Roundup: Green Guides

Being green is no easy task, so we have a few reading recommendations to help you navigate the wilderness of "eco-friendly" ideas and products.

World Changing, a 596-page guide to green, came out this year. The encyclopedic volume was edited by Alex Steffen, Editor of the website of the same name. It has a comprehensive Shelter section, including articles on green remodeling, living in small spaces and conserving energy.

One of the ground-breaking books of the modern green movement, Cradle to Cradle is the brainchild of architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart. It refutes the standard "cradle to grave" model of design and proposes a new model for sustainability that companies including Herman Miller and Steelcase have implemented in some of their products.

The book is printed on waterproof "paper" that uses no trees and breaks down into synthetic materials that can be recycled into other products. For more information about William McDonough, check out Maxwell's original post on the architect.

We remember the MCA's Massive Change as one of the most thought-provoking shows we'd seen in a long time. The book (authored by exhibition organizer Bruce Mau) is also an eye opener, with gorgeous full-color pages that rival the exhibition itself.

Highlights include interviews with environmentally conscious designers and solutions for sustainable energy worldwide.

What are your recommendations for green reading?

Comments (3)

I found World Changing to be a completely frustrating book.

As a reference guide it was poorly organized, as something to read straight through it was completely schizophrenic, at best it seemed like they had taken articles from their website and republished them in book form. I wouldn't know though, having been so frustrated by the book itself I was completely uninterested in checking out their website.

And as a graphic designer I thought it was trying to hard to look like a magazine at the price of readable content.

And does a book really need a preface and two introductions just so they can toss around names like Al Gore to dramatic effect?

I'm terribly glad I checked it out from the library rather than buying it.

two of my favorites are:

"hope's edge" by francis moore lappe and anna lappe.
chronicles many examples of locally-based sustainable microenterprises throughout the world and their positive ripple effects. very inspiring!

"ishmael" by daniel quinn.
an allegory on the folly of modern life.

On your list, "Massive Change" and "Cradle to Cradle" but I'd add Bill McKibben's "Deep Economy", "Natural Capitalism: Creating The Next Industrial Revolution" by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins and both of Al Gores tomes, particularly "An Assault On Reason" since it skips past environmental issues to focus on the reasons we've allowed ourselves as a nation to become so easily duped ad lied to.

Now if only someone could get Al to run in 2007. An Al Gore/Barack O'Bama ticket would be unstoppable!