The best books to create a sustainable economy for our children and grandchildren

Kim Stanley Robinson hooked me immediately with this fast-paced novel about how humanity finally wakes up to the deadly consequences of pumping 54 billion metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year and decides to do something about it.

I could not put down this page turner which reads like a science fiction thriller but is filled with interesting facts and perspectives about global warming. This book inspired me to write my book and will prepare you to engage in the enormous task of decarbonizing the economy and creating a sustainable civilization.

I have been a raving fan of Kate Raworth and Doughnut Economics ever since I heard her speak about Doughnut Economics at a B-Corp conference in Amsterdam.

Ultimately, a sustainable economic system requires an upgrade of its current operating system which operates on the principles of neoliberal, free-market economic theory. Kate Raworth provides a brilliant alternative to neoliberal, free-market economic theory in Doughnut Economics. 

I love Chapter Two which provides one of the best synopses of the foundational principles of neoliberal economics and suggests alternative principles – Doughnut Economics - that will allow humanity to live within the planetary limitations of the biosphere while providing a baseline standard of living for all. 

Doughnut Economics will help you envision a sustainable future in which we care for each other and the planet.

The prevailing corporate form renders corporations prone to anti-social and environmentally destructive behavior because they are designed to maximize profits for shareholders without considering the consequences to society and the environment.

I love Better Business because it tells the story of the creation of an emergent alternative corporate form, the B-Corp with benefit corporation governance, that provides a material positive benefit to society and the environment in addition to making profits for shareholders.  

A sustainable economy not only requires new economic principles, but also new corporate forms that are endowed with a social and environmental conscience in addition to the usual pecuniary one. Better Business introduces you to these new corporate forms without bogging you down in legalese.

I was skeptical that a book about accounting could be entertaining. 

Jane Gleason-White not only brings the history of double book entry accounting alive but also tells the story of how accountants are quietly leading the transformation to a sustainable economy. This transformation demands that we upgrade traditional accounting that only accounts for financial and industrial capital to account for benefits and detriments to the natural world and society. 

To support a sustainable economy, accounting systems must include four additional categories of capital: intellectual, human, social, and relationship. A sustainable economy not only requires new economic principles and new corporate forms, but new accounting systems that account for all six capitals. 

This is my favorite book about business. I recommend it to my executive coaching clients and have suggested it to scores of people. 

In short, it profiles the heart-based leadership required to create a sustainable economy. A heart-based leader sets the field of consciousness within his or her organization and models the values of its culture. When we work in environments in which we are loved and trusted, we’re twice as productive and twice as happy and the organization has half the normal employee turnover. 

The twelve heart-based leaders and their organizations profiled in the book provide examples of the kind of leadership required to build a sustainable economy that truly cares for people and planet.