The sun shines on Powell's Books

Solar Daily reported last week (thanks to Grist for the info) that Powell's Books, one of the U.S. largest booksellers, will begin using solar power at their Portland-based warehouse next month.

According to the report, the 100-kilowatt photovoltaic system (including 540 solar panels) positioned on the roof of Powell's 60,000 square foot warehouse in NW Portland, is one of the largest solar electric installations in the State of Oregon.

This is a great way of course not only to support the environment but also to save eventually money by reducing energy costs (payback on the investment is expected within five years). Michael Powell explains on the article that "it made perfect sense for our business financially, and it supports our values as a company. We are continually looking for ways for our business to lessen its impact on the environment."

Kudos to Powell's Books efforts! We definitely hope to see more solar panels on many booksellers' roofs. Solar systems offer a win-win deal that both helps the environment and saves money, and you can even find today ways to bypass the burden of the relatively high initial investment that is required to start using the sun to light your bookstore.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Obama's book club?

Today when you have time to rest and digest the Thanksgiving dinner, we've got a recommendation about an interesting article from the NYT about the person who might replace Oprah Winfrey when it comes to recommending on books and influencing the book market - President-elect Barack Obama.

The article ("For Books, Is Obama New Oprah?"), written by Motoko Rich about two weeks ago is discussing the effect of a mention Mr. Obama made on CBS in his first interview since winning the election, about having read “a new book out about F .D. R.’s first 100 days” without specifically naming a title or author.

Besides the riddle about the specific book he reffered to, there were other consquences: "Hill & Wang, an imprint of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, which originally printed fewer than 5,000 copies of “F D R: The First Hundred Days” in June and received scant review coverage in the United States, decided to reprint 5,000 copies on Monday morning, partly in response to orders from booksellers. In an e-mail message, Bob Wietrak, a vice president of merchandising for Barnes & Noble Booksellers, said the company had noticed an uptick in orders on BN.com following the interview and was trying to get more copies in stock."

Will we see more recommendations on books from President Obama? I'm quite sure we will (how about Obama's book club? that can be a change in the White House). And wouldn't it be great if one of them would be a green-themed book? Let's wait and see..

More posts on Oprah Winfrey's book club:

A special green offer for readers of Oprah's Book Club new selection

Happy Holidays,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

How about an affordable and unique green birthday

What's the connection between Tina Terner, the rapper Lil Fizz, actor Scot Jacoby and playwright Eugene Ionesco?

They were all born on November 26! If you're also celebrating your birthday today - happy birthday to you too!

We love birthdays and therefore we're happy to remind you of the option to celebrate a birthday of friends, family members, colleagues and anyone you care about with Eco-Libris!

Eco-Libris is offering you now to plant trees to balance out the books of your loved ones who celebrate their birthday. Not only that new trees will be planted to balance out their books, but they will also receive our stickers with a beautiful birthday card made of recycled paper. And we also try to keep it affordable - the added charge for the birthday card is only $1.5.

All you need to do is to choose how many of the birthday person's books you want to balance out on our special birthday gift page, change the shipping address on the payment page to the address of the gift receiver and we will take care of the rest!

This is also a great green add-on if you're buying a book as a gift for the birthday person, especially if you're buying her or him a green book.

The birthday cards we send are made by Doodle Greetings (see picture above of one of their cards). Not only these cards come with a beautiful design, but they are also eco-friendly - printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and are made chlorine-free and acid free. Sounds like a good fit with Eco-Libris stickers!

And of course, if it's your birthday and you want to give yourself a green present - get yourself a nice green book and plant a tree for it with us!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Reminder: your young kids can win great prizes in a special contest of Simon & Schuster and Eco-Libris

Last September we updated you about our new collaboration with Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing: in a celebration of their new line of eco-friendly children’s books, Little Green Books, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing has partnered with Eco-Libris in an educational contest - I CAN SAVE THE EARTH!.

Children between the ages of 5-10 are invited to write about their own experiences and ideas in helping to save planet Earth. Stories can be submitted via a downloadable entry form HERE. Any story goes and the greener the better! The winning stories will be posted on the Little Green Books’ websites so kids can gain green ideas from their peers.

Children can submit their stories until December 1, 2008 (the contest wasn't extended eventually as we reported in the first place. sorry!)

Prizes include free copies of the new Little Green Books, such as I can Save the Earth!: One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle; Little Monkey; Little Panda; and The Polar Bears’ Home: A Story About Global Warming; among others. Trees will be planted in developing countries by Eco-Libris on the winning children’s behalf.

The contest celebrates the Fall 2008 launch of Little Green Books, published by Little Simon, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. It is the first eco-friendly line of children’s novelty and storybooks, aimed at parents and children looking to learn more about the environment. All the Little Green Books are made out of recycled materials.

Eco-Libris will be planting with its planting partners 100 new trees in developing countries on behalf of the winning children. The winners will also receive Eco-Libris stickers (made of recycled paper) saying “One tree planted for this book”, which they can proudly display on their books at home, and show to all their friends.

