Sustainable Business Reading List: Our Essential Picks
If you’re looking for a page turner that will not only captivate, but also spark new ideas and expand your thinking to meet the demands of your work in impact, look no further.
Our fourth annual Sustainable Business Reading List includes an eclectic collection of titles to inspire, educate and support sustainable business practitioners. To compile this year’s list, we reached out to the inspiring changemakers featured in our Impact Interviews series to ask them for the books that made it onto their shelves this year.
The resulting list is anything but ordinary — just the way we like it 😉. While many of the titles wouldn’t necessarily be categorized in the sustainable business genre, they all have something valuable to offer impact practitioners in both work and life.
Oh, and if you’d like to read along with us, we’re hosting a virtual Sustainable Business Book Club in Reconsidered’s private LinkedIn Group! Each week we’ll spotlight one of the books on the list and start a discussion around a relevant theme.
Our Top Sustainable Business Books for 2022
Black Water: Family, Legacy and Blood Memory (David A. Robertson)
A beautiful book about the intersection of identity, ancestry and Indigenous connection to the land. Robertson has a way of connecting these elements together in his own story, and also shares with us his father's powerful connection to the land — almost lost due to Robertson's upbringing not realizing his roots. Not sustainable business-related in a traditional sense, but a reminder to listen to those who have been stewards of our lands since time immemorial.
— Nicki McClung, Senior Manager, Product Sustainability, Aritzia
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle (Emily & Amelia Nagoski)
“This is a book for every woman who has felt overwhelmed and exhausted by everything she had to do, and yet still worried she was not doing 'enough'.” I picked up this book after a close friend and impact leader mentioned it to me, and now I seriously can't stop recommending it to my friends, coaching clients and podcast guests. This book is full of validation of a) all the reasons why burnout isn't your fault, and b) what you can do to unlock the stress cycle and heal. It's a must-read for anyone in the impact space who feels desperately like something has to give.
— Lis Best, Executive Coach for Women Changing the World
Diversity, Inc.: The Fight for Racial Equality in the Workplace (Pamela Newkirk)
“Revelations of stark inequality in recent decades have continually failed to spark the seismic shift that’s needed to fold diversity—to integrate justice—into the center of American life.” Newkirk’s book is an eye-opening look at how deeply entrenched and far-reaching the problem of racial discrimination is, even after decades of rhetoric and investment in diversity interventions. This is an important and compelling narrative about why and how we need to do better.
— Katie Kross, Managing Director, EDGE, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World (Shannon Watts)
I picked up Fight Like A Mother because I am joining Shannon Watts’ grassroots movement to end gun violence, and was pleasantly surprised to find it full of tips and affirmation for the Corporate Idealist community. Watts emphasizes the importance of data, of engaging your “opponents” with respect, of inclusivity and of “losing forward” (framing your losses as progress). It is an important primer on this uniquely American crisis — infused with the feeling of what it’s like to find your purpose and your people.
— Christine Bader, Author, The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (Oliver Burkeman)
This is not your typical productivity book. Burkeman's premise is simple but radical: instead of trying to optimize every moment of our lives, we need to accept that there simply isn't enough time to do everything we need to, and instead embrace the 'finitude' of our lives. Every impact practitioner I know is constantly fighting against the clock, so I'm sure the actionable (albeit unconventional) advice on how to make the most of the limited time we have will resonate.
Mother of Invention (Katrine Marçal)
To think that invention and innovation are held back due to our biased and dominant definitions of what qualifies as masculine and feminine, even today! Mother of Invention tells many stories — why it took so long for us to put wheels on suitcases, or why electric cars lost to petrol cars as the main mode of transport back in the day — to illustrate that ideas labeled as feminine are just not given the kind of attention they deserve, and that they need to be, frankly, given where we are in the world today. Marçal proves that we just can't afford not to ask: "What about women?"
