The Accelerator’s 2025 reading list
17/12/2025
Each year, the books we read shape how we see the world and the work ahead. This selection of the Accelerator team’s 2025 non-fiction highlights offers insight into the intertwined challenges of justice, nature, and accountability – from Indigenous leadership and ecological interdependence to the institutions that enable (or block) meaningful change. Together, they remind us why we do what we do and what it takes to build a truly nature-positive, people-centered economy.
We Will Be Jaguars — Nemonte Nenquimo
This memoir is a sometimes tough and emotionally powerful reminder that frontline communities hold irreplaceable knowledge for protecting nature. The author’s insistence on sovereignty and accountability from governments and corporations echoes our focus on justice and Indigenous leadership. The book challenges us to keep lived experience at the forefront of any credible pathway to a nature-positive economy.
Crossings — Ben Goldfarb
This fascinating journey exposes how infrastructure, specifically roads, invisibly harms wildlife and ecosystems and how better design can repair those connections. It reinforces the need for systemic accountability and highlights the interconnection between natural and human systems, and the solutions that emerge when stakeholders collaborate and rethink defaults.
Autocracy, Inc. — Anne Applebaum
This book is a critical analysis of modern authoritarianism and a stark reminder that accountability—environmental, social, or political—depends on transparent institutions and empowered civil society. In a world where collaboration is being questioned at every turn, this is a reinforcement of why justice, rule of law, and community voice are essential to corporate responsibility.
The Light Eaters — Zoë Schlanger
This exploration of plant “intelligence” underscores how little we understand—and how much we rely on—living systems. This approachable book highlights the danger of corporate and societal decisions that undervalue ecological complexity and all its unknowns. It reinforces our commitment to science-based learning and the need to protect the integrity of the natural systems we all depend on.
The Serviceberry — Robin Wall Kimmerer
This short read is a meditation on reciprocity in nature and offers a blueprint for a regenerative economy. Kimmerer reminds us that giving and taking must be in balance if systems are to thrive. The Serviceberry ethos draws on Indigenous knowledge (as does her previous work, Braiding Sweetgrass) and mirrors the Accelerator’s mission: redesigning incentives so businesses contribute to, rather than extract from, nature and communities.
A Wild Idea — Jonathan Franklin
The story of Doug Tompkins and the conservation legacy he left in Chile and Argentina shows what’s possible when bold vision meets long-term commitment. It reminds us that transformative change often starts with those willing to disrupt norms and challenge corporate and political vested interests.
We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate — Michael Grunwald
An investigation of how the global food system drives climate change, exploring the urgent need for reform by examining the science, politics, and potential solutions for growing food more sustainably.