We are very excited about partnering with Simon & Schuster in this contest. Little Green Books are an effective way to help plant the seeds of earth-friendly living at an early age, and we thought that this contest can add a great educational value to the books. We believe that it’s important that the voice of children will be heard and that other kids can benefit a great deal from these personal stories.

Here's more information about the first four books on the series that were launched earlier this month (from the Little Green Books' website):

Little Monkey

Author: Kimberly Ainsworth

Illustrated by: Michelle Berg

Ages: 3 and under

Description: Meet Little Monkey and his friend Little Panda as they spend their day eating their favorite foods and playing together! Little ones will love to cuddle with this supersoft fleece cloth book that's made out of cotton and recycled Polartec® fleece.

This book is machine-washable and comes packaged in a chipboard box that's made from 100% recycled material.

The Polar Bears' Home: A Story About Global Warming

Author: Lara Bergen

Illustrated by: Vincent Nguyen

Ages: 4 - 6

Description: Come along on an Arctic adventure with a little girl and her father and learn all about polar bears! This 8 x 8 storybook shows how global warming affects two baby polar bear cubs and their family. Includes tips for kids on what they can do to help slow down global warming. This 8 x 8 paperback book is perfect-bound and will be printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper with soy-ink. The paper is FSC certified.

Little Panda

Author: Kimberly Ainsworth

Illustrated by: Michelle Berg

Ages: 3 and under

Description: Meet Little Panda and his friend Little Monkey as they spend their day eating their favorite foods and playing together. Little ones will love to cuddle with this supersoft fleece cloth book that's made out of cotton and recycled Polartec® fleece. This book is machine-washable and comes packaged in a chipboard box that's made from 100% recycled material. It's the perfect gift for a baby!

I Can Save the Earth!: One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

Author: Alison Inches

Illustrated by: Viviana Garofoli

Ages: 4 - 6

Description: Meet Max the Little Monster. He is a cute, furry green monster who is an environmental nightmare. Among other things, he leaves on all the lights, keeps his computer plugged in, blasts the TV, hoards his old toys and uses so much toilet paper it clogs the toilet until finally, his excessive ways cause a power outage. With no TV to watch, computer to play on, video games to play with, Max finds there is a whole big world outside that he can make a difference in the environment. A kid-friendly glossary of terms is included in the back of the book.This 8x8 paperback is perfect bound and will be printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper with soy-ink. The paper is FSC certified.

So if you have any kids between the ages of 5-10, and they already work hard to help Planet Earth, let them know about the contest. We will be happy to see as many children as possible sharing with each other their little green stories!

The contest web page:
http://www.simonsays.com/content/index.cfm?tab=1&pid=647684

Happy Thanksgiving,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

Random House is offering 7,000 more titles in digital format

More and more books are available as e-books and that's not really big news anymore. But big publishers that significantly increase the availability of their books in digital form, or like Treehugger call them "hot for e-books", still is. Especially when it's the biggest one - Random House.

Yes, PhysOrg is reporting today that Random House, the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher, announced that it was making thousands of additional books available in digital form, including novels by John Updike and Harlan Coben, as well as several volumes of the "Magic Treehouse" children's series.

The publisher is almost doubling the books they have in electronic format - from more than 8,000 to nearly 15,000. I believe that this move is in accordance with Random House's increased e-books sales (according to their vice president for digital operations, Matt Shatz, sales have increased by triple digit percentages in 2008), as well as with their willingness to diversify their platform and provide more options to readers.

As their VP for digital operations reported much of the significant increase in e-book sales are thanks to Amazon.com’s Kindle reader. I wonder how the current economic will influence the sales of e-books in the next couple of month. My guesstimation is that we'll see very little growth with e-books sales because of the Kindle's relatively high price. Still, it's cheaper to buy an e-book than a book and therefore I think we'll still see sales growing and not decreasing.

All in all we shouldn't forget that we're still talking about a niche with market share of about 1% of the whole book sales market.

And what about the green aspect of this move? will thousands of additional books available in digital form be better the environment or not? well, e-books don’t need paper and therefore no trees are cut down which is a good thing. They don’t need transportation or physical storage and therefore no extra costs and extra footprint are required to bring the book from the publisher to the reader. Yet, other factors to be considered, especially with regards to e-book readers such as their production, materials used, energy required for the reader’s use, and how recyclable they are.

So what’s the verdict? We still don’t know as we’re lacking a full life-cycle assessment of reading e-books using kindle or other similar electronic book readers. Until we have that, we can’t really tell for sure if and to what extent e-books, including the new 7,000 Random House titles, are more environmentally-friendly in comparison to paper made books.

More links on e-books:

E-books vs. paper books - resources page on Eco-Libris website

eBooks - A Greener Choice or Not?

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Who needs paper phone books anymore?

I read Ideal Bite's tips for many years and I always find there interesting green information, ideas and recommendations. Yesterday's tip was about an issue that relates almost to anyone - phone books.

Is there really a need for a paper phonebook on the digital age when we get so much info in one click? personally I think we don't need paper phone books anymore. Certainly we don't need to receive a new one every year. Do you know anyone who still use phone books?

