Sustainability Book of the Year Nominees

🏆📖 See the results of Sustainability Book of the Year 2026 

illuminem, the most-read sustainability information and data platform with 700,000+ users, is proud to publicly present the official nominees for the 1st Sustainability Book of the Year Award.

The Sustainability Book of the Year will be awarded to one winner in each of these categories:

• Sustainability Book of the Year Award in Original Language
• Sustainability Book of the Year Award in English

Nominations had been opened to our community until March 22, 2026. Voting will take place starting Friday March 27, 2026, via LinkedIn, and a form for our illuminem Club members. See here for more details on the rules.

In a time marked by record temperatures, shifting supply chains, and changing regulations, the Award and these nominees celebrate thought leaders in sustainability while also serving as a disciplined reading list for executives, practitioners, and thinkers seeking the ideas that truly influenced climate, nature, economics, governance, and systems change — and will continue to shape the years ahead.

See also all of illuminem’s book reviews and the rules of the Award.

Nominees for Sustainability Book of the Year Award in Original Language 

In alphabetical order by Author

🗳️ Roger Abravanel and Luca D’Agnese, The Great Hypocrisies on Climate (Italian)
illuminem category: Corporate Sustainability 💼, Energy Transition ⚡
Country of publication: Italy 🇮🇹

Drawing on data and industry experience, the authors challenge prevailing assumptions in climate policy and corporate action, advocating a more pragmatic and evidence-based approach to the transition.

🗳️ Giulio Boccaletti, The Environmental Republic (Italian)
illuminem category: Environmental Sustainability 🌍, Ethical Governance 🏛️
Country of publication: Italy 🇮🇹

This book argues that environmental progress is ultimately a matter of citizenship and governance, presenting a compelling vision of ecosystems as shared public infrastructure essential to modern society.

🗳️ Markus Müller and Anna Katharina Meyer, Nature as Capital (German)
illuminem category: Sustainable Finance 💰, Nature 🌱
Country of publication: Germany 🇩🇪

A practical guide for integrating planetary boundaries into business and finance, showing how sustainability can move from theory to action.

Sustainability Book of the Year Award in English

🗳️ Andrea Bonime-Blanc, Governing Pandora
illuminem category: Ethical Governance 🏛️, Green Tech 🤖
Drawing on decades inside corporate boardrooms, Governing Pandora explains why responsible AI depends on leadership, accountability, and organisational culture — not lofty ethics statements — as societies enter the age of exponential technologies.


🗳️ James Campbell, Heart of the Jaguar: The Extraordinary Conservation Effort to Save the Americas' Legendary Cat [not shortlisted in the final vote]
illuminem category: Nature 🌱, Environmental Sustainability 🌍
Tracing Alan Rabinowitz’s legacy, this narrative explores the global mission to preserve the endangered jaguar’s habitat through science, Indigenous activism, and tireless conservation efforts.


🗳️ Sybil Derrible, The Infrastructure Book: How Cities Work and Power Our Lives
illuminem category: Public Governance 🖊️, Sustainable Lifestyle  🍃
Infrastructure systems power cities silently, yet remain misunderstood. This guide explores global urban engineering to reveal how foundational networks function and must evolve for future resilience.


🗳️ Monica Feria-Tinta, A Barrister for the Earth: Ten Cases of Hope for Our Future [not shortlisted in the final vote]
illuminem category: Public Governance 🖊️, Nature 🌱
Exploring the frontier where law meets ecology, this work details landmark litigation securing legal personhood for nature, empowering courts to protect ecosystems and enforce state accountability.


🗳️John Fullerton, Regenerative Economics: Revolutionary Thinking for a World in Crisis
illuminem category: Sustainable Lifestyle 🍃, Sustainable Finance 💰
Proposing a whole-living-systems approach, this book identifies flaws in modern capitalism and offers regenerative principles to navigate the polycrisis. It prescribes transformative actions to nurture long-term human and planetary well-being.


🗳️ Alex Gold, Leaving Planet Simple: Embracing Sustainability, ESG, and Resilience to Transform Your Business [not shortlisted in the final vote]
illuminem category:  Corporate Sustainability 💼, Ethical Governance 🏛️
Moving beyond outdated paradigms of environmental mastery, this work advocates for a resilience-based mindset, framing organizations as interconnected ecosystems that must adapt to systemic uncertainty.


🗳️ Paul Hawken, Carbon: The Book of Life
illuminem category:  Carbon 🌫️, Nature 🌱
Exploring carbon as the essential animator of existence, this work reframes the maligned element as a life-giving force, highlighting the interconnectedness of ecosystems and humanity.

🗳️ Renat Heuberger, Steve Zwick, and Marco Hirsbrunner, The Carbon Paradox
illuminem category: Carbon 🌫️, Environmental Sustainability 🌍
Recognized as one of the most anticipated climate titles of 2025, this book redefines the boundaries between fact and fiction to shed light on a pressing global dilemma: how to finance meaningful climate action in an imperfect world.


🗳️Kalyani Inampudi, Jonathan Rackoff, Standardising Carbon Markets: Improving Transparency and Traceability with AI, DLT & IoT
illuminem category: Carbon 🌫️, Sustainable Finance 💰
This guide explores how blockchain and tokenization can scale carbon markets, offering businesses transparent, interoperable solutions to trade offsets and leverage Web3 technology for climate impact.


🗳️ Tony Juniper, Just Earth: How a Fairer World Will Save the Planet
illuminem category: Environmental Sustainability 🌍, Ethical Governance 🏛️
This book is a radical exploration of how global inequality obstructs climate action, advocating for systemic shifts toward fairness to resolve environmental crises


🗳️ Marco Lambertini, Becoming Nature Positive
illuminem category: Nature 🌱, Sustainable Lifestyle 🍃
In this unprecedented new multi-author book, leading nature voices discuss what Nature Positive means, why it is so crucial, and what it will take to move away from today’s nature-negative society and economy and embrace a new nature-positive development, economic and, perhaps above all, cultural model.


🗳️Bill McKibben, Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization [not shortlisted in the final vote]
illuminem category: Environmental Sustainability 🌍, Energy Transition⚡
This book examines Bill McKibben’s perspective on the climate crisis, asserting that rapid transition to affordable renewable energy provides a critical pathway toward ecological and democratic stability.


🗳️ Thea Riofrancos, Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism [not shortlisted in the final vote]
illuminem category:  Corporate Sustainability 💼, Nature 🌱
This investigation explores the dilemma of lithium mining, exposing the environmental and geopolitical costs of green tech while proposing a more just, low-impact ecological future.


🗳️ Ira Saxena, Inside Fuming Forests [not shortlisted in the final vote]
illuminem category: Ethical Governance 🏛️, Human Rights ⚖️
A thriller exploring the conflict between corporate exploitation, forest conservation, and indigenous rights within a volatile and threatened landscape


🗳️ Kathy A. Seabrook, Tanis Marquette, Connecting the Dots: Environment, Health, Safety, and Sustainability
illuminem category:  Environmental Sustainability 🌍, Sustainable Finance 💰
This book provides a guide to integrating Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) with Sustainability, offering actionable frameworks to transition from a compliance mindset to a model of long-term value creation.

illuminem's medals for the 2026 Sustainability Book of the Year Winner and Finalists