There is a vast and growing literature evaluating the consequences of business for global sustainability. To begin, you may want to widen my Chapter 1 snapshot of the global environmental crisis. There are many reasonable books to choose from, including Clive Hamilton, Defiant Earth (Polity, 2017) and Edward O. Wilson, Half-Earth (W.W. Norton, 2016). For those wanting a more historical understanding of the reasons for today’s environmental crisis, one of the best options is John Robert McNeill and Peter Engelke, The Great Acceleration (Belknap Press, 2014). Also worth everyone’s time is the new edition of Alfred W. Crosby’s classic study of the devastating ecological consequences of imperialism, Ecological Imperialism (Cambridge University Press, 2004).
There is an extensive literature on the role of corporations in escalating this crisis. Joel Bakan’s book, The Corporation (Free Press, 2004), is an excellent entry point, as is his acclaimed documentary based on this book (http://thecorporation.com). Naomi Klein offers a more recent, and highly accessible, analysis of the consequences of rising corporate power for climate change in This Changes Everything (Simon & Schuster, 2014); the documentary of her book is also worth watching (https://thefilm.thischangeseverything.org). Klein’s earlier books – No Logo (Viking Canada, 2000) and The Shock Doctrine (Picador, 2007) – also offer many insights into the destructive nature of corporations. Christopher Wright and Daniel Nyberg provide a more scholarly take in Climate Change, Capitalism, and Corporations (Cambridge University Press, 2015). For those looking for analysis of these themes set deeply in the writings of Karl Marx and Marxist theorists, the best book of recent years is Jason W. Moore, Capitalism in the Web of Life (Verso Books, 2015).
All of the books above contain insights into Chapter 2’s analysis of how and where the power of big business is rising. For further insights into the power of business in American politics, see Robert B. Reich, Supercapitalism (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007). David C. Korten’s When Corporations Rule the World, 3rd edn. (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2015), which examines the growing concentration of wealth and power among the world’s top companies (building on the first edition, published in 1995), is also worth reading. Another fine analysis of the rising power of TNCs is Susan George, Shadow Sovereigns: How Global Corporations are Seizing Power (Polity, 2015). The following books might also interest those curious to learn more about the rise of a “super-rich”: Chrystia Freeland, Plutocrats (Doubleday Canada, 2012) and Iain Hay, ed., Geographies of the Super-Rich (Edward Elgar, 2013).
My book with Jane Lister, Eco-Business (MIT Press, 2013), is a logical entry point into the literature reviewed in Chapter 3 on how and why TNCs are using CSR and sustainability programs to compete for competitive advantages, including cost savings, market growth, production efficiencies, and brand value. For further analysis of how sustainability discourses and policies have come to serve business interests, see Adrian Parr, Hijacking Sustainability (MIT Press, 2012) and Adrian Parr, The Wrath of Capital (Columbia University Press, 2013). My book with Genevieve LeBaron – Protest Inc. (Polity, 2014) – adds an analysis of why, and to what extent, NGOs are embracing big-business sustainability, and how this is altering the agendas and discourse of activists. Lisa Ann Richey and Stefano Ponte’s Brand Aid (University of Minnesota Press, 2011) further extends the understanding of the consequences of NGO–business partnerships for social activism.
CSR and business sustainability, as Chapter 3 shows, is improving corporate performance on some measures. There are many possible books to choose from to extend my analysis of where, when, and how gains are occurring. For a small sampling, see Geoffrey Jones, Profits and Sustainability (Oxford University Press, 2017); Andrew J. Hoffman, Finding Purpose (Greenleaf, 2016); Alfred A. Marcus, Innovations in Sustainability (Cambridge University Press, 2015); John Mackey and Raj Sisodia, Conscious Capitalism (Harvard Business Review Press, 2014); and William McDonough and Michael Braungart, The Upcycle (North Point, 2013).
Walmart, as Chapter 3 notes, led the corporate charge to seek business gains from pursuing aspects of environmental sustainability. For a popular account, see Edward Humes, Force of Nature (Harper-Collins, 2011). For an analysis of Walmart’s role in advancing the uptake of conflict-free gold and ethical jewelry, see Michael J. Bloomfield, Dirty Gold (MIT Press, 2017). For a history of Walmart more generally, see Nelson Lichtenstein, The Retail Revolution (Metropolitan Books, 2009).
There is an equally expansive literature on the destructive practices of firms claiming to be responsible, and how, as Chapter 4 surveys, CSR can act as a smokescreen to hide poor practices. One of the best books on how big business sabotages critical narratives is Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, Merchants of Doubt (Bloomsbury Press, 2010). Kerryn Higgs in her book Collision Course (MIT Press, 2014) provides a thorough history of the backlash against the idea of “limits to growth,” which the “Club of Rome” popularized in the early 1970s. There are also many books investigating the dubious practices of specific firms, such as Bartow J. Elmore, Citizen Coke (W. W. Norton, 2015).