The benefits of phone books are marginal if any. If you're looking for a phone number, you can find it very easily on websites such as AnyWho, PhoneNumber.com and White Pages, or even the Google SMS service from your mobile phone.

And what about the costs?

Publish Post

Well, the costs are significant. According to Ideal Bite about 540 million unsolicited phone books arrive at American doors annually. What does it mean in terms of trees? according to Ted.me the average weight of the a phone directory is 3.62 pounds, so if we use the equation of 1 metric ton of paper = 20 trees (which we use here for the book industry), we get this number: 17,740,000 trees. Yes, almost 18 million trees are cut down every year to produce these chubby unnecessary phone books.

Even more frustrating is the fact that so many of them end in landfills instead of the recycling bins. According to Ideal Bite, phone books make for about 660,000 tons of trash every year!

So what can you about it? how can we stop receiving phone books we don't need and don't use? Ideal Bite's tip is to use YellowPagesGoesGreen.org - it's a movement against unsolicited phone book delivery (both Yellow and White Pages books), where you can sign up to remove your home or office from receiving the telephone directories.

You're also welcome to visit YellowPagesGoesGreen.org to get more information about this phenomenon and find out why you keep getting these books every year (hint: someone is making money out of it..) and how many of them are recycled (less than 10%!). So check it out and spread the word about this option to stop receiving phone books year after year.

The bottom line is that it's all about the money - Ted.me reports that the directory industry worth to the telephone companies in the United States $13.58 billion! The power of the industry and the money it makes is based mainly on its wide circulation - if many people will ask not to receive these phone books anymore, phonebooks won't be that attractive and eventually advertisers will look for other routes to put their money into (maybe the websites that provide the same service without cutting any trees..).

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Special offer on Aaspirations Publishing's website

Earlier this month we announced on our collaboration with Aaspriations Publishing of Toronto, Canada, where a tree is planted with Eco-Libris for every copy of their new titles. Now they also have a special holidays offer for our stickers on their website.

You can order our stickers from Aaspirations Publications' website, or simply add it on to your order of books. For every sticker bought, one tree will be planted with our planting partners. And that's not all! You will receive a $2 cash coupon on every purchase of more than 2 stickers.

Offer ends November 30th, so you've got 9 more days to check it out.

Happy green holidays!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Green Options: 9 Ways To Eliminate Direct Mail Waste

As part of Eco-Libris' ongoing content partnership with Green Options Media, we feature a post that was originally published by Jennifer Kaplan on November 17 on Ecopreneurist. Today's post brings you some great ideas how to eliminate your direct mail waste, which is especially important this time of the year.

Are you ready for the holiday mail season? Maybe this is the year to trim your DM waste. The fundamental problem is that direct mail marketing is inherently inefficient. 44% of all direct mail is thrown in the trash without ever being opened and that which is opened only yields an average of a 2.77% response. So, if you want to get 1,000 customers to respond to your direct mail piece, you have to mail, on average, 36,101 pieces of mail. Multiply that by millions of customers and millions of companies and you can see the problem. The good news is that a March 2008 Aberdeen Group study found that direct mail waste reduction is an area where "environmental concerns and shareholder interests coincide." But, you may already know this. They also found that 40% of companies said direct mail waste reduction was one of the top two areas being focused on for improving eco-friendly business practices.

The goal is to achieve the greatest precision with the lowest number of pieces mailed, but there a lot of other benefits. You can save money and enhance customer satisfaction which will in turn improves customer loyalty, purchase behavior and profitability. Here's 9 ways:

#1: Maintain good list hygiene. Updating your mailing list to remove unwanted, duplicate and undeliverable addresses regularly and thoroughly is a cheap, quick and effective way to reduce waste. There are several ways to verify mailing lists and all outside list mangers are able to perform this function or you can buy your own address verification software. You will mail fewer pieces and, under some circumstances, lower your mailing rates. Consider offering incentives (such as the offer of a discount on their next purchase) for notification of duplicate mailings and incorrect addresses.

How to green up your book's printing? check out this eco-kit

Many times it's easier to know what not to do than what to do. If you're a publisher or an author that is trying to go green, you probably know what I'm talking about.

We know that doing the right thing can be a little complexed when it comes to printing, and we try to provide on our website and blog as many helpful resources as possible. Today we're happy to present you with an eco-kit.

This eco-kit (available in a PDF format) is found on the website of one of our most favorite green organizations - Markets Initiative. It's a "compendium of tips, terms, resources and papers for environmentally friendly publishing" and was prepared by the Association of Book Publishers of British Colombia.

Why it was initiated in the first place? You can find the reason on the introduction as follows:

"Premiums on environmentally friendly paper have been reduced as a result of the increased used of ancient forest free papers and the quality of the papers are virtually indistinguishable from traditional book papers. However, sorting through the various terms used to describe papers and their recycled content can still be daunting. Making informed choices about other environmental considerations such as chlorine treatment or inking can be overwhelming. And finding out exactly what papers are available and working effectively with print professionals is essential. Hence the need for this EcoKit."

This guide is from 2006 and may not include all the information you need, but it's definitely a good resource with regards to printing terms (what's Elemental Chlorine Free?), work with printers and how to make sure your readers will know about your green choices. It also includes a detailed list of eco-friendly papers and links to more important resources.

