Monday's green books series: Bringing Nature Home

How's your garden doing? that's an easy question that hopefully the answer on it would be 'great' or 'really great'. But how many of your plants are native plants? that's much more difficult to answer and actually this is the more important question, as we can learn from the green book we're reviewing today.

Our book today is:

Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens

Author: Douglas W. Tallamy (forwarded by Rick Darke)

Douglas W. Tallamy is Professor and Chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities.

Publisher: Timber Press

Published on: First edition published in 2007. Updated and expanded paperback edition published in 2009

What this book is about? (from the publisher's website)
The pressures on wildlife populations today are greater than they have ever been and many gardeners assume they can remedy this situation by simply planting a variety of flowering perennials, trees, and shrubs. As Douglas Tallamy points out in this revelatory book, that assumption is largely mistaken. Wild creatures exist in a complex web of interrelationships, and often require different kinds of food at different stages of their development.

There is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife. When native plant species disappear, the insects disappear, thus impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. Fortunately, there is still time to reverse this alarming trend, and gardeners have the power to make a significant contribution toward sustainable biodiversity. By favoring native plants, gardeners can provide a welcoming environment for wildlife of all kinds.

Healthy local ecosystems are not only beautiful and fascinating, they are also essential to human well-being. By heeding Douglas Tallamy's eloquent arguments and acting upon his recommendations, gardeners everywhere can make a difference.

Why you should get it?
Firstly the author is a Professor at UD in Newark, DE where Eco-Libris is headquartered, so even though we don't know him personally (yet..), we're for the book even before I opened the first page (supporting local products!).

My opinion didn't change a bit after I opened the book and dived into the world of plants, gardens, insects, butterflies, birds, trees, landscape and communities. The book is full with interesting and valuable information and not only for gardeners, but also to anyone who is interested in humans-nature relationship in general and in urban settings specifically.

You can look at this book as a manifesto explaining why we should favor native plants, but it's much more than that. It's a plan to sustain the endangered biodiversity and even more, it's a plan to transform suburbia from an environmental liability to an environmental asset that is supporting the natural world.

And of course if you're really into gardening, or like us into tree planting, you must have a copy of this book. As Rick Darke, author of The Encyclopedia of Grasses of Livable Landscapes put it in his forward:

"Rich in concept and detail, this book asks and answers essential questions for modern gardeners inclined to good stewardship. How can we adjust our planting palette to be both beautiful and environmentally useful? how much more does a local oak species contribute to habitat richness than an out of ecological context exotic tree?...Spending some time with Bringing Nature Home and its wealth of revelatory moments is certain to enrich your understanding of how connected and contributing good gardens can be."

Last but not least, the book is filled with beautiful photographs which makes it even more compleing and accecible, even for those who are a little bit less into biology and ecology.

What others say about the book?
"Provides the rationale behind the use of native plants, a concept that has rapidly been gaining momentum. The impact on our environment is huge. The text makes a case for native plants and animals in a compelling and complete fashion." —Joel M. Lerner, Washington Post, June 28, 2008

"If you cut down the goldenrod, the wild black cherry, the milkweed and other natives, you eliminate the larvae, and starve the birds. This simple revelation about the food web — and it is an intricate web, not a chain — is the driving force in Bringing Nature Home." —Anne Raver, New York Times, March 6, 2008

"A fascinating study of the trees, shrubs, and vines that feed the insects, birds, and other animals in the suburban garden." —Anne Raver, New York Times, December 6, 2007

More links related to the book:

Doug Tallamy in an hour-long interview with Philadelphia's Marty Moss-Coane on the show "Radio Times"

A profile article on the author at the New York Times ("To Feed the Birds, First Feed the Bugs")

The author's website

If you're looking for other interesting green-themed books, you are invited to check out our Eco-Libris green books page on our website's green resources section.

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

Kansas, here we come!

We're very excited to have a new bookstore from Kansas joining our bookstores program - The Raven Book Store.

This independent bookstore is located on 6 East 7th Street in Lawrence, Kansas. It was just recently reopened under new management and you're invited to give them a visit if you're in the neighbourhood.

Now customers at the Raven Book Store will have the opportunity to pay $1 to plant a tree to balance each book they purchase in the store. They will also receive an Eco-Libris sticker (made of recycled paper) at the counter for each book they balance out, saying 'One tree planted for this book'.

Store Hours:

Monday - Wednesday: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Thursday-Friday: 1:00 AM - 8:00 PM

Saturday: 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM

Sunday: 1 PM - 5 PM

The store's website: http://www.ravenbookstore.com/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Visit Eco-Libris website at http://www.ecolibris.net

Monday's Green Books - The Urban Homestead

Urban Homesteading is about having your dream house in the country right here and now, in the middle of the city. Any city. Indulge in `guerrilla gardening' and enjoy a prodigious crop of tater tires. No waiting, no procrastinating, no excuses, no pain. Because, really, there is no reason not to.

