less than 48 hours have left to the Green Books Campaign and we continue to present some of the publishers that participate in the campaign and their thoughts on why it's important that books will be printed in an eco-friendly manner.Our guest today is HOPS Press.
HOPS Press, LLC publishes six books and six videos by author, builder, wilderness survival instructor, and conservationist, Thomas J. Elpel, providing practical hands-on skills to restore our connection with nature.
Two of Elpel’s books are included in thee campaign. Participating in Nature (to be reviewed on raganella) is a book of wilderness survival skills, enabling the reader to discover nature through the process of using it to meet the basic needs for shelter, fire, water, and food. Living Homes (to be reviewed on Beth's Book Reviews) provides nuts-and-bolts construction advice for building high-efficiency homes on a shoestring budget. Both books are printed on 100% recycled paper. And now to the questionnaire (all publishers were asked to reply the same four questions):
Why do you believe books should be printed on eco-friendly paper?
With my background as a wilderness survival instructor, I am accustomed to getting by with scarce resources. In wilderness survival, one simply cannot afford the luxury of waste. I’ve applied that survival mentality to life at home and work as well, building high quality houses out of scavenged materials, paying cash to avoid paying interest on a mortgage, and installing solar panels to zero-out our electric bill.
I am shocked every time I drive by the community dumpster and see all the valuable resources that have been discarded. As a country, we are burying our wealth in landfills, and it is not remotely sustainable. Most of my books are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper to help close the loop on waste. It is pretty exciting to hold a new product that was made without harvesting new resources.
What is your policy on using eco-friendly paper?
I ask our printer for 100% post-consumer recycled paper stock, if available. If 100% post-consumer recycled paper is not available, I’ll take the best we can get for the job.
Are there other ways you're going green?
I wear many different hats over the course of a year, and one of my favorite activities is teaching wilderness survival skills to public school kids. I take the local junior high kids out camping for three days and two nights every year, teaching them skill such as: how to start fires by rubbing sticks together, how to make their own plates, bowls, and utensils, how to cook a stir-fry dinner with hot rocks in a bark pan, how to stay warm and dry without a sleeping bag or a tent, and so forth, as documented in my newest video, Classroom in the Woods: Primitive Skills for Public Schools.
What's your advice to readers that would like to make their book purchasing more sustainable?
Support publishers that print on 100% recycled paper. Enjoy a good read, then pass the book along to a friend or library to get the most use out of it.
The Campaign's page is http://www.ecolibris.net/greenbookscampaign2010.asp .You can also follow the campaign on Facebook and twitter.
Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment