Good new from Scholastic - the global children's publishing, education and media company announced that significant progress has been made toward the company-wide sustainable goals!
Scholastic announced in January 2008 the following goals for 2012: to increase its purchase of FSC-certified paper for its publications to 30% and its use of recycled paper to 25%, of which 75% would be post-consumer waste.
Their progress toward these goals is impressive as you can learn from the data detailed on their press release (and thanks to Environmental Leader for the link):
FSC-certified paper (goal: 30% of all paper purchasing)
In 2008, Scholastic purchased 89,378 tons of paper of which 17,608 tons, or 19.7%, was FSC-certified, up from 4% in 2007.
Recycled paper (goal: 25%, of which 75% would be post-consumer waste)
In 2008 13,496 tons, or 15.1%, of the paper purchased was produced from recovered fiber, up from 13% in 2007, and of that amount, 11,258 tons, or 83%, was produced from PCW fiber, up from 77% in 2007.
In other words they're already made two thirds of the way toward their goal and have 3 years to do the remaining third. In other words, they can reach it earlier if they'll continue to move forward so rapidly.
Corey Brinkema, President of FSC-US is quoted in the press release saying "Last year Scholastic made an industry-leading commitment to forest stewardship with its goals for sourcing FSC-certified and recycled paper". Is Scholastic's goals can be considered "an industry-leading commitment"? well, the answer is actually Yes.
Scholastic's mean that more of half of the paper they will use in 2012 will come from sustainable resources (FSC-certified or recycled paper). This is more ambitious than the commitments of other big publishers such as Random House or Simon & Schuster (see more details on their commitments on our book publishing page).
Scholastic's commitment is also similar to the one defined by the Green Press Initiative on their Industry Treatise, which was signed so far by 180 publishers, merchants and mills and include among others the following goals:
Shifting the book industry's collective average use of recycled fiber from an estimated 5% recycled average at present to a 30% recycled industry average by 2012 (a majority to be postconsumer).
Shifting to book industry’s collective average use of paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or equivalent certification system to 20% by 2012.
The only piece of data missing is how much carbon emissions have Scholastic manage to reduce so far. They don't have a goal in terms of carbon reductions but I'm wondering if following the announcement of the Book Industry Environmental Council last April on goals for cutting the U.S. book industry's greenhouse gas emissions in 20% by 2020 (from a 2006 baseline) with the intent of achieving an 80% reduction by 2050, Scholastic will add it to their set of goals. In all, it looks like they're in a good position to meet and even exceed this goal.
So kudos to Scholastic for their ongoing efforts and achiements and we hope to see many more of the big publishers following suit.
We talked here many times about the concept of paying landowners to keep their trees standing and not cut them down.
This idea is gaining more popularity as a tool to fight climate change and a very interesting article in the New York Times presents some of the difficulties involved with the implementation of this concept, especially in Brazil.
2. How to avoid paying for tree plantations? as the article explains, "one proposed version of the new United Nations plan would allow plantations of trees, like palms grown for palm oil, to count as forest, even though tree plantations do not have nearly the carbon absorption potential of genuine forest and are far less diverse in plant and animal life." This is a situation that should be avoided - the programs should be solely focused on forests because of both environmental and monetary (limited resources) reasons.
3. Clearing away the trees is often the best way to declare and ensure ownership - the article mentions that "in parts of Southeast Asia, early experiments in paying landowners for preserving forest have been hampered because it is often unclear who owns, or controls, property."
4. Need to change - We have to remember that until not too long ago, developing the Amazon was the priority and the Brazilian government encouraged settlement through homesteaders’ benefits like cheap land and housing subsidies, many of which still exist today. It means that you need to change the state of mind, believes and values of the whole country to make real changes in the way the Amazon is considered and valued by the people.
As we see there are many issues to deal with and the success of such programs is still far from being a sure thing. But nevertheless for the first time there's money in forest preservation and this is going to be a game changer this way or another.
Today we have a great book to share with you with a story of a challenge that I believe is shared by a growing number of people who want to green up their lifestyle significantly, but not to radically change who they are. Can it be done? one journalist from Toronto shows the answer is YES.