Granted, terms like “Urban Homesteading”, “Tater Tires” and “Guerrilla Gardening” are just some example of the great copy sprouting from the green movement these days. Attractive, subversive, playful and just plain irresistible to some. Yep, I'm an easy convert, and so can you be.

The dream of many to get out of the city, settle down on acreage and start living off the land is not new. It reminds me of Gustave Flaubert's “Bouvard and Pécuchet” (1881). In this classic unfinished novel by Flaubert, published a year after his death, two middle-aged copy clerks meet on a bench in Paris, fall in love, and end up inheriting property and moving together to the country.

The novel then follows Bouvard and Pécuchet trying to make it in the countryside by learning various essential disciplines, while colossally, funnily and consistently, failing in all their endeavors. Many believe that the main theme of the book is of knowledge. It is in many ways a criticism of learning by copying, book knowledge in general, and the reluctance to learn from the local farmers and their old fashioned ways.

But it seems like today nearly everyone is a Bouvard or a Pécuchet when it comes to self sustainability, especially in urban settings.

Whereas in Flaubert's days most of the population were living on farms, most contemporary Americans have never even seen one. Book knowledge has been replaced by blogs, wikis, and on-line forum advice, and Xerox made copy-clerks obsolete long ago.,

Fast forward 127 years to a bungalow in Echo Park, Los Angeles, and to Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen's urban homestead. In their little house and property they garden, compost, pickle, bake, can, brew, create their own cleaning products, and everything else that is in the book's table of contents. All of this while having a life that includes a job, blogging, and writing a book. It seems that rather than a chronicle of failures, urban homesteading can be a journey of discovery.

The book is a well written fun guide that explains the hows and whys of urban sustainability without being too preachy about it. You get a sense of the authors' philosophy, but you certainly don't feel that you need to wholly subscribe to it, in order to adopt and adapt any or part of their methods and techniques.

Having just moved to a new place I am going to treat this as a handbook, so no free book giveaway this week folks. My homework: start a compost pile (duh), create a raised bed over part of the existing backyard lawn for planting some local edibles (I am thinking greens). I already started using garden clippings as mulch, and definitely going to brush up on my pickling techniques and ask my mom and aunts for some tips. The cleaning cabinet is going to downgrade to baking soda and vinegar, once the household is sold on it. And it may not be an easy sell. And then, like they suggest, I am going to take it slow. No need for a sudden metamorphosis. I am not going to start pooping in a bucket just yet.

NOTE: Process, the book's publishers, are planting a tree with Eco-Libris for every single book bought from their website. So check out their amazingly eclectic collection of wonderful books, and take advantage of their offer by buying directly from them right here.

Title: The Urban Homestead - Your guide to self-sufficient living in the heart of the city

Authors: Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen

Publisher: Process (self-reliance series, vol. 3)

Published: June 2008

Pages: 308

A review of The Minpins by Roald Dahl.. and we have a winner!

Kimbooktu's contest that is in partnership with Eco-Libris has a first winner!

The reader Sulz wrote a review on the great book The Minpins by Roald Dahl and receives the first prize on the contest - 5 of her books will be balanced out by planting 5 new trees! She will also receive 5 Eco-Libris stickers to put on the sleeves of these books.

So, here's Sulz review:

The book in one sentence: Mollycoddled Little Billy listens to the Devil's whisper and naughtily enters the Forest of Sin against his mother's warnings!

Who would you recommend it to: Little boys and girls with a taste for adventure.

OK bits: The Minpins and their houses.

Boring bits: The ending where Little Billy ventures into mysterious places high up in the sky.

Random review quote: 'Roald Dahl's last picture book is as mind-bogglingly wonderful as all the others. This is classic Dahl: the charming stories with that disquieting edge of fear… Patrick Benson's illustrations are vibrant and so full of life that there is water splashing off the page and leaves swirling among the trees yet there's a harmonious gentleness evident too. A superb book' — Books for Keeps

Verdict: The review quote is right in a way. It is a typical Dahl children story, but not quite as classic as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or The BFG. That said, it still makes a pretty good bedtime story and the illustration is a nice change from the usual Quentin Blake ones. (Not that Quentin Blake's illustrations are boring, they're wonderful!)

Why this book is green: As the book cover above shows, The Minpins is a very 'green' book. The premise of the story is very nature-based, and this is reflected in both the story and illustrations. It's a book based on nature that will interest children and nurture the spirit of environmental friendliness without being boring! thanks!

Thank you Sulz for a great review!

If you are inspired by Sulz and want to send a review of your own, please send it to: k_heijdenrijk [at] hotmail [dot] com. If you win, Eco-Libris will balance out five of your books, you will receive 5 stickers and we'll also post your recommendation right here on our blog.

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: a great green gift for the holidays!

MySpace and HarperCollins collaborate to publish a green handbook

BostonHerald.com reported on Wednesday that MySpace is collaborating with a children’s imprint of HarperCollins on an environmental handbook coming out April 22, Earth Day.

