Are you looking for ways to live more sustainably, reduce the carbon footprint of your home, or remodel your house with sustainable materials that will save you energy, time and money? The following resources are either available online or at your neighborhood Houston Public Library.
Green Building Resource Center Book of the Month
This great book lifts the veil on how globalization degrades the environment.
From Goodreads: Shocking Bestseller: The original version of this astonishing tell-all book spent 73 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has sold more than 1.25 million copies, and has been translated into 32 languages.
New Revelations: Featuring 15 explosive new chapters, this expanded edition of Perkins's classic bestseller brings the story of economic hit men (EHMs) up to date and, chillingly, home to the US. Over 40 percent of the book is new, including chapters identifying today's EHMs and a detailed chronology extensively documenting EHM activity since the first edition was published in 2004.
Residential
Complete Guide to the Green Home (2008). Philip Schmidt
Eco: An Essential Sourcebook for Environmentally Friendly Design and Decoration (2003). Beth Wihide
Got Sun? (2005). Rex A. Ewing
Green from the Gound Up (2008). David Johnston & Scott Gibson
Green Remodeling (2008). John D. Wagner
Little House on a Small Planet (2006). Shay Salomon
Low Carbon Diet (2006). David Gershon
Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green-House (2006). Carol Venoliaa
Power with Nature: Alternative Energy Solutions for Homeowners (2005). Rex A. Ewing
Sustainable Residential Development (2007). Avi Friedman
The Carbon-Free Home (2008). Stephen Hren
The Good House Book (2004). Clark Snell
The Green Self-Build Book (2007). Jon Broome
The Home Energy Diet (2005). Paul Scheckel
The Not So Big House (1998). The Not So Big Life (2005). Sarah Susanka
Visualizing Density (2007). Alex MacLean
Wind Power: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business (2004). Paul Gipe
Your Green Home (2006). Alex T. Wilson
Commercial
Building Green (2005). Clarke Snell
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We make Things (2002). William McDonough & Michael Braungart
Green Building A to Z (2007). Jerry Yudelson
Green Building Fundamentals (2009). Michael Montoya
Green Building Products (2008). Alex Wilson & Mark Piepkorn
How Buildings Learn (1995). Stewart Brand
Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer) (2010). Stan Cox
Over (2008). Alex MacLean
The World Without Us (2007). Alan Weisman
Green Living: Changing the Status Quo
Program Director Steve Stelzer’s Top Twenty for 2018
1. Drawdown (2017). Edited by Paul Hawken
2. The All New Don’t Think of an Elephant (2014). George Lakoff
3. The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible (2013). Charles Eisenstein
4. The Upcycle (2013). William McDonough & Michael Braungart
5. The Story of Stuff (2010). Annie Leonard
6. Fantasyland (2017). Kurt Andersen
7. Climate Change, What Everyone Needs to Know About It (2015). Joseph Romm
8. The Soil Will Save Us (2014). Kristin Ohlson
9. The Righteous Mind (2012). Jonathan Haidt
10. The Sixth Extinction (2014). Elizabeth Kolbert
11. Countdown (2014). Alan Weisman
12. Scarcity (2014). Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir
13. Junkyard Planet (2015). Adam Minter
14. Over (2008). Alex MacLean
15. Reinventing Fire (2011). Amory Lovins & Rocky Mountain Institute
16. 2052 (2012). Jorgen Randers
17. 1491 (2005). Charles C. Mann
18. Brain Rules (2014). John Medina
19. Navigating Environmental Attitudes (2012). Thomas Heberlein
20. The Vanishing Middle Class (2017). Peter Temin
Abundance: the Future is Better Than You Think (2012). Peter H. Diamandis & Steven Kotler
Blessed Unrest, Ecology of Commerce (1993). Paul Hawken
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2005). John Perkins
Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole (2008). Benjamin Barber
Don’t Think of an Elephant! (2004). The Political Mind (2008). George Lakoff
Ecological Intelligence (2009). Daniel Goleman
Garbage Land On the Secret Trail of Trash (2005). Elizabeth Royte
Guns, Germs, & Steel (1997). Collapse (2005). Jared Diamond
Home from Nowhere (1998). World Made by Hand (2008). The Long Emergency (2006). Too Much Magic (2012). James Howard Kuntsler
Hot, Flat, & Crowded v 2.0 (2009). Thomas L. Friedman
My Ishmael (1998). Beyond Civilization (2000). Daniel Quinn
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (1999). Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins
Our Choice (2009). Al Gore
That Used to Be Us (2011). Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum
The Corporation (2005). Joel Bakan
The Impending World Energy Mess (2010). Hirsch, Bezdek, Wendling
The Lorax (1971). Dr. Seuss
The Secret Life of Compost (1997). Malcolm Beck
The Tipping Point (2002). Blink (2007). Outliers (2008). David and Goliath (2013). Malcolm Gladwell
The Wal-Mart Effect (2006). Charles Fishman
Toxics A to Z (1991). Harte, Holdren, Schneider, Shirley
Worldchanging: User’s Guide for the 21st Century (2008). Alex Steffen, Editor