Vanessa Farquharson is an arts reporter and film critic at the National Post, based in Toronto, where she also writes a weekly column on the environment.
Published on: June 2009 What this book is about? (from the publisher's website) No one likes listening to smug hippies bragging about how they don't use toilet paper, or worse yet, lecturing about the evils of plastic bags and SUVs. But most of us do want to lessen our ecological footprint. With this in mind, Farquharson takes on the intense personal challenge of making one green change to her lifestyle every single day for a year to ultimately figure out what's doable and what's too hardcore.
Vanessa goes to the extremes of selling her car, unplugging the fridge, and washing her hair with vinegar, but she also does easy things like switching to an all-natural lip balm. All the while, she is forced to reflect on what it truly means to be green.
Whether confronting her environmental hypocrisy or figuring out the best place in her living room for a compost bin full of worms and rotting cabbage, Vanessa writes about her foray into the green world with self-deprecating, humorous, and accessible insight. This isn't a how-to book of tips, it's not about being eco-chic; it's an honest look at what happens when an average girl throws herself into the murkiest depths of the green movement.
What we think about it?
Firstly I'm proud to say that we spotted Vanessa's blog - green as a thistle - almost two years ago and warmly recommended it back then when she was still in the middle of her challenge.
And what a challenge it was! It's actually interesting to review this book now that another challenge is getting some more attention again - No Impact Man - with the new documentary and the upcoming book. What's the difference between the two? in two words: toilet paper. Colin Beavan (aka No Impact Man) didn't use toilet paper at all for a year (Just a hand and a bowl of water). Vanessa on the other hand didn't use toilet paper only for number one (She actually tries to learn more how he did it when they meet in New York...).
But of course it's more than that. The journey of Vanessa Farquharson is most likely a journey most urban young people can identify with, dream about and implement if they only want to. It's a significant journey in terms of results, but it's much more flexible than Collin's journey and in a way it makes it more realistic and more interesting. This flexibility also makes this journey more creative -Vanessa for example does not reject flying but decides to use the bathroom before boarding on a plan to decrease her flight's footprint.
Vanessa is always looking for the right balance - she doesn't want to become a treehugger (in its old version, not the hip cool new one), nor she wants to be what she calls "new age hippies"who "are often so intent about meeting X,Y, and Z standards when it comes to greening Sheri lifestyle but because they couple this with so little skepticism it comes off as flaky or even cultish."
She finds her balance eventually, but in the meantime we have the opportunity not only to learn on the changes she makes to green up her lifestyle, but also on her life, her family and her friends. It gets intimate sometimes, which adds an interesting layer to the "green" core story, and last but not least - it always comes with handful of wit, humor and sarcasm, which makes even the most difficult days bearable and this book a real gem.
Bottom line: it's a great book (and also a great gift), well-written, interesting and it's even really green - it's printed on 100% PCW recycled and FSC certified paper. Just go and get it!
GIVEAWAY ALERT!!
We're giving away our review copy of the book, courtesy of the author, and of course a tree will be planted for the copy!
If you're looking for other interesting green-themed books, you are invited to check out our green books page on Eco-Libris website's green resources section.
We asked you to share with us what renewable energy system you would like to have at home and learned that most of you are interested (not surprisingly) in having solar panels. And we have a winner!
The winner of the giveaway is reader nfmgirl who wants it all, as she explains in her comment:
I always wanted a variety. I wanted to have a place out in the "boonies", and have some solar, some wind (a small windmill, not one of those monsters that explode bats lungs), and a water wheel. I want it all!
Congrats to nfmgirl and thanks to all the other participants. If you didn't win this time, don't worry - you'll have another chance to win a great green book in our next giveaway which will be online later on today.
What's the connection between John Wilkes Booth (an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln), guitarist Jimmy Olander, actor Macaulay Culkin and myself? We were all born on August 26 and celebrating today (except Booth of course) our birthday! If you're also celebrating your birthday today - happy birthday to you too!
We love birthdays (especially ours..) and therefore we would like to remind you of the opportunity 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 (http://www.ecolibris.net/birthday.asp), 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 gift - get yourself a nice green book and plant a tree for it with us!
