It’s time to put your good intentions into action with the help of these 10 books on sustainable living.
Queue the 10 best environmentally focused self help books for sustainable living. These books are here to show you that living a greener lifestyle, eating nutritiously and being positive doesn’t have to be bland and boring. It’s a lot easier than you might think!
This collection of books, each filled with practical tips, recipes and tutorials will help you tackle the almighty beast that is an eco friendly lifestyle one day at a time. So start your eco-friendly journey with the help of these 10 best must-read books for sustainable living in 2021!
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The Sustainable Home - Christine Liu
The sustainable home is both inspired and practical in its approach to sustainable living. Author and zero-waste advocate, Christine Liu explores every room of the home – from dining to lounging – providing tips and tricks to soften the environmental impact of daily activities. The book contains 17, fun, do-it-yourself projects intended to guide the reader into creating and maintaining a more eco friendly household. The projects range from making your own toothpaste to growing herbs or even ‘upcycling’ furniture. Liu focuses on all the ways, big or small, that we can improve our general lifestyle.
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Plastic Purge - Michael Sanclements
Plastic Purge explores the impact that everyday plastics have on our bodies. Supported by the most recent scientific research, the book separates plastics into three distinct categories: the good, the bad and the downright awful. It’s scary stuff, but ecologist author Michael Sanclements makes the issue approachable and engaging, all while providing practical advice. Not all plastics are created equal, single use plastics in the medical field can be quite literally life saving, while single plastics at home are detrimental to our ecosystem and our bodies. Curbing plastic consumption with tips from Sanclements’ book can help save the environment, while improving our health and helping us live a less cluttered life.
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Smith & Daughters - Shannon Martinez & Mo Wyse
This cookbook is accidentally vegan and intentionally delicious. This collection of recipes from the Smith and Daughters eatery in Fitzroy, Victoria highlights the rule breaking creativity of plant-based cooking and is bound to inspire you in the kitchen. Author’s Shannon Martinez and Mo Wyse bring together science, innovation and a little whimsy to create food that’s exploding with flavour; and just so happens to be vegan. The focus is all about food, not preaching vegan politics. But, it should be mentioned that eating plant-based is accidentally great for environmental sustainability.
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365 Days Of Sustainability - Lisa Messenger
This book focuses on the achievable. And author Lisa Messenger understands how easy it is to become overwhelmed on the journey to bettering yourself. There are so many voices and advice floating around in the self help and self improvement genre, often giving conflicting ideas. Where do we even start? 365 Days of Sustainability is a different kind of self improvement guide. The book provides 365 actionable ways to make your life a little bit more sustainable everyday. We can’t change the world in a day, but we can change our energy supplier to a ‘green’ one in just an hour or two on a Saturday.
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How to Save Your Planet One Object at a Time - Tara Shine
Everyday objects, tasks and habits, that’s all you need to save the planet. Author and climate change expert Dr Tara Shine explores every crevice of daily life in this journey to sustainable living – from home to the office, to your morning cup of tea and how you fry an egg. Going green isn’t about doing anything new or different, it isn’t necessarily difficult or full of sacrifice either, it’s all about doing what you already do, just a little bit better. Dr Shine’s tips aren’t just good for the environment either, they’re good for your wallet too. You don’t have to go without, you just have to go about things with a little more eco-friendliness.
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Silo The Zero Waste Blueprint - Douglas McMaster
Silo aims to deindustrialise the way we consume food, from our habits at home to supermarkets and restaurants. The book is unbothered by traditional eco-vocabulary, opting out of “sustainable” and “organic” in favour of the nitty gritty, “closed-loop production” and “clean farming”. Namesake to the author’s own restaurant, Silo follows the same principles, a zero waste food philosophy. The book tackles the issue head on, giving the reader an insight into the bigger issues that lurk behind the kitchen doors of their favourite eateries. Filled with practical advice in the kitchen and the inspiration to eat differently, this is the environmental anarchists guide to food.
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Down to Earth - Rhonda Hetzel
Retired journalist turned author Rhonda Hetzel, taught herself how to live down to earth quite by accident. While trying to live enjoyably, but also frugally, things started to fall into place. Simple living is what Hetzel calls it. With a focus on traditional skills like preserving your own food and getting your life into a routine that really works, the book illuminates the path to a happy, healthy and sustainable lifestyle. Down to Earth knows that simple and sustainable living isn’t just for hippies in their 20s. The book carefully explores what it means to live simply in every decade of your life, even after retirement.
Give a Sh*t - Ashlee Piper
If you want to be more eco-friendly but don’t know where to start, Give a Sh*t is the perfect place. Nobody’s perfect and this book knows it. Some preach zero waste, this book preaches zero judgement. It’s the practical guide that finds you where you are and makes you better at everything from running an eco-friendly home to using sustainable cosmetics. Author and eco-friendly lifestyle expert Ashlee Piper is not your judgy co-worker giving you the eyes when you forget to bring your reusable cup to work, they’re your sustainability sister handing out high fives when you do.
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No-Waste Kitchen Gardening - Katie Elzer-Peters
No-Waste Kitchen Gardening turns the fundamentals of a school holiday science project into a sustainable lifestyle hack. Remember grade four, day after day, waiting for a carrot stub, resting on a damp paper towel, to sprout. It may have seemed hopeless then, but patience triumphed, and we basked in the glory of growing something from a simple scrap. Horticulturalist author Katie Elzer-Peters provides a colourful, picture-filled guide on how to regrow the scraps of almost any fruit or vegetable at home to create a harvestable, edible plant. This sustainability solution is kinder to the environment and your wallet, but more importantly it’s fun!
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The Self-Sufficiency Bible - Simon Dawson
The Self-Sufficiency Bible is the original sustainable guide to life. In this updated version of the much-loved classic, author Simon Dawson shares how sustainability can be about so much more than living off, and loving, the earth. Sustainable living provides us with a sense of control in an ever expanding and complicating world. Being able to live self-sufficiently brings a blissful satisfaction and sense of purpose and fulfilment to our daily lives. This book provides tips, tricks and tutorials for self sufficiency in any environment, whether you’re an apartment dweller or living on a few acres.
Whether you’re looking to be more self sufficient or just a bit more eco-friendly, sustainable living can seem daunting and extreme. It feels like all or nothing. And although we want to help the environment and improve our wellbeing, going zero waste seems difficult, and not that fun.