The idea behind the book is that it will feature ideas from MySpace users, who through Nov. 7 can post environmental tips on http://www.myspace.com/ourplanet. According to Brenda Bowen, vice president and publisher of the Bowen Press, a HarperCollins imprint, about 40 such suggestions, their length ranging from a sentence to a paragraph, will be woven throughout the text.

What to MySpace and environmental issues? Tom Anderson, co-founder and president of MySpace said in a statement "MySpace has entire online communities, such as the Impact Channel and OurPlanet, dedicated solely to environmental and social causes. The first MySpace book is just one more way we are working to engage the MySpace community in environmental issues and encourage people to take action."

The book, "MySpace/Our Planet" will be about 160 pages and will cost about $12.95, and a first printing of 200,000 copies is planned.

I am wondering if MySpace and HarperCollins will take one step forward and print the copies on recycled paper, or balance them out. I believe that every book on environmental issues, especially green guides, should walk the talk and shouldn't have adverse environmental impacts.

Let's see how this one goes..

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Everyday with Rachael Ray goes green

Our focus is on books, but we shouldn't forget that there are other publications that consume virgin paper such as magazines and newspapers. Therefore I was very happy to read on the Environmental Leader (brought from Folio Magazine) that Everyday with Rachael Ray has announced that the magazine will be printed on 85 percent recycled paper.

According to report, Ray wrote in the editor’s note of the magazine's November issue that "Starting this month, we’re printing our magazine on recycled paper and saving 11,500 trees with every issue—that’s 115,000 trees a year!”

According to 'Everyday with Rachael Ray', the chlorine free recycled paper is 10 percent post-consumer waste and 85 percent post-printing waste, according to the magazine.

Kudos to Rachael Ray and her magazine for the bold move! We hope to see many publications following Ray's steps.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Tonight is the second part of Planet in Peril

'Planet in Peril' is CNN's four-hour documentary that examines global environmental issues. The first part was on CNN last night and the second part will be broadcast tonight at 9PM ET.

This documentary looks at four key issues: climate change, vanishing habitats, disappearing species and human population growth. To tell this story, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin traveled to some of the most remote and remarkable places on Earth.

I saw the first part yesterday and I enjoyed it, as much as you can enjoy a documentary on these troubling issues.. Yet, this is a good opportunity to see these issues and not just to read about them. Also, they try to discuss these issues from more unique angles, to make them more interesting for the viewers, and I think they do it well.

For more information on Planet in Peril, please check CNN's website.

You can also get an idea about Planet in Peril from this trailer:



Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Joe Wikert and the future of the publishing industry

I haven't recommended for a while on a bookish website, and therefore I was happy when I learned few days ago about Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog.

For anyone who is interested in the future of the book publishing industry (and I definitely am), Joe Wikert's blog is a great place to get information and news from an insider perspective - Wilkert is a Vice President and Executive Publisher in the Professional/Trade division of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Only on this month's posts you can learn on issues such as print on demand (POD), future of textbooks, e-books, Microsoft's Live Book search program, and more.

The blog has a clear techie orientation, but even those who are not very interested in new media formats can benefit from it. Sustainable reading is about awareness, vision, leadership and economics, but also about technology.

So you're welcome to check it out. I will certainly will.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Financial forgiveness for the benefit of Costa Rica's forests

We don't hear too much positive environmental news about the Bush administration, so I was very happy to read last week about the swap deal with Costa Rica.

Marc Lacey reported on the New York Times that "The United States has agreed to forgive $26 million of Costa Rica’s debt as part a debt-for-nature swap that will protect some of the country’s most threatened tropical forests." The deal was brokered by the Nature Conservancy.

The debt for nature swap is an innovative mechanism to sustain long-term conservation efforts in developing countries. It is an agreement between a developing country in debt and one or more of its creditors, where the creditors agree to forgive debts in return for the promise of environmental protection, usually protection of large areas of land such as tropical rainforests. This deal not the first debt for nature swap, but it's the biggest one so far.

According to the article, the funds will help protect important Costa Rican natural areas including the Osa Peninsula, Tortuguero, La Amistad, Maquenque, Rincón de la Vieja and the Nicoya Peninsula.

The Bush administration was very clear about the importance it sees in the benefits of the deal to the natural resources of Costa Rica: "“There’s a double benefit for these countries,” Claudia A. McMurray, assistant secretary of state for oceans, environment and science, said in a telephone interview. “They get some or all of their debt wiped out, and they get help in preserving an important natural resource.” On top of that, Ms. McMurray said, there are the benefits to climate, as forests play an important role in absorbing greenhouse gasses."

So what's the reason for this unexpected greenness of the administration? I am not sure about the reasons behind the deal, but I assume it got to do with some other parts of the deal - "To qualify for the program Costa Rica had to meet a series of political and economic requirements, including cooperation with Washington on drug enforcement and counterterrorism." I also suspect that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who is well known for his green attitudes, contributed to this deal.