You can find this eco-kit on this link: http://www.marketsinitiative.org/uploads/book-ecokit_for_web_en.pdf

And by the way, there's an eco-kit for printing magazines a well - http://www.marketsinitiative.org/uploads/ecokit-magazine.pdf

For more resources, please check our resources page - http://www.ecolibris.net/greenresources.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Monday's green books series: 'Strategies for the Green Economy' by Joel Makower

I love to read good books about green business and when it's a book written by one of the people whom I consider to be one of my "green biz" teachers, it is a real delight!

Our book today on Monday's green books series is:

Strategies for the Green Economy: Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business by Joel Makower and Cara Pike

In the last couple of years I have read Joel Makower's blog Two Steps Forward on regular basis and it became one of my best resources to learn and better understand the green economy. I see in Joel one of the best teachers I had (and still have) in the complex world of green economy and therefore I was very excited to hear about his new book. And I wasn't wrong.

For those of you who haven't had the chance yet to read or hear Joel, here's a very short version of his impressive bio (from the book's cover): Joel Makower is executive editor of GreenBiz.com and other Web sites, research and events produced by Greener World Media, Inc., of which he is cofounder and chairman. He has 20 years' experience advising companies on green strategy and marketing and is author of more than a dozen books, including The green consumer and The E-factor: The Bottom-Line Approach to Environmentally Responsible Business.

You can already guess that this book, which is providing a road map to the green marketplace, is written from a very unique point of view of someone who has been both following and participating in the evolvement of the green economy in the last two decades.

This unique perspective is differentiating this book from other green biz books and makes it very valuable for anyone who is interested in green business and especially to those who want to better understand what's the green noise is all about.

The book is focusing both on the consumer and the companies sides. It presents the green market from the consumer perspective and tries to make some logic in all the information we're constantly fed with about the green consumers - from the surveys we hear about all the time about the green preferences of consumers to the many definitions of green market (LOHAS, greenback greens, cultural creatives, etc.).

You'll also find here an analysis of one of the questions I find most intriguing - why there's so much difference between what we learn from the surveys and market reserach companies (almost everyone is going green) and the reality (green products and services are still a relatively small niche)?

On the companies' side, the book follows the development in the understanding of businesses the concept of going green, from something you do to support the environment to something you do to support your brand and your bottom line. It has many stories and examples from both Fortune 500 companies and start-ups on their green experience and attempts to implement green strategies.

What I like about the book is that it gives you the whole picture of both failures and successes, trying to portray things in a realistic tone that is sometimes missing in other books. 'Strategies for the Green Economy' doesn't have all the answers and leaves you with some questions that only time might gives you the answers on, like "how green is good enough"?, but it gives you plenty of information and tools (including the Ecological Roadmap of Cara Pike that is brought at the end of the book and includes valuable data on people's environmental values) to figure out what green business is all about.

Title: Strategies for the Green Economy: Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business

Authors: Joel Makower and Cara Pike

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Published: September 2008

Pages: 312

This book is not only green in content but also in the way it was produced - it is printed on 100% post-consumer, de-inked fiber, without chlorine.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

What happens to my recycled paper?

What happens to the paper we recycle after we put it in the recycle bin and it's been collected? and what happens to plastic, metal, glass and other materials we recycle? If you're curious as I am to find out what happens to them, RecycleBank provides you with the answers. And not just regular answers, but animated ones!

RecycleBank is a rewards program that motivates people to recycle by quickly and easily measuring the amount of material each home recycles and then converting that activity into RecycleBank. Points that can be used at hundreds of local and national rewards partners. It is one of our favorite green companies and a great example how innovation and environment can go hand in hand to generate value (see links below). Hence I was very happy to hear from them about this new video, as follows:

Just in time for “America Recycles Day” (which was yesterday btw), RecycleBank launched The Cycle, an interactive animation to help answer the question: “What happens to my recyclables after I put them out and they are collected?”

The video takes viewers through each step in the cycle: from recycling collection to processing to manufacturing new products from recycled material. Here is the link to the website: www.explorethecycle.com

And here's the part of the video explaining about the process the paper goes through:

More links related to RecycleBank:

'My Green Bookshelf' with Ron Gonen, RecycleBank's co-founder and CEO

RecycleBank video in Davos

Recycling Rocks in Philly!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Reminder: sign up to Eco-Libris newsletter and you can win a copy of 'Relocating Mia'

Our November newsletter is planned to be sent next Wednesday so this is a good time to remind you of a great offer we have for new subscribers: sign up this month to our newsletter and you can win a copy of Rebecca Lerwill's book "Relocating Mia".

Eco-Libris' newsletter is a monthly newsletter, so you can expect to hear from us only once a month. On the newsletter we will offer you updates about our work and our latest collaborations in the book industry. We also include articles on the book and paper industry from our unique green perspective, as well as special offers and discounts!

And as mentioned above, if you sign up until November 30, you will have the chance of winning a copy of "Relocating Mia" by Rebecca Lerwill.

