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Go Green with our recommended TV Shows, Films, and Books

For Go Green Week, we’ve collected a list of films, documentaries, books, and tips to help lead a sustainable life!

Beds SU Sustainability Team

By Beds SU Sustainability Team

Thursday, 16 March 2023

In celebration of Go Green Week we’ve gathered a range of mixed media and the following is list of recommended and critically acclaimed TV programmes, films, and books.

We hope the content gathered allows you to feel more educated on the issues surrounding sustainability and the environment.

TV Programmes/Films

A Plastic Ocean

The documentary explores the extent of our plastic pollution problem through the eyes of journalist Craig Leeson and a team of scientists and researchers. Traveling to twenty locations worldwide over four years, they reveal shocking ways in which plastic is invading ecosystems.

Available to stream on YouTube, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video.



I Am Greta

This documentary tells the remarkable story of Greta Thunberg, a Swedish teen who has emerged as one of the world’s celebrated climate activists. The story follows her on an international mission to promote scientific understanding of the environmental crisis. 

Available to stream on BBC iPlayer, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video

ReDress The Future

Climate activist Mikaela Loach works with WaterBear to investigate how sustainability, trends, and waste are linked within the fashion industry. This three-part series highlights industry changemakers who are reshaping style by using repurposing waste materials. 

Available to stream on waterbear

Seaspiracy

This Netflix original documentary sees a filmmaker lauded for his passion for ocean life as he sets out to record the harm caused by humans to marine life and discovers alarming global corruption in the process. 

Available to stream on Netflix.

 

Our Planet

Netflix’s first ever nature documentary narrated by the one and only David Attenborough. This series focuses on conservation issues while showcasing these animals in their homes and has been widely recognized for its focus on humans' impact on the environment, focusing on how climate change impacts all living creatures. 

Available to stream on Netflix

Cowspiracy 

A documentary released in 2014 by Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn explores the environmental impacts of animal agriculture. The documentary examines such issues as climate change, water use, deforestation, and ocean dead zones as well as several environmental organizations' policies. 

Available to stream on Netflix, Apple TV, and Google Play Movies & TV.

Welcome to Earth

Will Smith travels around the world in this six-part Disney+ original limited series to uncover Earth's greatest wonders and secrets. Our planet's surface is still so unmapped, despite our belief that humans have explored every inch of it and this sequence of episodes proves just that.

Available to stream on Disney+

Chasing Coral 

A coral reef can survive for thousands of years, but only if certain conditions are met. This 2017 award-winning documentary tracks coral bleaching, a phenomenon that is killing coral reefs at a rate never seen before. By taking a closer look at Coral Reefs, we will learn just how important coral reefs are to marine life as well as humans. 

Available to stream on Netflix

Books

The Sustainable(ish) Living Guide: Everything you need to know to make small changes that make a big difference by Jen Gale

Jen Gale spent a year buying nothing new and recorded her experience online. Her rules have been relaxed a little, but her passion for sustainability remains. Whether you're looking for food and fashion tips or advice on how to work and travel, she has hundreds of tips for taking the plunge and doing good every day without radically changing who you are.

How Bad are Bananas: The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee  

This book is filled with facts and figures around humanity's carbon footprint helping us uncover the true effects of absolutely everything. As well as this insightful information you will be overloaded with tools to help you reduce your own carbon footprint.

How To Break Up with Fast Fashion: A guilt-free guide to changing the way you shop - for good by Lauren Bravo

Lauren Bravo, a journalist and long-time fashion lover, decided to change her ways and become more sustainable. This book contains her advice and useful tips for repairing, recycling, and buying clothes that last, even on a tight budget.


The Joyful Environmentalist: How to Practise without Preaching by Isabel Losada

Author Isabel Losada gets right to the solutions without bothering with an analysis of the problem in her short chapters for this award-winning book of 2022. In all aspects of our lives, she strives to ensure that we take care of the planet. This includes how we eat, what we drink, how we dress, how we vote, how we play, how we volunteer and even how we bank.

Lonely Planet Sustainable Escapes

Everyone loves a holiday and why shouldn’t you. It’s a time to relax and unwind but just how great would you feel if you were being eco-friendly whilst doing it?  One of the leading travel guidebook publishers has introduced a guide to the world's best eco-friendly destinations and with nearly 180 "escapes," you’ll be spoilt for choice.

Sustainability tips

We've also put together an excellent article to show how you can make a real difference every day by reducing your waste and your own carbon footprint. From re-usable bottles, to bike riding, find out how everyone can do their bit to save the planet!

At Beds SU, we have an Environmental society. If you’d like more information about this group, please email environmentalsociety.beds@gmail.com