I'm going to eat some cake. Happy Birthday everyone!
Today we have another new tip on our weekly series of green printing tips, where we bring you in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.
Today Greg is talking about the preparation process on your side when it comes to digital printing.
How to prepare files for your next Green Digital run? Tip #12
Digital printing has increased my Green printing sales. Most of our clients are smaller green entrepreneurs, and many are brand new to printing in general. I get a lot of questions from these young entrepreneurs, who want to do the environmentally correct print job, but struggle with preparing the files for us. This is also a good review for the seasoned designer.
When preparing your files, that have solid pantone colors in the graphics, do "not" convert your files to CMYK. Most designers that know digital is printed in CMYK or RGB, think they need to convert the files to what they think we need.
But, we prefer you don't do that. Our pre press equipment will automatically convert your files to what we need. We prefer to see your pantone color(s), and we then have your colors as a guide, as we do the conversion ourselves.
Sometimes, our equipment might convert to RGB, and sometimes your digital pictures will be printed as RGB automatically. You wouldn't be able to foresee that we prefer that option.
We want to make being Green easy for you. We will do the extra work.
The same holds true on printing our 100% PCW or Tree Free business cards. Just give us 1 up files. Don't impose them for us. The imposition is automatic.
The only thing that can hold you up is forgetting to add 1/8" bleed when the ink goes to the edge of the sheet. And, don't put your copy closer than 1/4" from the edge. Remember - digital printing needs a little margin.
If you have any further questions following our tips, or you have a specific question you want us to address, please email us to info@ecolibris.net.
Ever since I saw Gary Vaynerchuk presenting at the BEA last May I follow him (not literary, just on the web..) and I just love reading about his insights creative ideas. His latest one: pick the best wine to go with a new book.
This is a great idea and Vaynerchuk seems the right person to do it, bringing it in an interesting, educational but also a fun way. I just hope he will soon have the opportunity to pair a new "green" book with a great organic wine!
Publisher John Wiley & Sons released last week its first annual Corporate Citizenship Report to share the progress of its global Corporate Citizenship initiative, which was introduced in 2008, and establish goals for the coming year.
As their press release mentions, Wiley launched this global initiative to address its key social, economic, ethical, and environmental challenges; formalize and globalize its policies and strategies; improve its communications; and become more proactive addressing its carbon footprint and supply chain matters.
This is a very impressive initiative and the report itself is also an achievement in itself, as such report is very rare in the publishing industry. So first and foremost I think Wiley deserves big kudos for their efforts to become more sustainable and for this report. Nevertheless, one thing was missing in this report: figures.
Here's one example: paper. The report is very clear about it:
"Wiley uses paper sourced from mills around the globe and recognizes our responsibility to select papers that meet the highest standards of sustainable, clean, and efficient production.
In 2008-2009, Wiley established global guidelines for environmentally favorable paper sourcing and procurement strategies based on generally accepted best practices, with guidance from stakeholders, industry trade associations, and third-party certifiers. Moving forward, Wiley will adopt locally tailored programs that apply these global principles, guide decision making, and facilitate external communication."
What was achieved in 2009? The report explains that Wiley did the following:
- Formalized global Responsible Paper Sourcing guidelines.
- Reduced paper consumption by adopting lighter weight papers and reducing waste, migrating more print subscriptions to online license deals, and taking advantage of digital technologies to deliver content online as well as more efficiently in print.
What are the goals for 2010? The report gives the details :
- Support paper choices by leveraging resources such as PREPS (Publishers Database for Responsible Environmental Paper Sourcing) and EPAT (Environmental Paper Assessment Tools).
- Reduce paper use and shipping through new print technologies such as Print On Demand and Ultra Short Run.
As you can see Wiley takes the issue of paper very seriously, but were are the numbers? when Wiley says it reduced paper consumption in 2009 - is it a 10% reduction, 25% reduction or maybe 2% reduction? I mean, there's no real way to value these steps when they're put in such a vague way.
And it's not just the part about paper. I also couldn't find on the other parts of the report figures describing either a 2009 achievement or a 2010 goal, except with ethical conduct goals (such as monitoring vendor performance by making annual visits to at least 75% of our major vendors).
