Last day to buy great green ebooks from Island Press for just $4.99!

I wanted to share an update from our friends at Island Press. Today (Friday, Aug 2) is the last day  about a special opportunity Island Press is offering this week to our supporters  – all of our backlist e-books will be available for just $4.99. This special incorporates more than 500 titles from our three decades of publishing including:

·        Gretchen Daily’s Nature’s Services, usually $45.00, now $4.99;

·        David Orr’s Hope is an Imperative, usually $30, now $4.99;

·        Callum Roberts’ The Unnatural History of the Sea, usually $24, now $4.99; and others.

These titles include the best ideas and information on the environment, including books on water, food systems, urban issues, ecosystems, and climate change. Island Press e-books are available at its website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and other online retailers. 

Yours,

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

Green book review: Creating Green Roadways by James L. Sipes and Matthew L. Sipes

Can roads become the friend of the sustainable movement rather than its foe? This question is examined in a new book looking at the intersection between transportation planning and sustainability. 

Our green book for today is Creating Green Roadways: Integrating Cultural, Natural, and Visual Resources into Transportation by James L. Sipes and Matthew L. Sipes (Island Press).

What this book is about?
Roads and parking lots in the United States cover more ground than the entire state of Georgia. And while proponents of sustainable transit often focus on getting people off the roads, they will remain at the heart of our transportation systems for the foreseeable future. In Creating Green Roadways, James and Matthew Sipes demonstrate that roads don’t have to be the enemy of sustainability: they can be designed to minimally impact the environment while improving quality of life.

The authors examine traditional, utilitarian methods of transportation planning that have resulted in a host of negative impacts: from urban sprawl and congestion to loss of community identity and excess air and water pollution. They offer a better approach—one that blends form and function. Creating Green Roadways covers topics including transportation policy, the basics of green road design, including an examination of complete streets, public involvement, road ecology, and the economics of sustainable roads. Case studies from metropolitan, suburban, and rural transportation projects around the country, along with numerous photographs, illustrate what makes a project successful.

The need for this information has never been greater, as more than thirty percent of America’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, more than a quarter of the nation’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and congestion in communities of all sizes has never been worse. Creating Green Roadways offers a practical strategy for rethinking how we design, plan, and maintain our transportation infrastructure.

Our review:
I’m not going to say the book, Creating Green Roadways, was an exciting read, as it wasn’t. However, I did find it extremely informative, as well as quite innovative at times with its green road concepts and designs. We all know that roads are a part of our world and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. We also have all been on those roads that are in such disrepair as to be dangerous and then wondering why no one has dealt with the problem. After reading this book, I now have a better understanding of our roads, the offices that deal with their structures and repair, and just how monumental a task it is to keep our roads serviceable, as well as try to keep the environmental impact at a minimum. I had no idea how much went into our road systems.

The comprehensive information about how we can improve the designs of the roads in order to reduce the environmental impact was extensive and well thought out. This book is extremely thorough in the topics it covers. These topics include, but are not limited to: transportation policy, green road design, road ecology, and case studies of projects from all over the country. As a bonus, the book is filled with photos and illustrations, so that you have a clear idea of what they are talking about. I would love to see some of these ideas put into place. A definite must read for anyone in this industry.

You can purchase the book on Amazon.com (both e-book and hardcover formats are available).

Yours,

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

The green builders' book club

While checking out the website of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), I learned on a new book club they're establishing with Island Press: GreenWorks. It will offer USGBC members the newest and best books on green building.

GreenWorks, according to the news release, will offer professionals a place to connect with others in the field, share their thoughts on various books, ideas and authors, as well as learn more about all things green building.

The books will be selected on a monthly basis by a panel of leading experts in the field, and are available for purchase from Island Press. USGBC members will be able to buy at discounted prices (up to 40%).

The first four books to be featured on GreenWorks are:

1. Emerald Architecture, by GreenSource Magazine, a collection of 24 in-depth case studies of green buildings that are both sustainable and attractive.

