Ethical Corporation’s latest guide to some new reading
Compassion, Inc.: how corporate America blurs the line between what we buy, who we are, and those we help
Hardcover: 239 pages, $29.95
ISBN: 0520266528
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: April 2012
It’s easy to be sceptical about consumer-led ethics. All too easy, according to Einstein (Mara, that is, not Albert). Yet to its credit, this scathing critique of cause-related marketing and its ilk does acknowledge those getting it right.
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The Sustainable University: green goals and new challenges for higher education leaders
By James Martin and James Samels
Hardcover: 352 pages, $45
ISBN: 1421404591
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: April 2012
Change has often come from students at the barricades. This challenging book argues that the classroom can be a route to revolution too. All it takes are the right plans and practices on campus – a subject to which the authors devote practical consideration and considerable imagination.
Naked Fashion: the new sustainable fashion revolution
By Safia Minney et al
Paperback: 176 pages, $19.95
ISBN: 1780260415
Publisher: New Internationalist
Published: April 2012
Fashion gets a bad rap in sustainability circles. Faddish and wasteful, all those new-season frocks are as far from resource-conscious living as you can get. This book challenges that perception, pointing to numerous examples of how the catwalk is going green.
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Fashion and Sustainability: design for change
By Kate Fletcher and Lynda Grose
Paperback: 192 pages, $29.95
ISBN: 1856697541
Publisher: Laurence King Publishers
Published: April 2012
Sustainability in the fashion industry appears to be in vogue. This book covers the full gamut of clothing, from supply chain to material-light business models. A fascinating final section on the role of fashion designers as potential communicator, facilitator and “activist” for sustainable change.
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Civic Empowerment in an Age of Corporate Greed
By Edward Lorenz
Hardback: 340 pages, $39.95
ISBN: 1611860253
Publisher: Michigan State University Press
Published: April 2012
Communities can often feel disempowered when faced by scrupulous private-sector operators. This thought-provoking investigation into communities that fought back argues that the traffic need not always be one-way. A valuable analysis of where day-to-day business meets day-to-day life.
Climate Change and Social Ecology: a new perspective on the climate challenge
By Stephen Wheeler
Paperback,208 pages, $37.95
ISBN: 0415809878
Publisher: Routledge
Published: May 2012
Forget low-carbon technologies and other stop-gaps to climate change reduction. What we need is a radical overhaul of our “social ecologies” – our values, mind-sets, and organisations. This intriguing, interdisciplinary account does an excellent job of questioning current orthodoxy and providing the conceptual tools for a rethink.
Energy, Transport, & the Environment: addressing the sustainable mobility paradigm
By Oliver Inderwildi and Sir David King (eds)
Hardback: 784 pages, $279
ISBN-10: 1447127161
Publisher: Springer
Published: April 2012
At $279, this is a weighty but worthwhile tome. Sustainable mobility touches on a host of inter-locking areas, from the socio-economic and environmental to the technological and political issues. This updated volume combines the latest thinking from leading thinkers across all sectors. Vital reading for sector specialists.
Non-Renewable Resource Issues: geoscientific and societal challenges
By Richard Singing-Larsen and Friedrich-W Wellmer (eds)
Hardback: 253 pages, £129
ISBN: 9048186781
Publisher: Springer
Published: April 2012
Future society will require energy and a wide range of raw materials. How that energy will be generated and what/how raw materials will be extracted are critical questions for the planet. This in-depth compilation argues for a global approach for assessing the volume and availability of Earth’s key resources. A timely book for a pressing issue.