Best books for climate tech marketers + founders
Our top 9 recommended reads for climate tech marketers and founders
Hello friends,
Amelia here, talking about my favourite thing in the world. 📚
Most of my mentors have emerged from the pages of books, so here are my top nine book recommendations for climate tech marketers and founders.
But first up, our new website!
Meg and I are now serving clients through The Climate Hub — a content, branding, and lead-generation agency for climate tech startups. Our goal: to put your marketing on automagic ✨ (so you’ll have the time to get through all these books…)
Who Not How
Dan Sullivan + Ben Hardy
This one will change how you think about almost everything in your life. It’s how small teams can take massive action — and produce far better outputs as a result. (Once you’ve read this, you can dive into the other Dan Sullivan + Ben Hardy books and thank us later. I recommend the audiobooks with the extra interviews at the end.)
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
Al Ries + Laura Ries
Essential for anyone in the early days of building a brand. The key: stand for something (and only that). I’m told their other books, including The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, are also great.
Death Sentence
Don Watson
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve recommended this one. I’ve shipped it to people all over the world. For B2B climate tech, this is an especially necessary guidebook for dealing with all the junk words that come along with corporate sustainability initiatives. Helpful when crafting your own messaging and keeping it grounded, specific, and as far from greenwashing as possible.
Don’t Even Think About It + What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming
George Monbiot & Per Espen Stoknes
A little more tangential — these are about how people think (or rather, don’t think) about climate change. For those who found themselves in this space out of a passion for climate action, these books can help you move away from aspirational climate positioning and towards more practical, compelling selling points.
Influence
Robert Cialdini
A classic for anyone in sales or marketing. Will change the way you think about human interaction and persuasion. Charlie Munger liked this book so much that he gave Cialdini an A-class share of Berkshire Hathaway (~$120,000).
The 1-Page Marketing Plan
Allan Dib
If it all feels too complicated, give this short book a read, and then fill out the accompanying worksheet. Very useful for simplifying your thinking.
Building a Story Brand
Donald Miller
Essential reading for crafting customer-centric value propositions. Read this before you do any sort of branding work.
Not the End of the World
Hannah Ritchie
It’s hip to talk about the end of the world, but it’s not very accurate. Things can get a little depressing in this industry, so Hannah Ritchie’s latest book can help put things into perspective. Two of my other favourite ‘optimist’ books include Enlightenment Now and Rational Optimist.