9 Sustainable-Home Books For A More Eco-Friendly Life

Now that it's Earth Month, living sustainably is top of mind — beyond just recycling. Let's face it: We're in a climate crisis that will severely impact the way we live if we don't take the necessary steps to create a healthier planet. Reducing our environmental footprint should be a high priority year-round, and it can start in the home.

We rounded up a few books that offer guidance and inspiration for creating a more sustainable place to live, whether that involves eliminating food waste or renovating a room. If you think the list seems overwhelming, you're not alone. Being in a situation as dire as the deteriorating health of our planet may cause a feeling of helplessness, but if you can check one thing off the list, you'll certainly be making a difference. A little bit can go a long way.

Scandinavia has an iconic design culture and is particularly known for its environmentally friendly endeavors. Author Kjetil Fallan takes readers on a journey through Scandinavian design in the late 1960s as designers began to question the endless cycle of production, consumption, discarding, and replacement. Fallan believes that environmental awareness and modern design go hand in hand — and rightfully so.

‌Repair‌ serves as a collection of stories from contributors across the design industry who focus on responses to broken systems. The book is intended to set the foundation for a new future in design socially, environmentally, and economically. Through 30 chapters, photo essays, and interviews, the pages will inspire people to think differently about sustainability and its impact.

In collaboration with furniture giant IKEA, this book hones in on small changes you can make at home that will have a positive impact on the environment around the world. For this release, IKEA explored the act of living sustainably, as it's one of the most pressing challenges we're dealing with today. The team visited homes and workspaces across countries like Mexico, Russia, and Lebanon to see how we can improve how we live.

Authors Serena Ball and Deanna Segrave-Daly have teamed up for the cookbook of our dreams: a climate-friendly guide to Mediterranean cuisine. As one of the healthiest and most sustainable diets in the world, Mediterranean food is nothing short of delicious, and this cookbook proves it with recipes like falafel with pickled herb spread, Turkish tomato flatbread, and smoked seafood farro risotto. Ball and Segrave-Daly also offer tips for creating a more eco-friendly kitchen, such as choosing sustainable ingredients, using energy-saving cooking methods, and reducing food waste.

Authors Sadhbh Moore and Abi Aspen Glencross have created a handbook for how to shop, cook, and eat in a sustainable way. From browsing the grocery aisles to figuring out how to store leftovers and clean your kitchen, the two cover all the bases. The book will guide you to think about food in a direction that is both healthier for you and kinder to our planet.

Design experts over at Remodelista.com have crafted a guide to making planet-friendly choices at home. This book features room-by-room suggestions for reducing your environmental footprint while showcasing other inspiring homes that belong to people who embody low-impact living. Besides offering tips for creating a space that is both beautiful and environmentally sound, the pages are interspersed with advice on smaller changes, like choosing sustainable household essentials, conserving energy, and recycling products so they don't end up in a landfill.

Author Avi Friedman provides an in-depth analysis of challenges faced by designers and how they have responded to the evolving nature of residential homes. Modeled to be used as a reference book for urban planners, architects, designers, and builders of all kinds, the book offers sustainable ideas for future homes. These important methods of meeting global challenges in sustainability are just another step toward alleviating the climate crisis.

Ida Magntorn has written a beautiful collection of tips for how to focus on sustainability when it comes to interiors and creating a healthy home with the environment in mind. The author covers a range of topics, like how to reduce plastic consumption, the best ways to clean with eco-friendly products, and how to blur the line between the outdoors and indoors. Radiating positivity, Magntorn walks the reader through all the rooms in the house, highlighting how to live a green life.

Taking a realism approach to design, ‌Pretty Good House‌ offers solutions for renovating a high-performing home while working within financial constraints and helping the planet as much as possible. Leaning toward practicality, the book focuses on living minimally; creating well-insulated homes; and most of all, making a home as healthy, responsible, and resilient as possible.