All you have to do is just to sign up, using the box on the right side of the page saying 'Join Our Email List' and that's it. We will have a raffle between the new subscribers on December 1st and will post here the name of the winner. And of course, a tree will be planted for this copy as well!

Thank you to the author Rebecca Lerwill for the copy! We collaborate with Rebecca, who is balancing out every copy sold through her website by planting a tree with Eco-Libris. Every buyer also receives our sticker ("One tree planted for this book") with their copy. By the way - with every purchase, you will receive not only the book and a tree that will be planted on your behalf, but also I home made beautiful book mark!

What this book is about? here's a short description from its website:

"Relocating Mia is a highly entertaining adventure full of romance and suspense which will be loved by readers who appreciate the drama of international crime, the gut - churning twists and turns of well woven intrigue, and the heart - warming effect of a great love story."

Mia Trentino is the top relocating specialist at Worldmove, Inc., and her latest assignment is sending her to Siberia, Russia. But the new job comes with a new partner: a handsome threat to her career named Douglas Farland.

After a rocky start, the job is going well, and things begin to heat up between Mia and Douglas. Then, lies and secrets begin to surface that make Mia suspect her new partner might have a different agenda. What seemed like a simple relocation erupts into a cat-and-mouse game of intrigue full of drug smuggling, secret agents, and the Red Mafia. Suddenly Mia's in a fight for her life, and she may have to trust the one person who seems the most to blame.

We're not the only ones who think it's a great book - "Relocating Mia" is an award winning romantic suspense, honored by the USA Book News awards, the Indie Excellence awards, and the Sabrina Book awards. Also, The Acronym, the sequel to Relocating Mia, is with the publisher and will come out early 2009.

So what are you waiting for?

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

www.ecolibris.net

New book is looking for American stories and images about global warming

I learned yesterday about a great project. It's a joint initiative of the Union of Concerned Scientists and Penguin Classics, which along with bookstores across the U.S. are encouraging aspiring writers and photographers to submit their personal stories and images about global warming for publication in a new online book, to be published in 2009, Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming.

Kudos to the Union of Concerned Scientists and Penguin Classics for this great idea! The book is inspired by the great American outdoors literature's tradition as explained on its website:

The American outdoors has been central to some of this country's greatest books, from Henry David Thoreau's The Maine Woods to Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi. Writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Peter Matthiessen, and E.O. Wilson have inspired us to make positive changes in our lives with their wisdom and words about our lands, geographical riches, and wildlife.

Now it's time for new voices to inspire us to fight the dangers of global warming.

Your voices.

There are only few days left for submitting stories and images for the book (deadline is on November 15, 2008), but it's better late than never, so if you think you have a story or an image that would be a great fit for this book, please Read the guidelines and submit your work.

The submission process is open to anyone in the United States. A panel of judges will select the top essays and photographs to be included in the book. Writers and photographers whose submissions are selected for publication will receive a limited edition printed copy of the book and will be invited to participate in book promotion activities.

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

A new collaboration with Aaspirations Publishing, a proud green publisher!

We are very happy to announce our new collaboration with Aaspriations Publishing of Toronto, Canada. A tree will be planted for every copy of the new titles published henceforth, which will also carry our logo ‘One tree planted for every book’.

Aaspirations Publishers is a proud green publisher that decided to go green as much as they can. As you can see from the steps they have taken their move represents a true commitment to the environment.

So what does it mean for Aaspirations Publishing to be a green publisher? Here's a summary of the measures they take:

Local Print On Demand

Firstly, their books are printed within 24 hours when an order is generated and are shipped directly to the customer, straight from the printer – thus reducing the distance traveled and resulting in the smallest carbon footprint, possible.

No books printed on virgin forest paper

All books published by Aaspirations Publishing use a certain percentage of recycled paper and no papers are sourced from endangered old growth forests, forests of exceptional conservation value or the Amazon Basin. All papers used in printing are FSC – The Forest Stewardship Council; SFI – The Sustainable Forestry Initiative; PEFC – The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification or GREEN-E.

Green fax, Recycling and Switch Off when not in use Programs

They have a new Green Fax, which sends faxes straight to their email. Confidential, secure and most of all amazing savings on paper, toner and electricity. Add to that a switch off if you don’t need it program and comprehensive recycling programs and you can see they mean business. Aaspirations Publishing even want to recycle iPods to deliver education to children in India and elsewhere -–see The Laptop Project for more details.

And last but not least - a collaboration with Eco-Libris to plant a tree for every book published

All new titles published henceforth will also carry the logo ‘One tree planted for every book’, following their partnership with Eco-Libris to reduce the environmental impact of book publishing, by planting one tree for every book sold.

Anjali Sondhi, publisher and CEO of Aaspirations Publishing, explains in a press release they initiated that even though she believes she is doing the right thing, both in environmental and social terms and in business terms, it's not that easy to go green as a publisher:

“Yes! It is a gamble. We are trying to reinvent the publishing wheel. Of course this leaves us with much smaller margins to operate on but we have the satisfaction of knowing that our books are as green as can be. Will customers appreciate it? Will they reach out for our books? Time will tell”

We are positive that this move will generate value for Aaspirations Publishing and will prove that it's not easy to be a green publisher but eventually it is worthwhile!

