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World Book Day: Sustainability must reads

Posted on: 6 March 2024 in Issue 7

To celebrate World Book Day, the Sustainability team, along with our friends from Liverpool's not-for-profit radical and community bookshop, News From Nowhere have compiled their top sustainability book recommendations, aimed at educating and inspiring university staff and students.

Our recommendations

Since our red brick building first opened in 1881, the university has made it its mission to support the advancement of learning and ennoblement of life. This mission has not changed, it has only adapted to the challenges of our times. Becoming a more sustainable society is a great challenge and we are all in this together. To find solutions for these problems we look hopefully to you, the new generation of academics with bold ideas and the knowledge to implement them.  

You may not be studying environmentalism or eco-engineering but some reading on the subject can go a long way. Browse the University's library catalogue and you will find various books on sustainability that will help you make small differences to your carbon footprint while giving you a larger understanding of the big picture. And make sure you always check our libraries for books/resources before buying from larger chains. Here's our list of sustainability related must reads:

The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide by Jen Gale

This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein

There is no Planet B by Mike Berners-Lee

The New Climate War by Michael E. Mann

The World Transformed: An Untold History by Peter Frankopan

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

How Bad Are Bananas? By Mike Berner-Lee

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Children of Men by P. D. James

Consumed by Aja Barber 

It’s not that Radical by Michaela Loach

Cradle 2 Cradle by Braungart and McDonough 

Donut Economics by Kate Raworth

Going Zero by Kate Hughes

Saving the Planet without the Bullsh*t by Assaad Razzouk

Zero Altitude: How I learned to fly less and travel more by Helen Coffey

Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Flight Behaviour by Barbara Kingsolver

News From Nowhere’s recommendations

News From Nowhere is located at 96 Bold Street and run collectively by a workers' co-operative. Committed to social justice, the literature they stock empowers and inspires people to make positive change. Both the shop, and online shop focus on subjects such as; environment and sustainability, feminism, anti-racism, LGBT+, workers' rights, disability rights, animal rights and veganism, and socialism. Plus fiction and poetry, books for children and young people, books on health and wellbeing, and local interest books. Here are News From Nowhere's must read recommended titles on sustainability: 

Food For Free, by Richard Mabey

The Vegan Book of Permaculture: Recipes for Healthy Eating and Earthright Living, by Graham Burnett

Small is Necessary: Shared Living on a Shared Planet, by Anitra Nelson

From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want, by Rob Hopkins

Paint Your Town Red: How Preston Took Back Control and Your Town Can Too, by Matthew Brown and Rhian E Jones

Going Zero: One Family's Journey to Zero Waste and a Greener Lifestyle, by Kate Hughes

Movement: How to Take Back Our Streets and Transform Our Lives, by Thalia Verkade and Marco te Broemmelstroet

How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-sufficiency, by Piers Warren, illustrated by Tessa Pettingell

Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet, by George Monbiot

Find out more

If you have read a good book about sustainability please suggest it via our book suggestion form.

For more information about sustainability plans and progress at the university, please contact the Sustainability Department by emailing sustainability@liverpool.ac.uk

Like most independent bookshops, although relatively small, News From Nowhere can order the same vast range of books as bigger shops and websites. Make sure you shop local and check out News From Nowhere, 96 Bold Street and visit the customer order website to search millions of books in print that can be ordered on request.