In any case, no matter what the reasons are, this is a positive step and a necessary one - Costa Rica's natural treasures are under increasing pressure from human activity and deforestation stripped the country of almost 80 percent of its forest cover, although environmental groups say replanting efforts have helped reversed the trend.

More information on debt to nature deals can be found on WWF and the Nature Conservancy websites.

Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

The Man Who Planted Trees - Holiday green gift guide for book lovers: part 1

The holiday season is just around the corner, and if you already start thinking about gifts, we hope you would think about books. A good book is always a great present!

To help you find out which books are best for giving this holiday season, Eco-Libris blog begins a new series: Holiday green gift guide for book lovers. Yes, every Sunday you will find here an interesting book to be considered for your gift list.

Of course, our recommendations will be green, and I'm not just talkin' about balancing out your book gift, but about the subject of the books. Just wait and see..

Our first recommendation for this holiday's gift is:

The Man Who Planted Trees

Author: Jean Giono

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Originally published in: 1953

The story: it is a touching story of Elzéard Bouffier, a shepherd, who after being widowed, has decided to restore the ruined ecosystem of the isolated and largely abandoned valley in the south of France by single-handedly cultivating a forest, tree by tree. He planted 100 acorns each day before, through, and after two world wars, and transformed a sorrowful place into one full of life and joy.

Why it's a great gift: This is an inspirational story about what one person can do to restore the earth. Jean Giono's story offer a tribute to how much good one person can accomplish in a lifetime and advise on how to live life with deep meaning.

If you're not sure yet, you can watch the animated version of the story, produced by Frédéric Back in 1987. Also, if you look for a special edition of the book, Chelsea Green Publishing released a special twentieth anniversary edition on National Arbor Day 2005 with a new foreword by Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the African Green Belt Movement.

And if you give your friends or family this book as a present on the holidays, you are more than welcome to balance it out with Eco-Libris, add its sticker to the book and make it the perfect green gift for the holidays.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: a great green gift for the holidays!

Michael Pollan at OrganicallySpeaking

Hi,

I just wanted to pass on this very interesting podcast interview at OrganicallySpeaking.org that I just listened to. Michael Pollan is the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, published April 2006 by the Penguin Press. If you are in any way into organic food, nutrition and our food chain, and haven't yet read it, do consider adding it to your BookMooch wish list :)

Have a great weekend!
Eylon @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a Tree for Every Book you Read!

Mooching books has never been easier

The source of today's post is again the New York Times, where I find new treasures every day. This time it's BookMooch, an online community for exchanging used books.

Joanne Kaufman wrote last Monday on the NYT ('Clear the Bookshelf and Fill It Up Again, All Online') about BookMooch, " a book-swapping Web site created a year and a half ago by John Buckman, a bibliophile who describes himself as a “wealthy ex-dot-com person.”"

The concept is very simple - BookMooch lets you give away books you no longer need in exchange for books you really want. Buckman created a system based on points, where according to the site "every time you give someone a book, you earn a point and can get any book you want from anyone else at BookMooch. Once you've read a book, you can keep it forever or put it back into BookMooch for someone else, as you wish." And yes, it's totally free.

Book swapping is a great concept: you can find books you are looking for at no cost, give books you want others to enjoy and of course benefit the environment. It's the same idea as with library - maximizing the usage of every printed book minimizes the need to print new ones and saves many trees from being cut down.

Don't get me wrong - we don't want people to stop buying new books, but as long as books are printed mostly from virgin paper, we would like to see maximum usage for each printed copy. Therefore, we think the concept of book swapping is definitely a way to green up on your reading and make it more sustainable.

BookMooch is not the only book swapping website (The list includes also SwapTree.com, TitleTrader.com, SF-Books.com, tbxn.com for textbooks and others), but what differentiates BookMooch from the others is according to Buckman " its neighborly feel. “If someone has been especially nice, very explicit about the condition of the books they’ve sent out, you can give them a ‘smooch,’ which is an anonymous thank-you gift of one of your points,” he said. Members can also donate their points to selected charities — New Orleans libraries, for example, which are restocking their shelves in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.""

BookMooch looks like a great website, we recommend to check it out. I haven't used it yet, but I intend to do so in the near future. I won't be there alone it has already 40,000 members around the world and according to Buckman, who by the way runs BookMooch by himself, 300 new people are joining every day. Participants The “library” has some 750,000 titles, and Buckman estimates it will hit one million by the end of December.

Enjoy BookMooch,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Blog Action Day - the day after

It seems that the Blog Action Day went really well yesterday. Thousands of bloggers wrote green posts and for one day it seemed like everybody is talking only about the environment (at least on the blogosphere..).

