This unique title draws together in one volume some of the best thinking to date on the pressing social and environmental challenges we face as a society. These are the Top 50 Sustainability Books as voted for by the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership's alumni network of over 3,000 senior leaders from around the world. In addition to profiles of all 50 titles, many of the authors share their most recent reflections on the state of the world and the ongoing attempts by business, government and civil society to create a more sustainable future. Many of these authors have become household names in the environmental, social and economic justice movements – from Rachel Carson, Ralph Nader and E.F. Schumacher to Vandana Shiva, Muhammad Yunus and Al Gore. Others, such as Aldo Leopold, Thomas Berry and Manfred Max-Neef, are relatively undiscovered gems, whose work should be much more widely known. By featuring these and other seminal thinkers, The Top 50 Sustainability Books distils a remarkable collective intelligence – one that provides devastating evidence of the problems we face as a global society, yet also inspiring examples of innovative solutions; it explores our deepest fears and our highest hopes for the future. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to tap into the wisdom of our age.

"This is not only an excellent idea but, more importantly, well executed. Taking the 50 best books on sustainability as compiled from a poll of 3000 experts around the world, Wayne Visser looks at them all through the same lens. Each entry – generally four pages long – lists the key ideas in each book, a synopsis of its contents, some of its notable sentences or thoughts, a potted biography of the author, and suggestions for further connected reading. This turns out to be a highly useful format, providing just about all you need to know about each volume without actually reading it. The book is also well illustrated, with photos of the authors and images of each book. Perhaps the only criticism might be that it provides no critique of the books or any sense of how the views in them have been received or fared over time. However, this is essentially a work of reference, and the decision to steer away from this polemical course is, on balance, the right one. For the corporate responsibility practitioner there are at least 23 books in here that directly relate to CSR, including tomes by John Elkington, Simon Zadek and Anita Roddick. The rest generally look towards ecological or sociological matters, and while the majority of the entries were written post-2000, some date back more than 30 years. It would be ideal if everyone read all these books in their original form, but this crash course is the next best thing." - Ethical Performance

"The prestigious University of Cambridge Programme (translation: "Program") for Sustainability Leadership has released their list of the top 50 books on Sustainability, chosen by their alumni. This is a remarkable resource for anyone interested in catching up on their studies, or formalizing an opinion on today's environmental issues." - EARTHactually, 4 February 2010

"The Top 50 Sustainability Books is a must for sustainability professionals and academics. It provides an excellent guidebook for those who are beginning their journey in "sustainability science", and as a reminder of origins and principles for those who have been relentlessly working towards sustainability. The collection of books shows that if we want to avoid a World catastrophe, from which we may not be able to recover, we need to address the issues currently ailing the World not in isolation, but through systemic and holistic approaches where the interconnections and synergies among issues are equally, or perhaps more, important than the issues themselves." - Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010)