My books, The Shadows of Consumption (MIT Press, 2008) and Environmentalism of the Rich (MIT Press, 2016), would be reasonable starting points for digging further into Chapter 5’s analysis of the role of big business in fostering excessive, unequal, and wasteful consumption. So too would Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff (Free Press, 2010). For those wanting to delve deeper into the academic debates surrounding the environmental consequences of consumption, one of the best books taking a “consumption angle” is Thomas Princen, Michael Maniates, and Ken Conca, eds., Confronting Consumption (MIT Press, 2002).
For those interested in the consequences of advertising for children’s consumption, a first-rate book is Joel Bakan, Childhood Under Siege (Simon & Schuster, 2011). Juliet B. Schor’s bestselling Born to Buy (Scribner, 2004) also offers many insights into the culture of consumerism, as does: Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants (Alfred A. Knopf, 2016); Tim Jackson, Prosperity without Growth, 2nd edn. (Routledge, 2017); Nato Thompson, Culture as Weapon (Melville House Publishing, 2017); and Frank Trentmann, Empire of Things (Harper, 2017).
Polity’s Resources series provides a wide-ranging source of books on the global politics of natural resource consumption, and includes my 2011 book Timber (with Jane Lister), as well as many others, such as Elizabeth R. DeSombre and J. Samuel Barkin, Fish (2011); Michael Nest, Coltan (2011); David Lewis Feldman, Water (2012); Derek Hall, Land (2013); Gavin Fridell, Coffee (2014); Ian Smillie, Diamonds (2014); Ben Richardson, Sugar (2015); Adam Sneyd, Cotton (2016); Jennifer Clapp, Food, 2nd edn. (2016); Bill Winders, Grains (2016); Gavin Bridge and Philippe Le Billon, Oil, 2nd edn. (2017); Anthony Burke, Uranium (2017); and Kristy Leissle, Cocoa (2018).
To fill out the sketch in Chapter 5 of the deteriorating state of the global environment, see Ian Angus, Facing the Anthropocene (NYU Press, 2016); George M. Woodwell, A World to Live In (MIT Press, 2016); Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction (Henry Holt and Company, 2014); Jared M. Diamond, Collapse, revised edn. (Penguin, 2011); and Bill McKibben, Eaarth (Times Books, 2010).
To expand on Chapter 6’s conclusions on the failure of global environmental governance, it might help to begin with Thomas Hale, David Held, and Kevin Young, Gridlock (Polity, 2013), although you should then follow up with the more optimistic analysis in Thomas Hale and David Held, eds., Beyond Gridlock (Polity, 2017). Susan George’s Whose Crisis, Whose Future? (Polity, 2010) also offers a lively critique of global governance.
For analyses of the prospects and limits of private environmental governance, see A. Claire Cutler and Thomas Dietz, eds., The Politics of Private Transnational Governance by Contract (Routledge, 2017). For a critique of certification as a governance instrument, see Scott Poynton, Beyond Certification (Greenleaf, 2015). For a sampling of analyses of private governance, see Jessica F. Green, Rethinking Private Authority (Princeton University Press, 2014); Graeme Auld, Constructing Private Governance (Yale University Press, 2014); and Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs, eds., Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance (MIT Press, 2009).
There is also a large literature on what might comprise a global politics of sustainability, and how and why this politics must constrain the destructive impulses of big business. For a deeper understanding of what the majority of environmentalists would see as the principles of sustainability, see Randall Curren and Ellen Metzger, Living Well Now and in the Future (MIT Press, 2017); Leslie Paul Thiele, Sustainability (Polity, 2013); and Thomas Princen, The Logic of Sufficiency (MIT Press, 2005).
The pathways toward global sustainability are not going to be easy to find, and figuring out a politics to constrain big business will involve multiscale, complex governance. My book with Jennifer Clapp, Paths to a Green World, 2nd edn. (MIT Press, 2011) offers a typology to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the main approaches currently in play within global environmental politics. John Dryzek’s book, The Politics of the Earth, 3rd edn. (Oxford University Press, 2013) also offers a helpful summary of the various discourses.
After reading these books, it would then make sense to dive into the literature on what might constitute effective global environmental governance, including the overview by Kate O’Neill, The Environment and International Relations, 2nd edn. (Cambridge University Press, 2017), as well as more specific analyses, such as Simon Nicholson and Sikina Jinnah, eds., New Earth Politics (MIT Press, 2016); Paul F. Steinberg, Who Rules the Earth? (Oxford University Press, 2015); and Frank Biermann, Earth System Governance (MIT Press, 2014).