Some of the bloggers wrote their environmental post yesterday on Eco-Libris, and I would like to thank all of them for presenting Eco-Libris to their readers. You are welcome to check their websites as well:

1. Em's bookshelf - Blog Action Day and Eco-Libris
2. Makeup Minute - Plant A Tree With Every Makeup Book Read With Eco-Libris
3. Mommy talks, Wife Stories, Girl Speak - Today is Blog Action Day!
4. Linuxchic.net - Blog Action Day: Read, recycle, replant
5. Classroom 2.0 - Read a book! Plant a tree!
6. A side of cartoons..Please - Adaptations (and thank you Robbay for the great cartoon!)
7. A Writer's Words, An Editor's Eye - Blog Action Day: Publishing and the Environment

So, thank you all of you for taking the time and writing on us. We will continue to work hard to move everyone towards sustainable reading!

Yours,
Raz

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

Paying developing countries to protect their forests - Blog Action Day

Greetings for all the blogs that are participating today in the Blog Action Day! This is a very important day and I hope it will generate a powerful green voice that will help us all move in the right direction. I would like to contribute to this day a post on very good news I read during the weekend on Planet Ark. They published a story from Reuters on a new fund initiated by the World Bank that is aimed to pay developing countries for protecting and replanting their forests.

The idea is very simple - paying developing countries money for protecting their forests will give them an economic incentive to preserve them and fight deforestation. If you make conservation more worthwhile than logging to the governments and the local communities in these areas, it should keep these precious trees alive. Less deforestation = les greenhouse gas emissions.

The logic is also very clear - deforestation contributes 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions, which is, as they remind in the article, more than all the world's cars, trucks, trains and airplanes together! And as the world bank sees it - less deforestation = less greenhouse gas emissions.

The development of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), as the new fund is called will depends on the global agreement that will take effect after Kyoto Protocol will expire in 2012. In the meantime, the article reports that there will be some testing of the concept in 3-5 countries to check how well it works in real life.

I think that all in all it's a good idea and with no economic value to the forests, it will be very difficult to save them from logging. It's also important to make sure that this funding will be spent wisely and that the governments will collaborate and share it with local communities that live in these areas. Their participation and support is critical to the success of this mechanism.

In any case, we still have to remember that this is only a temporary solution. A sustainable solution will have to include also the demand side and ensure that consumers in the developed world will consume alternatives for logging products. For example, recycled paper instead of virgin paper. Only then, when demand will fall, we'll be able to secure the future of the forests and the future of this planet.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Last day for "Hotter than I Should Be" t-shirts auction

Do you want a cool (or hot, depends how you look at it..) t-shirt with the signature of Scarlett Johansson or Orlando Bloom and benefit the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) at the same time?

So if the answer is YES, you still have time to participate in a special auction in eBay of "Hotter than I Should Be" t-shirts, made of 100 percent organic cotton and signed by celebrities. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to WWF's global conservation initiatives including fighting threats like climate change.

So who are the celebrities that participate in the in the special auction organized by WWF? Scarlett Johansson (2 shirts!), Orlando Bloom, Rachael Ray, Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Oliver Stone, Tobey Maguire, Candice Bergen, Gisele Bündchen (2 shirts!), Kevin Bacon, Paul Newman (2 shirts!), Martin Short, Charlie Sheen, Cindy Crawford, Betty White (2 shirts!) and Susan Sarandon (2 shirts!).

Right now, the most desired shirt is the one with Orlando Bloom's signature ($1,150) and the cheapest one you can get is with Martin Short's signature ($123.36).

If you are interested, hurry up as the auction will end today (Oct 12). For more details and links to all the shirts' auction pages, check out this eBay page.

Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

2007 People's Choice Award - summary

4 days have left to those of you who haven't chose yet their favorite nominee and went to Co-op America website to vote for the 2007 People's Choice Award for the Green Business of the Year.

We have covered in the last two weeks the ten nominees for the award, and I want to say that all of them are deserved to be the green business of the year. I think that this list of nominees is more than all a milestone that shows us how much the area of green biz has developed in the last couple of years. I'm sure that the competition on the award will get even tougher in the near future when more new innovative green businesses (did someone just said Eco-Libris? :-) will join the list, already packed with thousands of successful and pioneering green businesses.

The winner will be announced at the Green Festival in San Francisco on November 10. You can also sign up for our e-mail newsletter to receive the announcement of the winner.

If you missed any of the the parts of the Unofficial Guide we published so far on Eco-Libris blog, please check them out:

Introduction
Part 1 - Natural Pet Home Store
Part 2- Mountains of the Moon
Part 3 - Yoga Nine
Part 4 - Pizza Fusion
Part 5 - Green Living Now
Part 6 - ReusableBags.com
Part 7 - UsedCardboardBoxes.com
Part 8 - Flexcar
Part 9 - Manitoba Harvest
Part 10 - Greenfeet.com

Yours,
Raz

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for everybook you read!

Oprah's book club selection - Love in the Time of Cholera

I was very happy to read two days ago in the New York Times that Oprah Winfrey has picked “Love in the Time of Cholera,” the epic love story by Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as her next book club selection.

