Some years are about learning new tools. Some years are about sharpening arguments. And some years are about survival. For many sustainability professionals, 2025 was the third option. So it won’t surprise you that many of my reads last year and recommendations are about learning how to live inside uncertainty without losing our moral footing.
If the early years of ESG were about proving relevance, and the middle years were about scaling systems, 2025 was the year many of us quietly asked: What actually holds when the noise gets louder, the timelines get shorter, and the answers stay maddeningly incomplete?
My hope as you put these on your 2026 reading list is that you find them steadying. They grapple with climate, capitalism, ethics, connection, and catastrophe — not to scare us senseless, but to help us stay human, grounded, and courageous in the work. You won’t find easy optimism here. You also won’t find despair. What you will find is perspective — ancient and modern, fictional and analytical — on how to keep going when clarity is partial and stakes are high.
Let’s dive in.
Category 1: Stories That Tell the Truth When Data Can’t
This year, I found that starting with a great story was far more effective than simple frameworks or forecasts. Sometimes the fastest way to understand the consequences of our choices is not a chart, but a narrative that crawls under your skin and stays there.
Charlotte McConaghy’s Climate Fiction Trilogy
(Migrations, Once There Were Wolves, Wild Dark Shore)
Wild Dark Shore is on almost every book lover’s 2025 “Best Of” list and it was truly my favorite book of the year, both as an individual and as a sustainability professional. Charlotte McConaghy’s climate novels are truly moral compass stirring. I highly recommend reading all three as a body of work, as they ask a similar question in very different and thought provoking ways: What does it cost to love a planet in collapse, and what are we willing to sacrifice to protect it?
Her characters live at the edge, geographically, emotionally, ethically. And in doing so, they mirror the edge many sustainability leaders feel they’re standing on right now. These books won’t give you answers. They will invoke empathy, grief, resolve, and a reminder that climate change is never just environmental. It’s personal.
Find Charlotte on Instagram.
The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer
I might start having a stack of these on my desk to gift to people who need a calm and quiet reflection on what we do every day. This book is a quiet gift. A parable, really, about reciprocity, generosity, and economies rooted not in extraction but in relationship. Kimmerer invites us to imagine what business, value, and exchange might look like if we measured success the way ecosystems do — by resilience, regeneration, and shared flourishing.
For anyone exhausted by zero-sum thinking, The Serviceberry is a gentle but radical reframe. Less manifesto, more invitation.
Find Robin on Instagram.
Category 2: Rethinking the Economic Story We’ve Been Telling Ourselves
If ESG work has taught us anything, it’s that sustainability problems are rarely technical. They’re economic and political — shaped by incentives, stories, and power structures we’ve inherited rather than chosen.
Regenerative Economics by John Fullerton
John and I have similar stories about working for a large corporation and having that company break your heart and your spirit in many ways. His first edition of Regenerative Economics was published as a handbook of sort for Yale MBAs, and in 2025 he re-published it with new information, a second section, and commentary on his long held ideas that our economic model globally is broken. In what is definitely an econ-heavy read but worth the effort, Fullerton offers a vision of an economy designed to regenerate rather than deplete, to serve life rather than abstract growth metrics.
This is not light reading, but it’s a must read for any sustainability professional grappling with “winning budget” and proving ROI of our work. This book will help to reconcile ESG goals with financial systems that often pull in the opposite direction.
Find John Fullerton on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
Ok, everyone is a little mad at Ezra Klein right now after a disastrous podcast episode last fall. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, because this book deserves to be read. Klein and Thompson issue, in Abundance, a sharp examination of why so many well-intentioned systems fail to deliver results — and what it would take to build a politics (and economy) capable of actually solving big problems.
For ESG practitioners navigating regulatory gridlock, backlash, or stalled progress, Abundance is a reminder that ambition without execution isn’t virtue and that capacity-building matters as much as vision.
Find Ezra on Instagram. Find Derek on Instagram.
