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Teaching for a Positive Future
Suggested Readings


Some books are linked directly to their supporting web pages, and we have also provided some links to publishers who have many more books directly related to sustainability to choose from. 

The Earth Charter
The Earth Charter stands as an inspiration and historic monument to the power of bridging cultural and geographic distances through organized dialogue, in order to work peacefully toward a single common purpose. We must decide as institutions and individuals to endorse this document in our teaching and learning. The Earth Charter gives us a singular opportunity to respond in an organized fashion to our personal and collective resolve to work for a more just, and sustainable future.

Sustainability and Higher Education

Planet U: Sustaining the World, Reinventing the University
Authors: Michael M'Gonigle, Justine Starke
Publisher: New Society Publishers, 2006
Planet U places the university at the forefront of the sustainability movement. Questioning the university's ability to equip society to deal with today's serious challenges such as economic growth, democratic citizenship and planetary survival, it calls for a new social movement to take a lead in reforming the university.

Sustainability on Campus: Stories and Strategies for Change (Urban and Industrial Environments)
Edited by Peggy F. Barlett, Geoffrey W. Chase
Publisher: The MIT Press, 2004
These personal narratives of greening college campuses offer inspiration, motivation, and practical advice. Written by faculty, staff, administrators, and a student, from varying perspectives and reflecting divergent experiences, these stories also map the growing strength of a national movement toward environmental responsibility on campus.

Rethinking Freire : Globalization and the Environmental Crisis (05 Edition)
by: C. A. Bowers and Frederique Apffel-marglin
Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004
This landmark collection of essays by Third World activists highlights two major world changes which, they argue, have been neglected by Freire and his many followers: the Third World grass-roots cultural resistance to economic globalization, and the ecological crisis.

Measuring Sustainability - Learning from Doing
Authors: Dr Simon Bell and Dr Stephen Morse 
Publisher: Earthscan, 2002    
Measuring the sustainability of development is crucial to achieving it, and is one of the most actively studied issues in the area. To date, most studies of measurements or indicators have been largely theoretical.
 

Sustainability and the Global Community

Good News for a Change; How Everyday People Are Helping the Planet
Authors: Dr. David Suzuki, and Holly Dressel
Publisher: Greystone Books, 2003
Inspiring stories about the people who are making positive environmental and social contributions to our world, illustrating the hundreds of working solutions that can help all of us to achieve a better future.
Click here to find more information on the Suzuki Foundation website.

The Geography of Consumption
Author: Juliana Mansvelt
Publisher: Sage Publications Inc, 2005
“Buying, using and disposing of commodities connect us to other people and other places in ways which may be beyond our imaginings.”-author

The Environmental Justice Reader; Politics, Poetics, and Pedagogy
Authors: Joni Adamson, Mei Mei Evans, Rachel Stein
Publisher: The University of Arizona Press, 2002
From the First National People of Color Congress on Environmental Leadership to WTO street protests of the new millennium, environmental justice activists have challenged the mainstream movement by linking social inequalities to the uneven distribution of environmental dangers.

The Key to Sustainable Cities: Meeting Human Needs, Transforming Community Systems
Author: Gwendolyn Hallsmith
Publisher: New Society Publishers, 2003
The Key to Sustainable Cities
uses the principles of system dynamics to demonstrate how today's problems were yesterday's solutions. The book points to a new approach to city planning that builds on assets as a starting point for cities to develop healthy social, governance, economic, and environmental systems.

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community
by David C. Korten
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006
Drawing from a multiplicity of disciplines, The Great Turning identifies the consequences of empire and outlines a course for future corrective action. Korten leverages the work of numerous progressive thinkers and activists pulling their individual contributions together to guide the reader to his main thesis: a call for Earth Community. Reviewer: Katie Quinn
related website: http://thegreatturning.net/

Urban Place: Reconnecting with the Natural World
Authors: Barlett, Peggy F. Nash, Roderick Frazier
Publisher: The MIT Press , 2005
Amidst city concrete and suburban sprawl, Americans are discovering new ways to reconnect with the natural world. From community gardens in New York's Lower East Side to homeless shelters in California, the search for a more sustainable future has led grassroots groups to a profound reconnection to place and to the natural world.

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
by William McDonough, Michael Braungart
Publisher: North Point Press; 1st edition, 2002
Paper or plastic? Neither, say William McDonough and Michael Braungart. Why settle for the least harmful alternative when we could have something that is better--say, edible grocery bags! In Cradle to Cradle, the authors present a manifesto calling for a new industrial revolution, one that would render both traditional manufacturing and traditional environmentalism obsolete.

Toward Sustainable Communities: Resources for Citizens and Their Governments
by Mark Roseland
Publisher: New Society Publishers; rev. ed 1998
Mark Roseland is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Community Development at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. A past editor of Local Environment and RAIN magazine, he lectures internationally and advises communities and governments.

Neighbor Power: Building Community The Seattle Way
Author: Jim Diers
Publisher: University of Washington Press, 2004
Building on the lessons of early labor leaders, civil rights volunteers, and political activists, Jim Diers has developed his own models and successful strategies for community development. Neighbor Power chronicles his involvement with Seattle’s communities. This book not only gives hope that participatory democracy is possible, but it offers practical applications and invaluable lessons for ordinary, caring citizens who want to make a difference. It also provides government officials with inspiring stories and proven programs to help them embrace citizen activists as true partners.

Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing (Education for Sustainability Series)
by Doug McKenzie-Mohr, William Smith
Publisher: New Society Publishers, 1999
Our consumption patterns are threatening to outstrip Earth's ability to support humanity and other species. A sustainable future will require sweeping changes in public behavior. While conventional marketing can help create public awareness, social marketing identifies and overcomes barriers to long-lasting behavior change. This ground-breaking book is the primary resource for the emerging new field of community-based social marketing, and an invaluable guide for anyone involved in designing public education programs with the goal of promoting sustainable behavior, from recycling and energy efficiency, to alternative transportation.

 

 

 
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