In this bold and creative report, Worldwatch Institute, the premier environmental nonprofit, takes on the challenge of what it will take for countries to transform consumer cultures into cultures centered on sustainability. In the opening essay, Erik Assadourian reveals that in 2008 alone, people around the world purchased 68 million vehicles, 85 million refrigerators, 297 million computers, and 1.2 billion mobile (cell) phones. Consumption has grown dramatically and now more and more people in India, China, and elsewhere are yearning for a lifestyle similar to the American's. As the engines of consumerism have heated up, this has put increasing pressure on Earth's eco-systems on which humanity and countless other species depend. Climate change is just one of the symptoms of excessive consumption levels: others include air pollution, soil erosion, the annual production of more than 100 million tons of hazardous waste, abusive labor practices, obesity, time stress, and more.

British economist Paul Ekins describes consumerism as a cultural orientation in which "the possession and use of an increasing number and variety of goods and services is the principle cultural aspiration and the surest perceived route to personal happiness, social status, and national success." Behind this way of living are the business community; the marketing industry (one investigation showed that in America, two-year-olds who could not identify the letter M could identify the M-shaped golden arches of McDonald's); the media; government, especially the lack of regulation; and schools, which have dropped the ball in regard to teaching media literacy and the dangers of rampant consumerism.

The 25 articles following this introductory essay deliver a multidimensional survey of the ways in which leading institutions along with other social movements and sustainable traditions are offering a new cultural paradigm. One of the most interesting is the efforts of religious institutions that are taking up this crusade by printing Green Bibles, encouraging congregations to conserve energy, investing funds responsibly, and taking more stands against egregious environmental abuses such as eliminating forests and destroying mountaintops for coal. See Gary Gardner's essay on "Engaging Religions to Shape Worldviews."

Among the many paths to a culture centered on sustainability are fasting, Buying Nothing Day in the United States, respecting the wisdom of the elders, movements toward permaculture (a systems approach to designing human ecologies), efforts to limit commercialism in children's lives, an emphasis on environmental education in colleges, experiments on sustainable work schedules, relocalizing business, and more.