensive and practical information for adopting greener buying habits and identifying earth-friendly products, shopping for green products online, participating in online activism, and learning from tips for cultivating a sustainable environment.
‘Sustainable Home’ is a stylish, inspirational, practical, and one of the best sustainable living books to maintain a more environmentally friendly household.
Sustainable lifestyle blogger and professional Christine Liu takes you on a tour through the rooms of your home – the living area, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom – offering tips, tricks and 18 step-by-step projects designed to help you lead a more low-impact lifestyle.
From guidance on decluttering and living minimally to advice about plant-based foods to tips on repairing old clothes, this book touches every aspect of home life.
Whether its by making your own toothpaste, converting to renewable energy sources, reducing your consumption of plastic, growing your own herb garden or upcycling old pieces of furniture, the projects in this book offer numerous ways – both big and small – to make a difference.
With environmental issues at the forefront of global politics, the desire to make small changes on an individual level is on the rise. This book will guide anyone hoping to make a difference, but who perhaps don’t know where to begin.
15. 'Make Your Place: Affordable, Sustainable Nesting Skills' by Raleigh Briggs
Finally, ‘Make Your Place’ made it onto this list on sustainable living books for its genuine ideas & tips on how you can make products yourself, and save our environment that way.
Raleigh Briggs teaches us how to craft a sustainable domestic life without relying on smelly, toxic, expensive consumer products.
And it’s not as hard as you may think!
This hand written and drawn book of charming tutorials is both fun and accessible. It’s full of simple skills that anyone can and should learn.
From creating tinctures and salves to concocting all-natural cleaners and body products to gardening basics (yes, it’s one of the best gardening books too), this book is great for anyone looking to live more simply, create a comfortable nest, and truly do it yourself.
In case you cannot get enough of reading about green living, you should check out these books about sustainability.
While reading these books, remember that trees had to be cut down to produce them. So you might consider getting ebooks instead. But deforestation is not even the biggest disadvantage of paper. The ability paper of paper to biodegrade and be recycled is becoming more and more important, so make sure to read through our ultimate guide to paper.
