Herbert Girardet: 7 books

Large, modern cities have effectively declared their independence from nature. But while they take up only three percent of the world’s land surface, their ecological footprints actually cover the entire globe. Humanity is building an urban future, yet urban resource use is threatening the future...

We have turned our home planet into a disposable world, using resources as though there were no tomorrow. It is time to make it a renewable world instead.We must urgently reconcile two things: our common desire to achieve certain living standards, and our requirement to do so sustainably. And we must...

In this Briefing, Dave Elliott establishes the basic sustainable energy options. However his main aim is to look at potential problems ahead in the short, medium and long term, and deal with the counter-arguments. No technology is entirely benign. Renewable energy technologies may have far less impacts...

How can we put the pulsing heart of conviviality back into our cities? How can we make sure of creating cities of diversity for the new millennium—places of cultural vigour and physical beauty that are also sustainable in economic and environmental terms? This Schumacher Briefing shows the way forward.

We live in a consumer society, and over-consumption is the driving force of environmental degradation. This stark reality led Pooran Desai and Sue Riddlestone to found BioRegional Development Group. In this Briefing they show how we can meet more of our needs for wood products, paper, textiles, food...

For too long, cities have been thought of as environmental blackspots, with high levels of air and soil pollution, overcrowding, poor sanitation and growing waste disposal problems. This book takes a more positive attitude: cities can be made to work sustainably. Their high population density can...

How can we reshape our economic system?which now transfers wealth from poor to rich, marginalises individuals, communities and cultures, damages the natural environment, and denies all sense of the sacred?so that it will meet the needs of people and the Earth in the 21st century? In this Briefing,...