In 1995, Berry returned to Greensboro, North Carolina. While nominally retired, he continued to write, lecture, and receive friends at his home. In a tribute to Berry, Mary Evelyn Tucker says that his books – "The Dream of the Earth" (1988 reprinted, 2006), "The Universe Story" (with Brian Swimme, 1992), and "The Great Work: Our Way into the Future" (1999) – are "major contributions to discussions on the environment". A collection of his essays, "Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community" (2006), was jointly published by Sierra Club Books and the University of California Press.  He completed two final books of essays in 2009, "The Sacred Universe" and "The Christian Future and the Fate of Earth."