Wiley mentions in the report that "This is a long-term initiative, with the full support of our leadership team. It may take years to reach some of our ultimate goals, but we intend to achieve measurable improvement from year to year. For information on our initiative and our progress, please visit www.wiley.com/go/citizenship." I was hoping that maybe the missing figures can be found there, but unfortunately I found none.
Just for comparison let's look at another company from the publishing industry, although this time it's mainly magazines - Time Inc. If you look at their 2007-2008 sustainability report you'll see it's full with figures that let you a good understanding of their efforts and can also assist you to benchmark them against other companies' sustainability efforts. Here's just one example:
After considering what would be both ambitious and practical, Time became the first U.S. publisher to set targets for producing less greenhouse gas throughout its supply chains. Time asked the paper companies to reduce carbon emissions 20% from a 2004 base by the year 2012. Some suppliers pointed out that they had already achieved some reductions before 2004 and felt they deserved credit for their leadership role. To accommodate these suppliers, Time set some alternative but equally challenging goals. Keeping the same target year of 2012, the paper companies have the options of cutting carbon output by 25% from a 2000 base or 30% from a 1996 base.
As I said earlier I still believe Wiley deserves kudos for their efforts and I hope the second report will include all the figures that are so missing here. Nevertheless, I think that this report could do a much better job with figures to help us seeing Wiley's deep commitment to sustainability.
We reviewed this interesting book last Tuesday and we're giving away our review copy, courtesy of the book's publicist. One tree will also be planted for the copy!
How you can win? just add a comment to the book review post or to this post with an answer the following question: What renewable energy system you would like to have at home? Submissions are accepted until Tuesday, August 25, 12PM EST. The winner will be announced the following day.
McKibben came to the show to speak on 350.org, the campaign he is leading, and why he thinks 350 is the most important number in the world. As always with Colbert it was a very funny, but at the same time I think McKibben got the chance to explain the idea behind 350.org and I hope it helps to spread the word about this important movement.
Today we bring you another chapter in what we aim to make a monthly series - State of the green printing - talks with green printers. This series is part of our efforts to promote green printing and to get a better understanding where it stands and how it develops.
Consolidated Printing Company was established by Marilyn Jones in the basement of her Chicago home in 1973 with just $5,000. After more then 35 years Consolidated Printing is one of the leaders in the green printing market and an awarded printer. Marilyn is talking on the interview on the journey she made since the beginning at her home basement in 1973, the current trends and developments in green printing and the future of Consolidate Printing.
Hi Marilyn. Can you tell us what makes Consolidated Printing a green printer?
Consolidated has taken a holistic approach to sustainability, and has addressed everything involved in the process of printing and the facility that houses the plant and offices.Specifically, in the printing process we have zero petroleum, zero carcinogens, zero phthalates.Along with our printing processes being natural our office and plant has been built out with sustainable products and procedures. All of the processes at Consolidated Printing are non-toxic.
What motivated you in the first place to adopt green practices and offer green options to your customers?
Printing is a marvelous business and gives us the opportunity to work with people in many different businesses.One of my first clients was a vitamin manufacturer.He sold mega doses of vitamins to health care practitioners. In 1973 in the Midwest we were not as a society familiar with the benefits of vitamins as a source of healing.Learning from him about the many everyday items that affect your health positively and negatively made me look at the chemicals I was using in my business life.
As I adopted alternative medicine and a natural lifestyle personally the extension went to my business where I adopted the use of many household products to replace toxic chemicals.
Although there were clients I discussed natural healing and natural printing with, I did not do this on a large scale until I participated in our states Great Printers Project. We were inspected and awarded as Illinois First Great Printer in 1997. I found that clients I worked with wanted this award listed on the printing I was doing for them. Printed by Illinois First Great Printer”
What do you consider the most important green element in your green identity?
The most important green element in our green identity is transparency. If I am struggling with some aspect of my mission, I talk about it.We recently replaced a press with the newest model.This new generation press did not take to our natural wash up solution; it could not be weaned from its toxic habit. I would point it out on tours for clients and talk about our processes to find a solution. We did after many months adapt it to our all natural production method. Until we reach transparency we will not become a “green” industry.