— Mansi Gupta, Founder & CEO, Unconform
Parable of the Sower (Octavia E. Butler)
Octavia E. Butler is one of the pioneers of the climate fiction genre for good reason. In this masterwork written nearly three decades ago, she paints a picture of 2024 California that is eerily close to reality, complete with extreme weather, populist leaders and rampant inequality. But she also envisions a road out, led by an unforgettable protagonist. I’ll warn you: Parable of the Sower isn’t an easy read. But as a masterful work of fiction that drives home what’s at stake if we don’t get our collective s*** together, it’s unparalleled, with imagery that will continue to haunt — and motivate — you long after you’ve put the book down.
— Jessica Marati Radparvar, Founder & Lead Impact Strategist, Reconsidered
People Over Profit: Break the System, Live with Purpose, Be More Successful (Dale Partridge)
Written pre-COVID, Partridge reminds us of a pervasive issue in our capitalistic society: profits often being valued more than people. People Over Profit shares that it doesn’t have to be that way; that what is usually a revolving door can actually be overridden by simply putting people at the core of decision making. After all, companies are made of “people, not parts”. As we think about The Great Resignation, this book is a clear reminder that history repeats itself and perhaps we still grapple with this simple concept.
— Jerome Tennille, Director of Social Impact & ESG, The Uplift Agency
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (Adrienne Maree Brown)
Adrienne Maree Brown's wisdom in Pleasure Activism reconfirmed my own deep knowing: that we as sustainability professionals, corporate social intrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs and changemakers have a responsibility to incorporate joy and pleasure in our work and our lives if we are to keep thriving and shaping positive change. Your pleasure and joy isn't indulgence, or something to get to when you have the time. It is absolutely essential to this work of creating and being the change we believe in.
— Ashley Davis, Founder, Ashley Davis Collective
The Overstory (Richard Powers)
If we needed a reminder of what we’re all working to protect, The Overstory is that reminder. A true work of art, this novel cultivates biophilia in a way that few fictional pieces have the power to do. You’ll find yourself overwhelmed by emotions you didn’t know you could feel for plants, and both saddened and inspired by the potential of humanity’s relationship with them. I believe literature like this is essential to saving the planet, cultivating in us all an appreciation and humbleness for the earth’s gifts and helping us imagine a peaceful future with them.
— Rebecca Gildiner, Director of Sustainability, Daily Harvest
The Queering of Corporate America: How Big Business Went from LGBTQ Adversary to Ally (Carlos A. Ball)
It's easy to feel a bit jaded about the rainbow-washing that becomes all too common during Pride month. But how did we even get to the point where brands are so comfortable speaking directly to the LGBTQIA+ community? In The Queering of Corporate America, Carlos Ball zooms out to give us the long view. The moment that we're in today is, in part, due to decades-long activism of queer advocacy groups and employees pushing businesses to adopt nondiscrimination policies and domestic partner benefits.
— Josh Penny, Director of Social Impact, Hinge
Unsustainable Inequalities: Social Justice and the Environment (Lucas Chancel)
I had been thinking for a while about how to address the combination of inequality, poverty and environmental issues. The challenges are obvious, as to rise out of poverty is to, pretty much inevitably, consume more resources. At the same time, many measures to combat pollution can lead to job losses and higher prices that mainly hurt the poor. This book is written to confront these difficulties head-on, arguing that the goals of social justice and a greener world can be compatible, but that progress requires substantial changes in public policy. Plus, it's short and written by an economist.
— Christian Smith, Head of Sustainability Stakeholder Engagement, Zalando
Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret (Catherine Coleman Flowers)
Catherine Flowers, a long-time inspiration to me, has been a tireless champion of environmental justice in the rural South for decades. This book details how she grew up in and around the civil rights movement in the U.S. and how that has shaped her approach to fighting for basic human and environmental rights for people today. Focusing her fight on those without proper sewage systems, and the diseases they suffer from as a result, Catherine chronicles how she has found success moving this critical issue forward and holding our elected leaders to account in the process.
— Danielle Azoulay, VP and Head of ESG, Bed Bath and Beyond
Looking for more great reads? Check out our past editions for even more impact-focused recommendations.