This is a gem of a small book with big ideas, primarily focused on creating an organization built around meaning and purpose

Locates change management at a very personal level first and foremost: navigating through a "neutral zone" between where one has been and where one is eventually headed.

This is the book that popularized a whole field related to EQ (as opposed to IQ) and also helped spawn research into SQ or Spiritual Intelligence (Dannah Zohar). All about how we know things as opposed to what we know. In a world that is more and more about the management of relationships among peoples, this is a key tool.

Hawken's first book, beautifully written and still one of my favorites. The title pretty much says it all, looking at a business as something organic, to be nurtured in much the same way one would nurture anything to grow and mature over a long period of time.

All about scenario planning and the stories we need to shape now in order to anticipate some of the likely changes we will be facing in the future. Arie Schwartz discusses not only the "whys" but also the "hows" of doing scenario planning. For anyone who has a sense of impending natural limits in mind, this is a critical read.

OK, I admit it: This book made me feel like a real gullible yahoo. All about the practice of monetarist policies as implemented through IMF and World Bank: creating economic and democratic shocks to the system by opening countries up to unbridled free-market capitalism, and yes, even personal shocks to dissidents.

I happen to feel that Senge's The Fifth Discipline is a better book, more thoughtfully researched. Still, The Necessary Revolution takes the basics of The Fifth Discipline and places them in the context of issues related to sustainability -- so you get both business leadership and sustainability rolled into one.

Shuman walks readers through doing a "leakage" audit" to critiquing the largesse with which local Economic Development Authorities hand out favors to nationals and multinationals, to arguing in favor of developing local economies. Any business leader looking at sustainability today needs to get his/her hands around the localization movment -- this is a good place to start.

There's nothing that screams "sustainability" about these various small companies profiled in Burlingham's book -- except of course that they are all values-centric and have all made the decision to grow at a deliberate pace that enables them to serve as change agents in their respective communities. An important book, one that doesn't, unfortunately, get a lot of attention.

He's part preacher, part guru, part inverse of the turn of the prior century's robber barons -- the post child for sustainable business practices. Can't say enough good things about Ray. The sustainability movement is blessed to have someone of his heart and mind.

One of several Natural Step studies profiling businesses that utilize multiple bottom lines as part of their practices

A good intro book on triple bottom line practices. More of a prgamatic than idealistic approach, arguing (from Oscar Wilde) that it's preferable to be at the table discussing triple bottom line practices than to be on the menu.

Written by the founder and CEO of Seventh Generation, this book, while seeming a bit dated, provides both good historical backdrop to the sustainability movement and an overview of issues that most cutting-edge businesses face today.

By the founder and CEO of Stoneyfield Farm. Great yogurt, so-so book. Best parts have to do with the innovative approaches to marketing. Weak on the overarching philosophy and ideology of sustainability. But there are plenty of other books out there that do that. A nice quick read.

Good early book on how one might manage a business drawing upon triple bottom line metrics. More of a theoretical accounting, using an amalgam of actual companies to form a fictional entity, which is then analyzed financially based on various sustainable moves it makes. A good companion piece to Savitz and Winston/Esty.

Have to include at least a few classics: This would probably be at the top of the charts in terms of thinking big by thinking small. Big influence personally on how one leverages the resources of a small company. Nice synergies with Burlingham's Small Giants.