As someone who is involved in green printing for many years, what’s the most important changes you see now in the industry?
The industry has changed and embraced the green movement.We have embraced recycled paper and soy ink and a multitude of bogus certifications but, I see only a handful of us across the nation pushing to delve deeper and clean up the industry. Unfortunately, through lack of awareness or lack of dedication I do not see the industry moving to be rid of the toxic and health damaging chemicals.
Every day I read the ads from printers who talk about citrus wash as a green alternative; do they know it has the potential to cause cancer?How is that green? Or a printer who is talking about a waterless press as an answer but not talking about the toxic wash up needed to remove the ink from the press or the plates that are not recyclable. Half truths and misleading. Chemicals can cause liver and kidney problems, cancer, coma, sudden death just to name a few.
What are the most popular green offers now at Consolidated Printing? Is there any particular reason for that?
The most popular green offer at Consolidated is our all natural printing process with the use of no toxic chemicals in our printing process.Our clients tell us our ink is vibrant, the colors deep and rich. We have recently won awards for print excellence from the Printing Industry of Illinois and Indiana, American Printer Magazine and a Gold Ink Award.
What is the most important part for your customers when it comes to buying green printing services?
The most important part for our clients when it comes to buying green printing services is the length of our participation in the greening of printing and the inspections and awards our company has participated in and received.
William D. Schaeffer Environmental Award The Governor's Pollution Prevention Awards Mayor Daley's Green Practices Market Transformation Award Mayor Daley's Green Products Market Transformation Award First Illinois Great Printer
Do you think we are already in the place where green printing is not only supporting the environment but also generating value for businesses?
No, I do not think we are in the place where green printing is supporting the environment or generating value for business.I don’t feel buying wind power is the answer to the energy debate.Supporting renewable energy is great but how can we do it more directly? Is that money really ADDING to the amount of renewable energy used or just subsidizing it? We need to be cutting down our energy use and demanding energy-saving features from our suppliers.As for the pollution printing generates, the technology is there to support the environment but it is not being used by the industry as a whole so printing remains a leading polluter worldwide.
Who is the typical customer that buys green printing services from you?
There is no typical customer who is buying green. All clients are looking for the three original qualifications -price, quality, on time delivery - with the added benefit of being green.Not necessarily in that order.For each client the priority changes but those four requirements remain pretty steady.
How does the recession influence green printing? Is cost becoming more of an issue?
The recession has influenced printing as in every other industry. Cost is an issue.Our system in areas is much more expensive.Our biggest expense is in the past.It was in the research and development, the hours, weeks and months, years put into testing new products and the cost of wasted paper and in overtime hours, products that did not live up to their claims, or new generations of products that were improved and again needed testing.
As a company our employees spend a considerable amount of time working on greening the printing industry and working in the green community. The working hours we all spend on this community involvement to further the green initiative is another area that increases our costs.Time is money.
Whatis your vision of Consolidated Printing 5 years from now?
My vision for Consolidated 5 years from now……hmmm I didn’t have this vision 5 years ago. I would like to see our PrintedgreenTM become the standard for the industry. Meanwhile, we will just keep doing what is right for our workers and the planet.We will continue to partner with our industry to make it a safer place to work and live and make the air we breathe and the water we drink safer.
Thank you Marilyn! You can learn more about Consolidated Printing at their website - www.consolidatedprinting.net
You are also invited to watch this video, which shows an interview conducted with Marilyn last year:
Eco-Libris is working with the authors, Tristan Coopersmith and Todd Johnson, to plant 1250 trees for the copies printed to replenish Mother Earth, replacing the resources used for printing the book. Our logo will appear on the copies printed as well, showing readers the commitment of the authors to improving their impact on the environment.
This is a great book and we're very proud to work with its authors. No matter if your dating days are over (for now..) or you're waiting for them to be over, you'll enjoy this fun and valuable book.
Here are some more details about what you can find in it and the authors.