Garcia Marquez is one of my favorite writers and I one of the greatest storytellers ever. I hope that this selection by the most influential book club in the U.S. will expose more people to his great work.

I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but a film adaptation of “Love in the Time of Cholera” is scheduled for November release. In any case, I join Oprah Winfrey who said in the article “If you’re like me, you’ll want to read the book before you see the movie.” Winfrey also suggested book clubs could hold their next meeting at the movie theater.

MSNBC.com reported that Vintage Books, a paperback imprint of Random House Inc., announced a new printing of 750,000 copies for the novel, and an additional 30,000 for the original Spanish-language text.

I know that Random House, which is a leading U.S. publisher, announced in 2006 that it will raise the proportion of recycled paper it uses to at least 30% by 2010 from under 3% at the time of the announcement. Still, I am quite sure that a lot of virgin paper will be used for all these new copies.

Therefore, those of you who will buy new copies of the book (libraries or a used copy are also great options to get a hold of the book) are welcome to balance them out by planting trees with Eco-Libris. "Love in the Time of Cholera" is really a great book and can be a great opportunity to start taking action and making our reading habit more sustainable. I'm sure Oprah wouldn't mind that :-)

Yours,

Raz

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

Less than a week to Blog Action Day

Just a quick reminder on Blog Action Day that will take place next Monday, October 15:



Already more than 7,500 bloggers have signed (including Eco-Libris blog of course) with many, many, more signing up daily!

Beside the opportunity to spread the word about important environmental issues, I think that this day try to promote the concept that small actions (in this case, posting on your blog) have the power to make a big impact. They write on the action blog "What would happen if every blog published posts on the same topic, on the same day? One issue. One day. Thousands of voices." Well, let's hope for a powerful eco-friendly voice on October 15th that will help us all to move to the right direction. Eco-Libris will definitely contribute its share.

You are welcome to check their website and learn more on Blog Action Day. If you are a blogger, you can register your blog, although this isn't mandatory. The important thing is that on October 15th, you will participate by posting at your blog on one environmental issue (and tag it 'blog action day').

Yours,
Raz

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

Greenfeet.com: 2007 People's Choice Award - part 10

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the day has arrived. After two exciting weeks of presenting the creme de la creme of the green businesses, all is left is the last nominee, and what a pleasure it is to close this nominees series with the planet's homestore. Please allow me to present nominee no. 10 on Eco-Libris blog Unofficial Guide to Co-op America's 2007 People's Choice Award for the Green Business of the Year:

Greenfeet.com

Business description: online store that makes it easier to leave smaller, "greener" footprints with over 1200 items in a variety of categories, such as: Apparel, Baby Products, Toys, Appliances, Housekeeping, Books, Bedroom, Bathroom, Personal Care, Kitchen, Pets, Yard & Garden, Eco Gadgets, Reusable Bags and more. They also have a weekly internet radio show - More Hip than Hippie, where Dori and Val tell you everything you wanted to know about living a green lifestyle that is more hip than hippie. Definitely worth listening!

Located at: Chico, CA

Operating Since: 1997

Website: http://www.greenfeet.com/

The questionnaire (responses provided by Val, Ownder of Greenfeet.com):

1. What makes your business a green business?

As inhabitants of this Planet Earth, we leave footprints on the environment based on the resources we consume. Nobody’s perfect (we’re certainly not!), but we can all strive to decrease the size of our footprints on the environment by the behaviors we choose and the products we use.

We have dedicated our business to making it easier for all people to leave smaller, greener footprints. We offer a wide selection of products that are both economical and unique, designed to help all Earth dwellers battle the obstacles in the path of green living.

Our number one priority is to ensure our customers can trust that we will provide only the highest quality natural products. Our philosophy is that small steps can create big change, and we will work to provide products that make taking those first, small steps as easy as possible.

Internally, we have a very green office. All of our energy is powered by wind through 3 phases energy. We are exploring ways to generate our own wind power here at our warehouse. We utilize green shipping supplies including Geami – a wonderfully green packing material that has reduced our use of bubble wrap by over 90%. We are multi year winners of the WRAP award (Waste Reduction Award Program) given by the State of California.

We were also a runner up in the Governors Environmental Award. Lights are turned off, appliances and computers/printers unplugged when not in use. We offer telecommuting for our employees and many ride their bikes. We provide health care for our employees and offer flexible schedules.

Greenfeet also strives to work with our vendors to green our communication (we’ve encouraged email communication as opposed to fax and print and mail) and discuss how products can be made more sustainable.
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2. What is your green characteristic you're most proud of?

The sense of pride shared by the staff here at Greenfeet.com. Integrating “green” into our business is simply a way of life. Are we perfect? No – opting for green choices isn’t always attainable. The difference is that we strive for the greenest option and push for an even better, greener option as resources allow. The commitment of the staff and their enthusiasm is infectious.

3. What is your biggest achievement so far?

The difference we are making in people lives. The feedback we receive from customers is wonderful. We hear how they’re inspired to make the small changes that lead to an even bigger impact. They also push us to go further; they ask questions, they encourage us to be even better. We thrive on that.