For more information on Aaspirations Publishing please check out their website: http://www.aaspirationspublishing.com

Want to support their move? Check out their catalog of books and order one of the great books they publish: https://aaspirations.infusionsoft.com/cart/store.jsp?view=1&i=1&navicat=1

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Eco-Libris on the holiday issue of A Distinctive Style magazine!

We are happy to update you that a Special Holiday Issue of A Distinctive Style magazine is available online on the magazine's website. Not only that this is a great green magazine, but it also has 2 pages dedicated to Eco-Libris!

A Distinctive Style magazine is an interactive digital publication that promotes eco-friendly businesses, products, art, and services to an entire global village. The magazine is passionately centered on inspiring people to live green, think green, shop green, and be more environmentally conscious. It is available only online so no trees are cut down for its production.

On the Special Holiday Issue which is described as an interactive galaxy of art, eco-awareness and inspiration, you can find articles on eco-fashion, eco-friendly artists, new wave of green transportation, an interview with Ed Begley Jr., going green for the holidays including ideas for gifts that give back, and much more. And it comes with music and video clips, so this magazine is definitely worthwhile exploring!

And of course, if you click to pages 56-57 you will find two full pages about Eco-Libris and our work.

The magazine is available at http://www.adistinctivestyle.com.

Best,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

And the winner in the "Polar Bears' Home" giveaway is...

Thank you for all the participants in our Little Green Books giveaway following our review of "The Polar Bears' Home: A Story About Global Warming" by Lara Bergen last Monday.

We got many comments about the tone preferred for children's books on environmental issues and I think we had a very interesting discussion here. If I try to summarize it I would say that most of the readers are in favor for a lighter tone at a younger age and a more realistic one when the kids are more grown up.

And the winner in our giveaway is treen berg, who wrote the following:

Thx for the links at the end of this post :). So you won't like my answer, but I prefer a lighter tone for my toddlers and young-uns who are eating up everything in life quietly, but when they get a bit older I'd like to read more books to them that offer more realism. Books are so powerful, story-telling to teach important topics will always have the attention of a child. I love reading lesson/moral teaching books to my kiddos and talking about them...no matter how small the discussion! :)

Congrats treen! You will receive all of the four books published so far in the Little Green Books line: Little Panda, Little Monkey, I Can Save the Earth!: One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle and The Polar Bears' Home: A Story About Global Warming.

And thanks again to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for giving this great prize!

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

Did you remember to pay your rainforest bill?

Prince Charles has a great idea - rich countries should pay an annual "utility bill" for the benefits given to the world by its rainforests. The Prince of Wales was presenting this idea in Indonesia while talking with the Indonesian President and his cabinet last week.

The BBC News reported that "the prince called rainforests the "world's greatest public utility". They act as an air conditioner, store fresh water and provide work, he said."

The idea is that Indonesia and the other nations with significant rainforests are stewards of the world's greatest public utility and that rich countries should pay them for their service.

The prince compares the payment for the eco-services of rainforests to paying regular utility bills for gas, water and electricity. He added that "As developed nations were the driving force behind their destruction, through a demand for products like beef, palm oil, soya and logs, they should be billed for their protection."

How exactly these payments will be made? the prince hopes that that a large part of the funds would come from bonds issued by a international body that will be funded directly by governments of developed countries. Prince Charles is very involved with efforts to save forests. Earlier this year we reported on his offer to Norwegian Prime Minister to work together on saving forests in developing countries. The offer came after Norway's announcement last December that it aimed to provide about 3 billion crowns ($541.2 million) per year to prevent deforestation in developing countries.







Also, last October he launched a new organization called Reforestation Project that calls for a new green economics that recognizes the world's rainforests are worth more alive than dead.

We definitely think the concept is right and the sooner it will be implemented the better. The only question is how realistic it is especially in the current economic environment to expect governments to voluntarily pay rainforests bills.

I am afraid that it won't work, unless it's part of a wider framework that will demand developed countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. Only then there is going to be a greater economic incentive to act and not just a good will which is important but not sufficient to generate action these days.

You can find more information on the prince efforts on the Prince's Rainforests Project: http://www.princesrainforestsproject.org

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

New stores on our bookstores program

We are happy to update you on new stores that joined our bookstores program in the last couple of weeks:

1. Acquired Books - Medfield, Massachusetts

Opened on October 4, Acquired Books (see photo above) have lots of popular fiction and non-fiction in the store, so if you live nearby come on in and just browse. They usually have some tea brewing and cookies to enjoy while looking to find a good book to read! You're also welcome to check out their great blog - http://www.acquiredbooks.blogspot.com.

The store's address: 36 Park Street Medfield, MA

2. Valley Books - Solvang, California

Opened in February 2008, Valley Books is a friendly new and used bookstore and cafe in the little Danish town of Solvang, California.

