Environmental Law and Sustainability, a Berkshire Essential, introduces environmental regulations and agreements from around the world, with a focus on those with the most potential for international impact. This concise handbook, designed for use in classrooms at the high school and college level, compares legal systems between nations such as the United States and Canada; Australia and New Zealand; and India, Pakistan, and China, allowing readers to see how environmental laws are enacted - and enforced - differently around the globe. Other topics include biotechnology and nanotechnology legislation, and the ""polluter pays"" principle, a key aspect of international environmental policy.

Energy Industries and Sustainability, a Berkshire Essential, covers the exploitation of energy resources-such as coal, petroleum, and wood-and the innovations that can provide the energy we need for a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable future. Forty expert authors explain concepts such as ""materials substitution"" and the ""polluter pays principle"" and examine the industries and practices that bring us energy from the sun, water, and wind. This concise handbook offers a broad view of positive steps being taken to make responsible energy use a priority around the globe, and is designed for use in classrooms at the high school and college level. The book will be helpful to engaged citizens as well as to business people, policy makers, and environmental professionals. Controversial topics such as nuclear power and fracking are explained clearly and impartially, with a view to promoting thoughtful discussion and informed decision-making.

Ecosystem Services for Sustainability, a Berkshire Essential, covers the many benefits provided by things we too often take for granted: the aquifers and glaciers that provide our drinking water, the forests and oceans that store excess carbon dioxide, the microscopic organisms that enrich the soil in which we grow our food, and the insects that play a crucial role in maintaining the global food supply. A team of well-known authors, writing for the nonexpert reader, looks at how nature provides for humankind, and how humankind can, in return, protect valuable and limited natural resources. The authors also explore practical ways of managing ecosystem services and integrating them into our global economy.

China, India, and East and Southeast Asia: Assessing Sustainability provides unprecedented analyses by regional experts and scholars elsewhere in the world on China, India, and their neighbors. Despite growing demands internally on their natural resources (China and India alone are home to more than one-third of the world's population), the expanding global economic influence of this region makes these countries vital players in a sustainable future for all citizens of the Earth. Regional coverage includes topics such as business and commerce, environmental and corporate law, and lifestyles and values.

The Future of Sustainability, the tenth and final volume of the Berkshire Encyclopedia of Sustainability, brings together essays from a group of renowned scholars and well-known environmentalist thinkers. Crucial topics are considered in terms of the future of humanity and its relationship with the natural world, from the outlook for nuclear energy, cities, energy, agriculture, water, food security, mobility, and migration; the role of higher education; and the concept of collective learning. The volume concludes with a resource guide for teaching materials at several levels, a directory of leading undergraduate- and graduate-level programs in sustainability, and a combined index of the 10-volume set.

Afro-Eurasia: Assessing Sustainability focuses on the geographic area where humans originated and first began to make use of the natural world - Earth's largest landmass, stretching from Portugal in the west across the steppes of Russia and south across Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. By examining the history of human expansion, as well as 21st century pressures to address ecosystem damage across the region, international scholars and regional experts weave sustainability into core curricular subjects. The interdisciplinary coverage includes national and regional environmental histories, as well as business and commerce, migration, educational institutions, law and government, and the lifestyles of diverse populations.

The Americas and Oceania: Assessing Sustainability provides extensive coverage of sustainability practices in two regions linked culturally and historically by their relative isolation before the Columbian exchange, by their colonization after it, and by the challenges of pollution, resource overuse, and environmental degradation. Regional experts and international scholars focus on environmental history in areas such as the South Pacific islands, now particularly threatened by rising ocean levels due to climate change, and on countries whose governments and corporations can play a major role in promoting or discouraging sustainable choices: Brazil, an emergent power on the world stage; the United States, the world's third most populous nation; and New Zealand, seemingly on its way to becoming an enviable model of sustainable development.

"Inspirational . . . Essential reading for anyone, whether lay, student, or practitioner, interested in business success today and in the environment."--"Library Journal "(starred review)

In 1994, Interface founder and chairman Ray Anderson set an audacious goal for his commercial carpet company: to take nothing "from" the earth that can't be replaced "by" the earth. In this remarkable book, Anderson leads the way forward and challenges all of us to share that goal.

The Interface story is a compelling one. Fifteen years after Anderson's initiative, Interface has:

-Cut greenhouse gas emissions by 94 percent

-Cut fossil fuel consumption by 60 percent

-Cut waste by 80 percent

-Cut water use by 80 percent

-Invented and patented new machines, materials, and manufacturing processes

-Increased sales by 66 percent, doubled earnings, and raised profit margins

Offering practical ideas and measurable outcomes that every business can use, Anderson shows that profit and sustainability are not mutually exclusive; we can improve our bottom lines and do right by the earth. Written with passion and an executive's hardheaded savvy, "Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist" is the most inspiring business book of our time.