Category 3: Old Wisdom for New Chaos
When the world feels unstable, there’s a temptation to look for certainty. And there’s very little that has defied the test of time more than the ancient wisdom of the Stoics. I leaned in a bit this year on the idea that we’re not always solving new problems. Sometimes we can lean on what has been done to fight similar fights in the past.
Reasons Not to Worry by Brigid Delaney
A modern, accessible take on Stoicism for anxious times. Delaney doesn’t promise calm; she offers perspective. This is a book about choosing where and where not to place your energy in a world that seems designed to keep you perpetually outraged.
For ESG leaders carrying emotional labor on top of technical responsibility, this one feels like a hand on the shoulder.
Find Brigid on LinkedIn.
The Ethics of Ambiguity by Simone de Beauvoir
This is the philosophical heavyweight of the list, and please go with me when I tell you it’s worth every page. De Beauvoir dismantles the idea that moral clarity requires certainty, arguing instead that ethics live precisely in ambiguity, freedom, and responsibility. Her analysis of a post-Hitler world teaches us volumes about the world we’re living in today.
If you’ve ever felt paralyzed by imperfect options, competing harms, or incomplete information, this book names the terrain you’re already walking and insists that action still matters.
Category 4: ESG as Practice, Not Just Principle
I recommend these books for those who are new to sustainability or ESG, or those looking to re-ground in the basics of our work.
ESG Mindset by Matthew Sekol
This is a solid primer for anyone entering the ESG space — or for seasoned professionals looking to reset their foundations. Sekol focuses on resilience, long-term value creation, and integrating ESG into core business strategy rather than treating it as an add-on.
It’s practical, clear, and refreshingly grounded.
Find Matthew on LinkedIn.
Amplify by Adam Met and Heather Landy
My niece introduced me to Adam Met as a musician, one of the brothers who is a part of AJR. But Adam’s talent goes far beyond music to a deep passion for sustainability. At its heart, this book is about connection — how movements grow, how people engage, and how collective action actually happens. In a moment when many sustainability efforts feel fragmented or stalled, Amplify is a reminder that progress is relational before it is structural.
This one pairs well with any leadership team struggling to move from awareness to action.
Find Adam on Instagram. Find Heather on LinkedIn.
Category 5: Looking Directly at Catastrophe (Without Flinching)
One of the questions potential clients love to ask me is “What’s the next COVID? I vacillate between saying something innocuous like “who knows” vs. something wildly specific like “total power grid failure.” But the point is, every sustainability professional should be actively, regularly thinking about Crisis with a “Big C.” These final two books force us to confront the uncomfortable truth: some risks are existential, and pretending otherwise doesn’t make them go away.
What Could Go Wrong? by Scott Z. Burns
Scott Burns is the writer/producer of the hit film “Contagion,” which had a resurgence in popularity during the pandemic. His Audible Original reads like a podcast and makes my 2026 list because it blends two huge megatrends: the use of AI in writing and examining how complex systems fail and why early warnings are so often ignored. It may be about a crisis movie, but it’s actually a fun read that will make you think about everything from ChatGPT to ocean plastics.
Find Scott on Instagram.
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
This is one of the most unsettling books I’ve read in years, but one of the most important. Jacobsen walks readers through a plausible nuclear escalation scenario with journalistic rigor and devastating clarity.
Why include it on an ESG list? Because sustainability is ultimately about preventing irreversible harm, and few risks are more irreversible than this. This book is a stark reminder that some stakes defy quarterly thinking.
Find Annie on Instagram.
Closing Thoughts
This year’s list isn’t about motivation. It’s about moral stamina.
These books won’t make the work easier, but they will help you stay oriented. They remind us that leadership in uncertain times isn’t about having the cleanest answer. It’s about showing up anyway, making the best decision you can with the information you have, and staying accountable to the people and systems affected by your choices.
Read slowly. Let these sit with you. And remember: steadiness is a strategy.
If you want help turning insight into action — building systems that hold under pressure, not just in theory — the Veerless team is always here to walk alongside you.
The work continues. And so do we.