The store's address: 1582 Mission Dr.,Solvang, CA 93463

3. Local Color - Flagstaff, Arizona

Local Color is an earth-friendly printing company and store in Flagstaff, Arizona. Local Color strives to provide goods and services that have a positive impact on the environment and the community. Local Color works to demonstrate that customers don't need to compromise on price, quality or service in order to protect and improve the environment. The wide selection of books at Local Color all carry the Eco-Libris sticker, because Local Color has chosen to plant a tree for every book in the store.

The store's address: 10 N. Leroux st., Flagstaff, AZ 86001

A full list of all the stores that participate in our bookstores program can be found here: http://www.ecolibris.net/bookstores.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Sign up to Eco-Libris newsletter and you can win a copy of the new book 'Relocating Mia'

Last September we initiated our newsletter and we invite you to sign up for it. We also have a special offer: sign up this month to our newsletter and you can win a copy of Rebecca Lerwill's book "Relocating Mia".

Eco-Libris newsletter is planned right now to be a monthly newsletter, so you can expect to hear from us only once a month. On the newsletter we will offer you updates about our work and our latest collaborations in the book industry. We also include articles on the book and paper industry from our unique green perspective, as well as special offers and discounts!

And as mentioned above, if you sign up until November 30, you will have the chance of winning a copy of "Relocating Mia" by Rebecca Lerwill.

All you have to do is just to sign up, using the box on the right side of the page saying 'Join Our Email List' and that's it. We will have a raffle between the new subscribers on December 1st and will post here the name of the winner. And of course, a tree will be planted for this copy as well!

Thank you to the author Rebecca Lerwill for the copy! We collaborate with Rebecca, who is balancing out every copy sold through her website by planting a tree with Eco-Libris. Every buyer also receives our sticker ("One tree planted for this book") with their copy. By the way - with every purchase, you will receive not only the book and a tree that will be planted on your behalf, but also I home made beautiful book mark!

What this book is about? here's a short description from its website:

"Relocating Mia is a highly entertaining adventure full of romance and suspense which will be loved by readers who appreciate the drama of international crime, the gut - churning twists and turns of well woven intrigue, and the heart - warming effect of a great love story."

Mia Trentino is the top relocating specialist at Worldmove, Inc., and her latest assignment is sending her to Siberia, Russia. But the new job comes with a new partner: a handsome threat to her career named Douglas Farland.

After a rocky start, the job is going well, and things begin to heat up between Mia and Douglas. Then, lies and secrets begin to surface that make Mia suspect her new partner might have a different agenda. What seemed like a simple relocation erupts into a cat-and-mouse game of intrigue full of drug smuggling, secret agents, and the Red Mafia. Suddenly Mia's in a fight for her life, and she may have to trust the one person who seems the most to blame.

We're not the only ones who think it's a great book - "Relocating Mia" is an award winning romantic suspense, honored by the USA Book News awards, the Indie Excellence awards, and the Sabrina Book awards. Also, The Acronym, the sequel to Relocating Mia, is with the publisher and will come out early 2009.

So what are you waiting for? the next newsletter will be sent in about one week, so don't miss it!

Winner of last month's raffle
On October we had a raffle between new subscribers to the newsletter with another great prize: a copy of "Of Parrots and People: The Sometimes Funny, Always Fascinating, and Often Catastrophic Collision of Two Intelligent Species" by Mira Tweti. Congrats to Janelle of Wisconsin who is the winner of the raffle!!

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

www.ecolibris.net

Green Options - Eco-Conscious Holidays: Green Gift Giving

As part of Eco-Libris' ongoing content partnership with Green Options Media, we feature a post that was originally published by Becky Striepe on November 5 on EcoLocalizer. Today's post brings you some great ideas how to green your holidays.


[Image credit: Lizerati at Flickr used with permission]

It's that time of year! There are parties and big meals to plan, gifts to get together, and travel plans to finalize. How is a person supposed to live green during such a busy time of year? This week, we're going to take a look at ways to have a fabulous holiday season without giving up those Earth-friendly ideals. It doesn't have to feel like a sacrifice!

And now what? An average Jo got few ideas..

Now that the elections are over and we're full of expectations for the future to come, the question is of course what's next?

Grist have few suggestions and they found a creative way to show it:



Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Yes we can (save trees and money at the same time..)!

We bring you from time to time examples from the business sector of new initiatives that save both trees and money. Today we have another such win-win plan - this time it's DHL.

According to its press release, which I read about at Environmental Leader, DHL plans to eliminate over one third of the 18 million paper invoices it sends out across Europe annually by 2010, thus saving approximately 2400 trees and 600 tonnes of C02 each year. DHL customers using the e-Billing service no longer need to receive their invoices on paper. They simply login to an online portal to view and approve them electronically.

DHL worked for the last two years on developing their e-billing capabilites with Accountis, a division of Fundtech. Peter Radcliffe, Executive Chairman of Accountis, said in the release: "Accountis enables organisations like DHL to achieve their green objectives by implementing a more sustainable technology. The paper invoicing process consumes vast quantities of energy and produces huge volumes of waste which is unacceptable in this day and age, especially when an alternative is readily available."

