“This book systematically investigates the philosophical foundations of sustainable development in the context of the history of environmental policy. Given the failures and inadequacies of many past policies, Norton proposes effective strategies for sustainable policy choices based on heuristic decision models. Previous environmental quality and sustainable development decision strategies were static and did not accurately achieve the desired outcome. These methods still persist with many policy makers. The author advocates that the optimal process is flexible and taken in small steps that regularly assess progress toward the best outcomes. He also provides strong arguments for a greater amount of pluralistic input in the decision process. Historical and current case studies provide compelling evidence of the author’s recommendation. . . . Recommended.”

B. R. Shmaefsky, Lone Star College-Kingwood | Choice

“Norton provides a thoughtful account of the issues currently vexing sustainability, refracting them through the lens of environmental values and then drawing together these insights into a practical program of action. . . . Sustainable Values, Sustainable Change is a novel bridge linking environmental values to adaptive management, and practitioners in both fields will benefit from a close reading and reflection.”

Marc Tadaki and Kai M. A. Chan, University of British Columbia | BioScience

“Norton has greatly expanded our understanding of sustainability as an idea, as a practice, and as a decision challenge. No one writing today can match his intellectual rigor and disciplinary breadth on this topic. This book makes it clear that those who would dismiss sustainability as an intellectually vacuous notion or impugn it as a morally flabby argument about caring for the future are just not doing their homework. Norton, however, has done his homework (and created some for the rest of us!). Even better, he has fashioned a new way to think about sustainability and the philosophy of valuation and decision making it requires, especially under conditions of global change. Tight, compact, and accessible, magnifying and further developing the theme of evaluating sustainable change, this is an excellent distillation of Norton’s extensive and groundbreaking work.”

Ben Minteer, Arizona State University | author of "Refounding Environmental Ethics" and coeditor of "After Preservation"

“Sustainable Values, Sustainable Change distills the considerable wisdom that Bryan Norton has acquired over four decades at the forefront of environmental philosophy and policy analysis. It provides a concise and readable entrée to his thought while providing significant new insights into the link between pragmatist epistemology and Norton’s advocacy of a procedural approach to democratic decision making in environmental matters.”

Paul B. Thompson, Michigan State University | author of "The Agrarian Vision" and "From Field to Fork"

“Environmentalists, economists, and philosophers have continued to debate the concept and goal of sustainability for decades. In this engaging and important book, Norton moves beyond these often futile debates to develop an action-oriented pragmatic approach to defining and achieving sustainability through experimentation, incremental change, and adaptation. By focusing on the mechanisms of decision analysis, and reflecting Norton’s decades of engagement with the search for sustainability, this book fundamentally changes the conceptual and practical background in which future discussions of sustainability must take place.”

Sahotra Sarkar, University of Texas at Austin | author of "Environmental Philosophy: From Theory to Practice"