2. The Green Building Revolution, by Jerry Yudelson

3. Sustainable Construction, 2nd edition, by Charles J. Kibert

4. The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Created a Sustainable World, by Peter M. Senge with Bryan Smith, Nina Kruschwitz, Joe Laur and Sara Schley.

You can find more details at GreenWorks' website: http://www.islandpress.org/usgbc

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Earth Day options for green readers

Happy Earth Day, everyone! This is very exciting - around the world hundreds of millions of people will take part in green celebrations and events, discussing concerns about environmental issues and making a pledge to pursue a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.

And what's happening on our field of green reading? we collected some of the options offered today for all the eco-conscious readers out there:

Breeni Books - Sabrina Williams of Breeni Books (http://breenibooks.blogspot.com/) is posting today a review and article by the author for the book 'Go Green: How to Build an Earth-Friendly Community' by Nancy H. Taylor. There's also going to be a giveaway so check it out!

Island Press - Visit Island Press’s Earth Day page: http://www.islandpress.org/earthday. Island Press are an environmental nonprofit dedicated to bringing vital environmental issues to the public. They just launched a new website complete with podcast interviews featuring several of our authors discussing topics that include green building, climate change, animal migrations, environmental health, oceans, and animal conservation. Some of the podcasts include interviews with Bill McKibben and Jay Inslee discussing global warming, and Callum Roberts discussing the fate of the world’s oceans.

Cody's Books - Cody's books (http://www.codysbooks.com) is the latest bookstore that joined our bookstore program, where bookstores offer their customers the option to plant a tree and get our sticker at the counter. We are very proud to partner with this great independent bookstore, which was opened in 1956 and became throughout the years a Berkeley institution.

Cody's Books will host on Thursday, April 24 at 7:00 p.m. an event with author James Howard Kunstler, who visits the future in his book WORLD MADE BY HAND.

In his previous book, The Long Emergency, celebrated social commentator James Howard Kunstler explored the age of globalization, the availability of cheap fossil fuels, the perils of climate change, and the coming trauma of our post-oil future. With WORLD MADE BY HAND, an astonishing work of speculative fiction, Kunstler makes an imaginative leap into the future, a few decades hence.

For the townspeople of Union Grove, New York, the future is not what they thought it would be. After the catastrophes converged - the end of oil, climate change, global pandemics, and resource wars - they are doing whatever they can to get by. Transportation is slow and dangerous, so food is grown locally at great expense of time and energy, and the outside world is largely unknown. There may be a president and he may be in Minneapolis now, but people aren't sure. A captivating, utterly realistic novel, WORLD MADE BY HAND takes speculative fiction beyond the apocalypse and shows what happens when life gets extremely local.

Store's address: 2201 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley CA 94704 (Phone: 510-559-9500)

Raincoast Books - our joint campaign with Raincoast books is still going on and you are welcome to check any of the 80 Canadian retailers who are participating and selling a wide range of environmentally themed books emblazoned with Eco-Libris stickers. The list of participating independent bookstores, located from cost-to-coast, is available on this page - http://raincoast.com/green/. Te bookstores have purchased over 4,500 specially stickered books and hence over 4,500 trees will be planted on behalf of Canadian readers.

Bookmooch - today is the last day of our green books promotion with BookMooch, and the book introduced today is 'Big Green Purse' of Diane MacEachern. You can find more details on the promotion and the nine green books that take part in it on bookmooch blog.

Swaptree - In honor of Earth Day this Tuesday, Swaptree.com (http://www.swaptree.com/), the website where you can trade the books, DVDs, CDs, and video games you have, for the ones you want, for free, will be donating $1 dollar for every trade made on Earth Day to The Sierra Club. So if getting a free book, DVD, video game or CD was not enough, now by signing up and doing a trade, you will also be donating to America’s oldest and largest environmental organization on Swaptree’s dime!

Whatever you choose to do today, have a green and wonderful Earth Day!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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