He is definitely right and not only that it doesn't make sense due to the environmental impacts of the paper invoicing, it also doesn't make sense from a bottom-line perspective. The release itself does not relate to the savings DHL will gain out of this plan, but it's quite unlikely that DHL won't gain money out of it. And that's even without taking into consideration future expenses with regards to the CO2 emissions associated with the paper invoices.

All in all, this is a very positive step and I hope that eventually e-billing will replace 100% of DHL's 18 million paper invoices, saving more trees, emissions and money to the company.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Monday's green books series: The Polar Bears' Home (and a great giveaway!)

Last September we announced on our collaboration with Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing in an educational contest - I CAN SAVE THE EARTH!. This was in a celebration of their new line of eco-friendly children’s books, Little Green Books.

During the time of the contest (you can participate until December 1st, 2008 - see more details here) we review the first four books that were published so far. So far we reviewed Little Monkey and Little Panda, and today we have the pleasure to present you with the third green little book.

Our book for today is: The Polar Bears' Home: A Story About Global Warming

Author: Lara Bergen

Illustrated by: Vincent Nguyen

Ages: 4 - 6

Description: Come along on an Arctic adventure with a little girl and her father and learn all about polar bears! This 8 x 8 storybook shows how global warming affects two baby polar bear cubs and their family. Includes tips for kids on what they can do to help slow down global warming. This 8 x 8 paperback book is perfect-bound and will be printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper with soy-ink. The paper is FSC certified.

I enjoyed this book so much that I decided I need to talk to the author, Lara Bergen (see photo below), to learn more about her work on the book, which I find a great combination of text and illustrations that together creates one of the smartest and enjoyable green books for kids I read lately. Lara agreed to share her thoughts with us and here is the full interview with her:

Can you tell us about yourself and what inspired you to write this book?

I've written many books for children, but not a lot of nonfiction. When Simon & Schuster presented me with the idea of writing about an ecosystem in trouble, I immediately thought of the Arctic (I think the movie Arctic Tale had just come out, and the Global Warming crisis's effect on the polar bears' habitat was frequently in the news). And, of course, no one can deny that polar bear cubs make extremely appealing subjects for children's books!

What did you learn about polar bears during the writing process?

I learned so much! I knew that polar bears hunted seals, but I had no idea how. And I had no idea they had to travel such great distances and hunt so much over the course of the winter and are so relatively inactive during the summer (the opposite of most black and brown bears we know).

You managed to write a beautiful optimistic story for kids that is actually a very sad story with no certain happy ending - how do you do it?

Well, what else can you do? Unfortunately, we can't undo the past, we can only look forward--and I really didn't want to scare or depress readers--but more inspire them to try to take care of the Earth and its inhabitants from this point on as best they can.

Unlike many other children's books about the environment, you keep a very realistic tone through all the story which keeps it very real - was it your intention in the first place?

Yes, definitely. I wanted to give the reader a sense of immediacy to the subject matter--and a situation which is all too real.

What is the main lesson you want children to learn from this story?

That the Earth is truly warming up and truly threatening the survival of this wonderful, iconic species--and we simply have to do as much as we can to reverse the trend.

Did you get already feedbacks from children on the book? how do they find it?

No, I haven't.

I like the dad figure: he gives his daughter all the information she needs, portrays reality in a very balanced way, even if when the truth is inconvenient, and doesn't try to 'sell' her a fake shiny description of life. Do you believe all parents should adopt such approach?

Yes, I think they have to. Children are too insightful, and ask too many questions not to. Of course, you don't want to scare them--but parents need to appreciate that with the right approach, children are actually empowered by the truth.

Do you believe kids can make a difference in our world?

I certainly hope so! There was just an article in the Times about children demanding more environmental responsibility from their parents, and taking more upon themselves. Kids can make some difference now...and hopefully a lot of difference in the future!

How important to you was the fact that the book walks the talk, is printed on recycled paper and is part of a wider effort to educate children about green issues?

That's definitely a good start. (Of course, the more locally they can be printed, and the less shipped, the better, too.)

What's your next book is going to be about? are you planning to write more green-themed books for children in the future?

Actually, right now I'm working on an early fictional chapter book series (coming out 2010) - and I have an idea for a green-themed title within it. I hope to do many more!

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!

Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing are giving away one package of the 4 books published so far in the Little Green Books line: Little Panda, Little Monkey, I Can Save the Earth!: One Little Monster Learns to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle and The Polar Bears' Home: A Story About Global Warming.

This is a great prize and firstly we thank Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for it! How do you get a chance to win this prize? please add a comment below with an answer for the following question: do you prefer a realistic tone in a children's story that deals with environmental issues or you're for a lighter tone? if you have stories from your own experience with your kids that would be great.

Submissions are accepted until Sunday, November 9, 12PM EST. We will pick the comment we liked best and the winner will be announced the following day.

More relevant links:

I CAN SAVE THE EARTH! contest web page

On Eco-Libris website: http://www.ecolibris.net/littlegreenbooks.asp

Green Little Books' website: www.SimonSaysKids.com/LittleGreenBooks

Review of 'Little Monkey' and 'Little Panda': http://ecolibris.blogspot.com/2008/10/mondays-green-books-serieslittle-panda.html

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

www.ecolibris.net