If sustainability has been on your mind, but you’re unsure of where to start, or if you’re already on your way to more eco-friendly living and want to see if there are other ways you can incorporate greener practices, consider taking a look at these books. Each book has a slightly different approach to sustainable living, so you can glean tips from a combination of these resources to meet your lifestyle needs.
The Human Home: Easy Steps for Sustainable & Green Living by Sarah Lozanova
This book is particularly useful for anyone in the middle of building or renovating their space. It consists of seven chapters that look at topics such as energy efficiency, water conservation, and building materials. Lozanova even includes smaller projects like building garden beds, and sustainable life-hacks such as conserving water by placing a brick in your toilet tank.
The compact book is an easy and enjoyable read that features beautiful watercolor illustrations. Pick this book up and within a couple of hours, you’ll be full of ideas and inspiration for your own sustainable life.
An Almost Zero Waste Life: Learning How to Embrace Less to Live More by Megean Weldon
If you are looking for a basic how-to guide for zero-waste living, look no further. Weldon has suggestions and advice for all areas of life, including grocery shopping, food prep, pet maintenance, childcare, and vacationing.
Many of her tips are creative yet accessible for everyday life, such as taking photos of your bulk food section to reference for later when meal planning or melting down crayon bits to make new ones for your kids.
The one quirk worth mentioning is that this book doesn’t mention any brand names or companies, which could leave readers still wondering where they should start, though this could be a strategic move as brands may come and go.
The Eco-Hero Handbook: Simple Solutions to Tackle Eco-Anxiety by Tessa Wardley
This book focuses on an important, but largely overlooked, aspect of environmental activism: how to deal with the building anxiety that inevitably comes to anyone concerned about the environmental crisis.
Wardley addresses this by providing one-page answers to commonly asked questions to clarify confusing aspects of the climate crisis and empower readers to act. While flipping through this book you can expect answers to questions like “Is my water usage affecting the planet and nature?” to “How can I be an eco-conscious tourist?” to “Which foods are responsible for the worst deforestation?”
The answers are concise, regardless of the complexity of the question, but each answer is well-cited and offers more resources for readers to look into. For more climate anxiety resources, check out our webinar with Dr. Renée Lertzman.
Sustainable Home: Practical projects, tips and advice for maintaining a more eco-friendly household by Christine Liu
Christine Liu is a sustainability blogger who highlights her own home and DIY projects in this beautiful book. Her strategy is to offer sustainable living practices from room to room in your home, advising on how to reduce clutter, avoid waste, and adopt more eco-friendly practices specific to the kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, or outdoors.
Not only is this book a great source of inspiration for eco-friendly living, but it also includes beautiful minimalist photography and would make a valuable addition to your coffee table.