4. In what way do you think that you help people to take a green action and make a difference?

We celebrate the small steps they take. If someone takes a step as simple as recycling aluminum cans, then they should be applauded. We recognize that step and provide tools, advice and ideas to encourage them to take the next step.

Two years ago we launched our weekly podcast, More Hip Than Hippie which has gained an international listener base and is a great tool to further educate and inspire our customers. We’ve since launched a listener forum where ideas are shared and discussed.

5. Who is your green hero?

Our customers. Collectively they make a difference. There are a lot of individuals who are doing wonderful things however it’s the everyday people whose small steps create the change we so desperately need.

6. What's your green dream for your business?

To build upon the solid foundation we’ve built over the last 10 years. To continue to be a driving force in the journey towards living in harmony with the planet and current technology. To foster creativity and the will to push for greater achievements. Passion is what fuels us – it’s our heartbeat.

And if you missed the parts of the Unofficial Guide we published so far on Eco-Libris blog, please check them out:

Introduction
Part 1 - Natural Pet Home Store
Part 2- Mountains of the Moon
Part 3 - Yoga Nine
Part 4 - Pizza Fusion
Part 5 - Green Living Now
Part 6 - ReusableBags.com
Part 7 - UsedCardboardBoxes.com
Part 8 - Flexcar

Part 9 - Manitoba Harvest

Yours,
Raz

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for everybook you read!

Manitoba Harvest: 2007 People's Choice Award - part 9

I am a big fan of hemp. This is an amazing plant that can be used for a diverse number of eco-friendly products. Some of them, including great hemp milk that I tried yesterday at the Green Festival, are made by today's nominee. So please allow me to present nominee no. 9 on Eco-Libris blog Unofficial Guide to Co-op America's 2007 People's Choice Award for the Green Business of the Year:

Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods & Oils

Business description: the largest vertically integrated hemp food manufacturer in the world, offering fresh and high quality staple hemp food products. All Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods & Oils are grown herbicide and pesticide free, using non-genetically modified, 'original source' hemp seeds. No additives or preservatives are used and all products are also gluten free. Among their products you can find: Hemp prtotein powder, Hemp seed nut, Hemp seed oil and Hemp Bliss (the world's first certified organic hempmilk).

Located at: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Operating Since: 1998

Website: http://www.manitobaharvest.com/

The questionnaire (responses provided by Mike Fata, Co-Founder and President of Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods & Oils):

1. What makes your business a green business?

The mission of Manitoba Harvest is to create the healthiest hemp foods, to educate the public about healthy lifestyle choices and to support sustainable agriculture. We refer to hemp seeds as “seeds of change” and since our humble beginnings, we have been inspired by a belief that this natural resource can be a shining example of sustainable agriculture and can drive social change in North America.

Manitoba Harvest makes ‘staple’ hemp food products including cold-pressed Hemp Seed Oil, Shelled Hemp Seed, Hemp Seed Butter, Hemp Protein Powder with Fiber, as well as Hemp Bliss (the first non-dairy organic hemp milk that won the Best New Food Product Award at 2007 Natural Products Expo East in September).

Hemp is one of the most useful and eco-friendly crops in the world. It is naturally pest-resistant, and because hemp plants grow rapidly and close together, they crowd out weeds and don’t need herbicides. Hemp’s only fertilizer requirement is nitrogen, which can be provided by nitrogen fixing cover crops. It is also a soil-building plant that is excellent for crop rotation. Its strong roots anchor the soil to prevent erosion and the leaves return nitrogen to the soil. Hemp cultivation generates virtually no waste and its byproducts are commercially useful.

To ensure a high-quality and plentiful supply of hemp seed, our company partners with more than 2 dozen family farmers in Manitoba. To form a strong bond, Manitoba Harvest provides them with shareholder status and prices above market for their seed. These farmers share our commitment to the eco-friendly benefits of growing hemp. Manitoba Harvest hemp seed contains no Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and it is grown sustainably without herbicides or pesticides. Our farmers also grow USDA certified organic hemp seed for our expanding line of certified organic products.

In addition to the environmental benefits of hemp agriculture that are at the core of our company mission, we follow sustainable business practices including printing all of our promotional materials on recycled or tree-free paper with vegetable based inks. All of our products are packaged in recyclable or reusable packaging and we display coding and recycling advisements on all of our labels to assist consumers. We actively recycle all paper, glass and plastics in our operations and we support environmentally friendly companies by giving sustainable products as promotional gifts. We continue to make our office and production operation a greener environment and a healthy place to work.

2. What is your green characteristic you're most proud of?

We are most proud of our role promoting sustainable agriculture, and for our role in spurring the return of and growth of hemp farming in North America. Manitoba Harvest has taken a steady, education-oriented approach to expanding organic hemp agriculture in Manitoba, and farmers are really catching on to the benefits. We are proud to be converting conventional farmers to organic agriculture, rather than just moving organic farmers of other crops over to organic hemp.

