Better World Books presents their top 10 green books

With Earth Day right around the corner, the good folks at Better World Books thought it was a great time of year to release their top 10 green books:

1. Natural Capitalism

2. The Lorax

3. An Inconvenient Truth

4. Silent Spring

5. Moral Ground

6. The Better World Shopping Guide

7. Hot, Flat and Crowded 2.0

8. Farm City

9. The Responsibility Revolution

10. The Great Paper Caper

If you’re not familiar, Better World Books collects and sells books online to donate books and fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than 8 million new and used titles in stock, it’s a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value. To date, the company has raised over $10 million for libraries and literacy, and diverted millions of books from landfills. For more information please visit http://www.betterworldbooks.com/

Publish Post

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Better World Books was awarded the 2009 WasteWise Gold Award by the EPA

Better World Books is one of the most exciting, innovative and socially responsible initiatives in the book industry. And now they also get a formal recognition for their outstanding achievements by no other than the EPA!

Yesterday, The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognized Better World Books for its accomplishments in waste reduction and recycling by awarding the company with its 2009 WasteWise Gold Award in a ceremony that was held in Arlington, VA.

To those of you who are not familiar with their work, Better World Books collects and sells new and used books online, donating a portion of each sale to help literacy initiatives worldwide. Books that cannot be re-sold or re-used are recycled. When it comes to waste reduction, the company has successfully diverted more than 32 million books from landfills. In the process, it has also raised $7.6 million in funding for literacy and education initiatives worldwide through the sale of those books.

Photo: Better World Books' warehouse. Credit: Better World Books

On their press release announcing the award, Better World Books CEO David Murphy explained that "Every year, almost a million tons of books are thrown away. We’re proud of our company’s accomplishments reducing that tremendous and unnecessary waste. By moving discarded books out of landfills and back into the reading cycle, we’re not only helping the environment, but also raising money for good causes and promoting literacy. We are honored to be recognized by the EPA and to receive this WasteWise Gold award.”

Kudos to Better World Books for their award! We hope this recognition of their achievements will inspire others to follow suit and find sustainable win-win solutions in the book industry.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Cody's Books

To anyone who's from the San Francisco Bay Area, there's no need to introduce Cody's Books. This famous Berkeley independent bookstore has been around since 1956, when it was founded by Pat and Fred Cody as a small storefront, and even played a part in (The People's Republic of) Berkley's interesting political history in the 60's and 70's. In fact, Pat Cody wrote a book about it in Cody's Books: the Life and Times of a Berkeley Bookstore, which I heard is quite worth hunting down.

So today's announcement is that Eco-Libris finally plays a small part in the current chapter of Cody's history book. As of last week, our “One tree planted for this book” eco-friendly stickers are on sale for $1 at the book counter, and the Berkeley literati can now plant a tree for every book they buy at Cody's.

In a recent SF Gate article, journalist John King outlined Cody's somewhat iconic saga, which illustrates the exciting yet treacherous road of independent book retail these days. Pat and Fred Cody's little storefront endeavor grew over the decades to include two Berkeley stores, the flagship being a big storefront on Telegraph Avenue, and an additional third shop opened in downtown San Francisco in 2005.

However, the times being what they are, the Cody's of today is back to basics. After a recent move, the former chain is back to being a single store in Berkeley on Shattuck and Allston. That's good news to all book lovers in the area, because it hopefully means that this great resource is going to be available for yet another generation.

So definitely check out Cody's at their new location, when you are around. Meet an author, buy a book, and of course, plant a tree. For a complete list of upcoming event please check out their events calendar

Yours,

Eylon @ Eco-Libris

Plant a Tree for Every Book You Read!

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

I know you probably read already gazillion summaries of 2007 and got another trillion best wishes for 2008, so I'll try to be short here :-)

2007 was a very good year for me - About 6 months ago I co-founded Eco-Libris with a great group of devoted people and started to do the first steps to make reading more sustainable. We've balanced out so far more than 7,500 books! These books are balanced out by more than 10,000 trees that are being planted by our planting partners in developing countries.

Eco-Libris worked very hard in the last couple of months - we have established collaborations with writers, publishers, bookstores, organizations and others involved in the book publishing industry, and it's only the beginning.

We're very excited about the upcoming year and hope to increase our activities and grow to become an agent of change that move the book publishing industry towards greener choices and practices. We have a goal of balancing out half a million books by the end of 2008 and we intend to meet it, with your help of course.. I hope that in general 2008 will be a greener year and will bring us more hope for a better and greener future.

I would like to wish all of you a happy, prosperous and GREEN year.

Enjoy 2008!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Picture Courtesy of Sustainable Harvest international

Green Festival in Washington DC starts tommorow

Green Festival will begin tomorrow in Washington DC. I have only good memories from last year's green festival in DC and I hope to enjoy it as well this year.

Here are some details on the event:

Where: Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW Washington DC

When: Saturday 10AM - 8PM, Sunday 11AM - 6PM

Schedule: http://www.greenfestivals.org/content/blogcategory/127/225/

Speakers: Ralph Nader – Frances Moore Lappe – Dr. Helen Caldicott - Hunter Lovins - Amy Goodman - Jim Hightower - Vicki Robbin - Thom Hartmann - Bill McKibben -Timberly Whitfield - Medea Benjamin – Kevin Danaher - Alisa Gravitz - Wendy Rieger – Warren Brown – Karen Johns – Michael Dorsey and 100 other visionary leaders....

Tickets: $15 General Admission Festival Pass. $10 Discounted Admission Festival Pass (available at the door) for students, seniors, union memers, bicyclists, etc. Children under 12 -Free

So, come on and enjoy more than 125 visionary speakers and 350 green businesses, great how-to workshops, green films, a fair trade pavilion, yoga and movement classes, organic beer, delicious organic cuisine and live music.

And for all of you book lovers - Better World Books and Green Festival are partnering to offer $5 off Green Festival admission to attendees who bring in 3 or more books. Your donated books will be sold on BetterWorld.com to help fund girls’ scholarships in developing countries in Asia through Room to Read. http://www.roomtoread.org/.

see you there,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

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