Sustainability titles: Thunberg is the tip of the iceberg

The previously niche Environment & Ecology sub-sector has sold 133,499 books, for £1.15m, through Nielsen BookScan in the year to 13th July. Its volume is now just 6,198 copies away from its all-time full-year record, achieved in 2009, and its annual value has surpassed £1m for the first time since 2010. That 2019 will be a record year for Environment & Ecology is nearly a safer bet than the year posting a new record global temperature.

For the first half of 2019, the sub-category—which couldn’t quite crack 50,000 books sold in the entirety of 2013—became the market’s highest riser in percentage terms, beating even the influencer-boosted House & Home category. It has carried on soaring since then, improving 277% in volume year on year and up 196% in value terms.
For the year to 31st August, Greta Thunberg’s No One is Too Small to Make a Difference is the sub-category’s number one in volume terms. With 81,262 copies sold since the end of May, the till-point titan has shifted more alone that its entire category did in the full years for 2017, 2016, 2014 and 2013. It has also notched up nine weeks as the Indie Retailer number one.

This is Not a Drill, the Extinction Rebellion handbook, has also flown off the shelves, with 28,435 copies sold since mid-June. Both This is Not a Drill and No One is Too Small to Make a Difference saw a volume boost in the week of the UK’s hottest ever recorded day, at the end of July.

The hardback edition of David Wallace-Wells’ The Uninhabitable Earth is still, in value terms, ahead of the 16-year-old’s tome by the skin of its fingers, at £293,283. The title boasts an eye-watering £16.31 average selling price, again pointing to indie bookseller backing—and the paperback edition, which hit the Top 50 this week, may give Greta a run for her money in the sub-category charts

All three titles appear in Environment & Ecology’s all-time top 20, with No One is Too Small to Make a Difference easily leapfrogging Tim Smit’s 2001 title Eden to take the number one slot.

Vegetarian Cookery is another sub-category that the climate change crisis has thrust into the spotlight. As many as one in eight Brits are now reported to be vegan, following several studies that identified a plant-based diet as the single biggest way the average consumer can reduce their environmental impact. A further 21% of the population have reportedly embraced flexitarianism, boosting vegetarian and vegan cookery books into the mainstream. It doesn’t get more mainstream than Jamie Oliver, and the celebrity chef’s Veg is already the third-bestselling Vegetarian Cookery book for the year to 31st August 2019.

Vegan vloggers Henry Firth and Ian Theasby performed strongly, with BOSH! and sequel BISH BASH BOSH! shifting a combined 239,529 copies since the first title’s publication in spring 2018. All in all, the Vegetarian Cookery category is up 62% in both volume and value in the year to 13th July, before the impact of Veg could even be felt. This year is already its second best ever in volume terms, and it looks set to propel the Food & Drink sector into double-digit growth this year, for the first time since 2016.

Date Range: Year to 31st August 2019 Source: Nielsen