About the book: Order up…a delicious new dating attitude!Whether you’re convinced all the good guys are taken, sick of kissing frogs, or simply feeling cursed by Cupid, Tristan and Todd, irrepressible best friends and dating aficionados, will teach you how to rock a stellar new outlook on hooking up, dating and finding your “main course,” while filling your calendar (and plate) with loads of tantalizing men.Menu Dating includes innovative new strategies for:
*Cleansing your palette by throwing out your stale dating philosophies and flirting phobias
*Adopting the laidback, positive attitude of someone who knows there’s no such thing as a bad date— just a veritable tapas bar of flavorful experiences and lessons.
*Collecting and taste testing tons of different man candidates (mandidates!)…even the ones you thought you’d never date
*Sexcapading, booty calling and practicing the art of the one-night stand (and yes, every girl should have at least one)
*Avoiding the pitfalls and pratfalls of dating multiple men at the same time
Menu Dating will show you how dating a rotating roster of different men without a fixation on settling down is actually the secret to finding the relationship you deserve. You’ll discern your wants from your needs, your nice-to-haves from your dealbreakers...not to mention, have some seriously delicious fun along the way to meeting your “main course” man.
About the authors: TRISTAN COOPERSMITH and TODD JOHNSON have been best friends since they were eight. As roommates in their 20s, they became each other's dating coaches and interpreters of the puzzling behavior of the opposite sex. Tristan is a trend forecaster in Los Angeles.
Having taste-tested all the way to her main course, Tristan is a happily retired graduate of the MENu Dating program and a newlywed. Todd works in finance in New York, married the woman of his dreams and is the proud father of a baby boy. He continues to be Tristan's "boy's eye view" for all things man-related.
We're happy to bring you today another tip on our weekly series of green printing tips, where we bring you in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.
Today Greg is talking about a part of your business that you can easily green up and benefit both your business and your customers.
What are your green options when it comes to promotional items? Tip #11
Whether you have a trade show coming or you start thinking about the gifts you want to give your customers this year for the holidays, you might want to consider some eco-friendly options. They're creative, fun, show your customers the environment is important to you and as you'll see it can fit even a very tight budget ,and clients today are searching more than ever for green items.
Here are a couple of examples:
Eco Circles: 3" or 3.375" diameter, coaster looking , NETWORKING CARDS. Hand these out at networking parties, or trade shows, and the response is 10 times greater than traditional business cards. The next day, your circle card stands out from the 50 rectangle business cards.
We offer these at 6 up, on each print run.You can have 1 name or 6 names, or 3 names at 2 up, etc. We offer our entire Tree Free, and 100% PCW covers to you. We can quote 1 color up to 4 color for 1 side or both sides.
The Eco Circles are my most popular item bought as a promotional item. They create the most awareness and they are inexpensive, compared to flyers and brochures. Calenders: Printed on 100% Post-Consumer Recycled Paper. Many sizes available.
Corn Starch Bracelets: We have bracelets that are made from Corn Starch and there are 3 bracelets to a set. You wear all 3 bracelets. The charm is engraved-Go Green. For 1000 sets, you can have your own company initials engraved. This is an inexpensive gift to give @ $3.75 per set. The corn starch bracelets, with the Go Green charm are my most popular gift.
Bookmarks: The standard size is 2 x 8 inches, printed on 100% recycled cover. 4 color/2 sides.
Environments Books: "WHO I AM", an interactive coloring book and "HOW THE LAND OF LITTER BECAME THE KINGDOM OF CLEAN", an educational, kids book are fun promotional items. We reserved the inside covers for your company misson statement or ad. These items are sold for under $5.00 each without the ads on the inside covers.
As you can see, price wise, the Eco Circles, coloring books and bracelets are all under $5 when you buy 100 at a time. If you buy over 1000 of them, the price is low.
And if you have any further questions following our tips, or you have a specific question you want us to address, please email us to info@ecolibris.net.
Our weekly green book review has moved this week to Tuesday because of technical problems yesterday. Still, it was worth waiting because we have a great book dealing with one of the hottest issues on the green agenda - renewable energy for homes.