We’re an active member of the Organic Producers Association of Manitoba, and regularly educate farmer groups in Canada about the many merits of growing organic varieties of hemp seed. We have created a system that educates farmers and empowers those farmers to further educate other farmers - and on it goes.

In the early 1990s, company co-founder Martin Moravcik was importing handcrafted goods from indigenous people around the world for his stores in Winnipeg when he discovered that hemp items were in high demand. He organized the Hemp Awareness Committee at the University of Manitoba in the early 1990’s. The group lobbied the provincial government for assistance with research and development of hemp agriculture and was able to convince Manitoba’s Agriculture Minister of hemp’s great potential. Led by Martin, the group submitted a business plan and the Province responded by providing $25,000 and the services of an agronomist. His group obtained some of the first hemp test plot permits from the Canadian government, and the success of their policy activity and research led to the legalization of hemp agriculture in Canada and the first harvest in 1998.

3. What is your biggest achievement so far?

I think there are two aspects of achievement that are relevant to our company story so far: (1) policy activist success; and (2) economic success. The first policy achievement was our role in the movement that made hemp agriculture legal again in Canada in 1998. The next big achievement in that area was our role in the important hemp industry victory in the U.S. courts in 2004 to clarify that hemp foods are legal.

From a business standpoint, we have demonstrated that eco-friendly hemp can be profitable and successful. We are proud to have survived the early years when there was virtually no awareness or sales of hemp foods. We persevered to the new situation today where hemp foods are gaining accolades and more mainstream popularity as a tasty and nutritious food. Hemp foods are now one of the hottest trends in the organic industry and are poised for even more growth.

4. In what way do you think that you help people to take a green action and make a difference?

We have a grassroots style of marketing our products and our mission. We take it directly to the people, and they appreciate that and are inspired by it. They also align with our activism and strong commitment to hemp and to sustainable agriculture. For example, we played a key role recently in a lawsuit that helped to establish that hemp foods are legal in the US, after years of harassment from a government agency that caused confusion in the minds of consumers and regulatory uncertainty for retailers of hemp foods.

We help people understand sustainable agriculture, as well as the concept that ‘you are what you eat.’ These two things when combined make a difference because they lead to a healthier planet and healthier people.

Educating consumers about the many health benefits and rich flavor of hemp foods has been a top priority of ours from day one. We have focused resources on direct interaction at events and in-store demonstrations that can reach more than 250,000 people annually. Sampling and interaction inspires retailers and customers to spread their hemp food experiences by word-of-mouth to their friends. Once people experience the pleasant flavor of hemp foods and grasp the nutritional value it is an easy sell – so extensive sampling is essential.

Hemp foods are gaining more and more recognition from nutrition experts due to their high and balanced concentration of Omega-3 and Omega-6 Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs), strong digestible protein profile, soluble and insoluble fiber content, and their host of vitamins and minerals. Hemp seed’s overall protein content of 34.6% is comparable to soy beans and is higher than that found in nuts, other seeds, meats, dairy products and fish or poultry. With regard to fats, hemp’s EFA profile is closer to fish oil than any other vegetable oil.

5. Who is your green hero?

We like to recognize a different ‘green hero’ every week as inspiration. This week we are honoring Dr. Seuss. His children’s book the Lorax, also an animated movie, is an entertaining way to educate people about sustainability. We appreciate how Dr. Seuss’ imaginative story is so deep in real life parallels to the economic and environmental challenges that mankind faces every day. He went out on a limb with this project - as the story was controversial when it first came out in the 1970’s due to its anti-forest products and doom-and-gloom content. It taught and inspired a lot of children and is still popular decades after it was published. At the end of the story, while they are in the smog and the water and land are devastated, the Once-ler gives the boy the last seed of the Truffula Tree to plant and nurture, we like to think of that seed as a hemp seed.

6. What's your green dream for your business?

We dream that hemp will become the next booming agricultural sector – like soy except more sustainable and eco-friendly. We want to expand the market for hemp foods, expand hemp acreage and help more farmers. This is what motivated us in the beginning in the late 1990s when we started the company and it still drives us today. Hemp is the most remarkable plant and has so many uses. It is an eco-friendly alternative to so many products that we can’t even begin to list them here. We believe hemp has the ability to change the world, and now that awareness of healthy hemp foods is spreading and farmers are gaining interest we are beginning to see some of that potential being realized.

And if you missed the parts of the Unofficial Guide we published so far on Eco-Libris blog, please check them out:

Introduction
Part 1 - Natural Pet Home Store
Part 2- Mountains of the Moon
Part 3 - Yoga Nine
Part 4 - Pizza Fusion
Part 5 - Green Living Now
Part 6 - ReusableBags.com
Part 7 - UsedCardboardBoxes.com
Part 8 - Flexcar

Yours,
Raz

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for everybook you read!