No New Things by Ashlee Piper named winner of Penn Libraries Book Prize in Sustainability

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries is pleased to announce that No New Things: A Radically Simple 30-Day Guide to Saving Money, the Planet, and Your Sanity by Ashlee Piper (Celadon Books, 2025) has been named the winner of the 2026 Penn Libraries Book Prize in Sustainability. Piper will discuss her work at a ceremony on October 7 at Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center during Climate Week at Penn.

No New Things persuasively describes the rise of “conditioned consumerism” and the ways that continually buying things depletes our time, money, and mental bandwidth — and harms the planet. The book offers daily action items that guide readers through 30 days of buying nothing new and the unexpected freedom and fulfillment that comes with that shift.

"Penn Libraries provides people with essential tools and resources as they make sense of the issues at stake with environmental sustainability and the paths available for positive action," says Alexa Pearce, Gershwind & Bennett Family Associate Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communications at the Penn Libraries. "With No New Things, Ashlee Piper gives us a clear and powerful guide to doing more for human and planetary well-being by consuming less. Piper’s recommendations are as powerful as they are simple."

Ashlee Piper is a sustainability expert whose work has been featured on more than 300 TV segments, including the Today Show, Good Morning America, and CNN, and in Vogue, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and Newsweek. She has spoken at the United Nations and SXSW and has a popular TED talk. No New Things is her second book.

"From the company of incredible contemporaries on the shortlist, to the recognition of personal sustainability as an important part of the broader solution, this prize is the honor of my career," says Piper. "I'm extremely grateful that in a world of climate information that's important but often scary and stifling, people have found empowerment in understanding and taking action to wrangle their societally-conditioned consumerist impulses to not only be better stewards of the planet and each other, but also to simply live better."

Now in its third year, the Penn Libraries Book Prize in Sustainability — presented by the Lynn Family — acknowledges outstanding contributions to the global discourse on environmental sustainability, with a specific focus on books that have a substantial impact on the public's understanding of these crucial issues and ability to take meaningful action. Winning authors receive an $8,000 cash prize and present their award-winning contribution during a ceremony and book talk on campus.

In fostering a deeper public understanding of sustainability, the book prize echoes the broader goals of the University of Pennsylvania to contribute to a better and more sustainable future for all. The prize also reflects the deep emphasis the Penn Libraries places on preparing students to address the complexities of a rapidly evolving world.

A panel of jurors representing academia and the private sector reviewed submissions and selected this year’s prize-winning book: Shalanda Baker, Vice Provost for Sustainability and Climate Action, University of Michigan; Sara Cronenwett, Senior Vice President, Corporate Environmental Sustainability, Comcast; Julie DiNatale, Executive Vice President, Adaptation and Resilience Solutions, OCP Nutricrops; Jared Farmer, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania; Genevieve Guenther, Founding Director, End Climate Silence; and Julie Zimmerman, Vice Provost for Planetary Solutions, Yale University; along with Alexa Pearce, Penn Libraries, ex officio.

In addition to No New Things, the jurors also recognized the following shortlisted finalists: A Climate of Truth: Why We Need It and How To Get It by Mike Berners-Lee (Cambridge University Press); We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate by Michael Grunwald (Simon and Schuster); and The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why It Matters by Christine Webb (Penguin Random House).

Learn more about the Penn Libraries Book Prize in Sustainability. Copies of the prize-winning book and all shortlisted books are available for Penn students, faculty, and staff to borrow through the Penn Libraries catalog.