Our 10 Must-Read ESG and Sustainability Books for 2026
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We asked our experts as well as Antea Group clients and friends about their favorite books about Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), and sustainability. While sustainability is sometimes seen as synonymous with ESG, this selection of books goes beyond purely environmental subjects to include broader social and corporate governance topics that inspire new thinking for businesses.
These 10 books made the list of educational, inspiring, and eye-opening must-reads for the year:
Leaving Planet Simple: Embracing Sustainability, ESG, and Resilience to Transform Your Business
Author: Dr. Alex Gold
From the Back Cover: "Dr. Gold, with a PhD in resilience science and extensive corporate experience, shows us that rather than trying to master it, nature has quite a bit to teach us. Dr. Gold explains that what often hinders business leaders today is an outdated mindset. This is life on Planet Simple, a world where businesses can operate in isolation, separate from the environment and the communities they inhabit. Instead, Dr. Gold shows us that a business, really any organization, is much more like a natural environment, an ecosystem where all the parts are interconnected and changing all the time. Business leaders must leave Planet Simple, abandon this simplistic mindset, and embrace a new resilience mindset better suited for Planet Earth."
Publisher: Forbes Books
Where to Find It: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Insectopolis
Author: Peter Kuper
From the Back Cover: “This visually immersive work of graphic nonfiction dives into a world where ants, cicadas, bees, and butterflies visit a library exhibition that displays their stories and humanity's connection to them throughout the ages. Kuper's thrilling visual feast layers history and science, color and design, to tell the remarkable tales of dung beetles navigating by the stars, hawk-size prehistoric dragonflies hunting prey, and mosquitoes changing the course of human history.”
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Where to Find It: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Becoming Nature Positive
Author: Marco Lambertini, Joseph W Bull, LeRoy Little Bear, et al.
From the Back Cover: "As humanity sits at an existential crossroads, this book introduces the need to build a nature-positive future to secure the functioning and stability of Earth systems essential to the survival and wellbeing of present and future human generations as well as the rest of Earth's amazing diversity of life."
Publisher: Routledge
Where to Find It: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World
Author: Alison Taylor
From the Back Cover: "Today's headlines teem with employee unrest over racial injustice, communities infuriated by corporate environmental impacts, staff anxiety over surveillance, public outrage over corruption in business, and discoveries of child labor in supply chains. We've traveled far and fast from the old world of business ethics, where black-and-white concerns about bribery and fraud could be addressed via rules and processes. Simply maximizing shareholder value while not breaking the law is no longer a tenable approach, but we've never been so confused about what it means to do the right thing-and why it's so important."
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Where to Find It: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet
Author: Hannah Ritchie
From the Back Cover: "Packed with the latest research, practical guidance, and enlightening graphics, this book will make you rethink almost everything you've been told about the environment. Not the End of the World will give you the tools to understand our current crisis and make lifestyle changes that actually have an impact. Hannah cuts through the noise by outlining what works, what doesn't, and what we urgently need to focus on so we can leave a sustainable planet for future generations."
Publisher: Little, Brown Spark
Where to Find It: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Under a Metal Sky: A Journey Through Minerals, Greed and Wonder
Author: Philip Marsden
From the Back Cover: "Under a Metal Sky takes us on a journey across the peat-rich Dutch lowlands, through Prague and Bohemia, and on to the gold-rich mountains of Georgia. Along the way, Philip Marsden uncovers the strange and colorful histories of alchemy, scientific revolution, industrialization, and technological innovation, peopled by figures like the Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II, Goethe, Marie Curie, and William Blake. But alongside wonder and inspiration, there has also been plunder and heedless exploitation, the consequences of which have set us on a path toward our own extinction."
Publisher: Counterpoint
Where to Find It: Bookshop.org, Amazon
ESG Mindset: Business Resilience and Sustainable Growth
Author: Matthew Sekol
From the Back Cover: "ESG Mindset guides business leaders, ESG specialists and CSR strategists through the nuanced and most thoughtful ways to focus on these core business issues. Equipping readers with an enhanced way to think through complex business decisions and interconnected crises, the book provides accessible perspectives and real-world examples from companies around the world that have implemented a meaningful approach to ESG and learned lessons along the way. Readers will learn how to think about pressing ESG challenges from a new perspective and build defensibility in their efforts to future-proof a business and potentially save the world as only they can."
Publisher: Kogan Page
Where to Find It: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash
Author: Alexander Clapp
From the Back Cover: Dumps and landfills around the world are overflowing. Disputes about what to do with the millions of tons of garbage generated every day have given rise to waste wars waged almost everywhere you look. Some are border skirmishes. Others hustle trash across thousands of miles and multiple oceans. But no matter the scale, one thing is true about almost all of them: few people have any idea they're happening.
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Where to Find It: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet
Author: Kate Marvel
From the Back Cover: "Scientist Kate Marvel has seen the world end before, sometimes several times a day. In the computer models she uses to study climate change, it’s easy to simulate rising temperatures, catastrophic outcomes, and bleak futures. But climate change isn’t just happening in those models. It’s happening here, to the only good planet in the universe. It’s happening to us. And she has feelings about that."
Publisher: Ecco
Where to Find It: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Close to Home: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door
Author: Thor Hanson
From the Back Cover: "In Close to Home, biologist Thor Hanson shows how retraining our eyes reveals hidden wonders just waiting to be discovered. In Kansas City, migrating monarch butterflies flock to the local zoo. In the Pacific Northwest, fierce yellowjackets placidly sip honeydew, unseen in the treetops. In New England, a lawn gone slightly wild hosts a naturalist's life's work. And in the soil beneath our feet, remedies for everything from breast cancer to the stench of skunks lie waiting for someone's searching shovel."
Publisher: Basic Books
Where to Find It: Bookshop.org | Amazon
Looking for more learning opportunities? Check out these other blogs: Stay On Top of Energy Transition With These Top 10 Podcasts and The 10 Best Sustainability Podcasts for Environmental Business Leaders.