Harvey Bryan has been involved in sustainability and renewable design concerns for some 30 years. He has previously taught at MIT and Harvard and is currently a full professor at Arizona State University. He was on the Board of Directors of the Arizona Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council and is certified in both BREEAM (a rating system used in Europe and Canada), as well as LEED. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors on the Green Building Initiative.
Brita Belli is the editor of E / The Environmental Magazine, the largest independent magazine dedicated to green issues.
Publisher: Alpha (a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.)
Published on: July 2009 What this book is about? (from the publisher's website) An essential how-to on powering your home with sun, wind, water, and more. For readers wanting to save money—and the planet—by using alternative energy, this book provides everything they need to know. The five basic sources are fully covered: sun, wind, water, earth, and bio.
The benefits, what is needed, and whether it will work for a particular home are all carefully laid out in this comprehensive overview: • Solar energy for home heating, water heating, and electricity • Wind power, hydrogen, and micro hydro power • Heat pumps—air, geothermal, and water source • Heating with wood and going bio What we think about it? Everyone knows renewable energy is good in general and for your home specifically and that it's good for the environment and for your wallet. But what's next? what do you do if you actually decided to move forward and green up your existing or new home with renewable energy devices? That's where this book becomes handy.
We're giving away our review copy of the book, courtesy of the book's publicist, and of course a tree will be planted for the copy!
How you can win? Please add a comment below with an answer the following question: What renewable energy system you would like to have at home? Submissions are accepted until Tuesday, August 25, 12PM EST. The winner will be announced the following day.
If you're looking for other interesting green-themed books, you are invited to check out our green books page on Eco-Libris website's green resources section.
New report has been released with an interesting title - Printing Continues to Go Green. But looking at some of the report's findings makes you wonder if this is really so.
This 68-page report, according to the publisher WhatTheyThink, "provides an overview of the state of green printing initiatives in the U.S. commercial printing industry. The report, an update to a special primer report first published in April 2008, provides the results of a June 2009 survey of commercial printing establishments conducted by WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center".
So far so good, but let's look at couple of the findings the publisher highlights on its website:
— in a June 2009 survey conducted by WhatTheyThink’s Economics and Research Center, the top green practice that U.S. commercial printers say they have currently implemented is “identify itself in marketing and sales materials and promotions as an environmentally sensitive business,” cited by 33% of all respondents, up from the 26% who said this in a March 2008 survey;
— 43% of all responding companies said that sustainable printing initiatives are “critically important to only a select few customers,” up from 41% in March 2008;
— 26% of all respondents say they plan to implement some form of certification from an environmentally sustainable printing authority, up from 20% in April 2008;
Now, I have to say first I didn't read the report and I only refer to the information available on the publisher's website, but if these findings are in anyway indication of the other findings of the report then I'm not sure how one can see here any move of the printing industry in the direction of sustainability.
Actually, all three findings are showing the opposite. The first finding shows that most common green practice is to identify to yourself as one in marketing materials. This sounds a little troubling - wouldn't you expect it to be greater usage of FSC or recycled paper?
The second finding shows that more printers say that green printing is important only to a few customers. This is not encouraging as well.
And the last finding here show that more printers plan to implement some kind of "green" certification - but how many actually do it and not just plan to do so? I think the number of printers who already have these certifications can be a better indicator of the state of green printing.
So I'm not sure if these kind of findings justify the title of the report. I only hope the report itself include much more supporting material. In any case, it doesn't mean we don't think the printing industry is going green - we see this trend in the interviews we conduct with printers, conversations with businesses, feedbacks to our green printing tips series and news we read about almost every week.
If you have any feedback please feel free to add your comment. We'll be happy to hear your thoughts!
Founded in 2007, Eco-Libris is a green company working to green up the book industry in the digital age by promoting the adoption of green practices in the book industry, balancing out books by planting trees, and helping to make e-reading greener.
To achieve these goals Eco-Libris is working with book readers, publishers, authors, bookstores and others in the book industry worldwide. So far Eco-Libris balanced out over 179,500 books, which results in more than 200,000 new trees planted with its planting partners in developing countries.
Good new from Scholastic - the global children's publishing, education and media company announced that significant progress has been made toward the company-wide sustainable goals!
