Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies

I learned yesterday from the New York Times on a new book in the Dummies series, and this time a green one: Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies by Eric Corey Freed.

The book, according to its website, is "your friendly, step-by-step guide to every facet of this Earth-friendly method of construction."

Eric Corey Freed, is an architect from San Francisco, CA, the founder of and principal architect at organicARCHITECT, a firm at the heart of the environmental movement that designs environmentally-friendly homes throughout the U.S.

The Founding Chair of Architecture for The San Francisco Design Museum, he teaches at the Academy of Art University and UC-Berkeley, sits on the Environmental Committee of The Commonwealth Club of California, and writes a syndicated monthly column for GreenerBuildings.com.

The book provides an introduction to every facet of green building, from start to finish, including the materials, architecture, and construction methods of green building and remodeling for both homeowners and professionals such as architects, interior designers, and contractors.

The chapters are organized in five parts: The Need for Green, Paying Attention to Material Matters, Green Building Methods, Green building Systems and Site Planning, and The Part of Tens (top ten checklists).

I like the Dummies series and therefore I was happy to hear about this one. I agree what I read on Sustainable Design Update - this book is certainly another sign that green building goes mainstream.

Green Building & Remodeling For Dummies may not be the only book you need to read if you want to build a green house or remodel your apartment and make it more efficient and eco-friendly, but it's definitely a good place to start at. Mr. Freed according to the NYT cut out the technical complexities, so it should also be a good book to anyone who just want to get to know better what green building is all about.

You're welcome to search inside the book at Amazon.com and learn about it a little more.

More reviews of green books can be found on our green resources page.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Prince Charles wants to team up with Norway to save forests

Reuters reported last week on a very interesting collaboration between Prince Charles and Norway. The goal: preventing deforestation in developing countries.

The article reports that Prince Charles, who is known as the Green Prince due to its extensive support of many green issues, offered to Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg to work together on saving forests in developing countries. The offer came after Norway's announcement earlier in December that it aimed to provide about 3 billion crowns ($541.2 million) per year to prevent deforestation in developing countries.

Both Prince Charles and the Norwegian government see prevention of deforestation as an effective . Prince Charles said in the past that "the world's rainforests is key to combating global warming" and Norway has said that "fighting deforestation is a quick and low-cost way to achieve cuts in greenhouse gas emissions blamed by scientists for global warming, in addition to maintaining biodiversity and securing people's livelihoods".

Prince Charles is very involved with efforts to save forests lately. Last October he launched a new organization called Reforestation Project that calls for a new green economics that recognises the world's rainforests are worth more alive than dead.

The Gurdian reported that "The Prince's Rainforests Project will bring together environmentalists, scientists and leaders from the developing world in an effort to halt mass deforestation - a bigger contributor to global warming than the world's entire transport sector, including aviation."

Norway want to see the fight in deforestation in developing countries becoming a global concern and not only a local initiative - it has said that commitments to reduce emissions from deforestation in developing nations should be included in a global climate change regime from 2012 and that it will work to develop funding and certification systems to promote the effort.

This is great news for everyone, and I hope the Norwegians and Prince Charles will succeed in their mission to prevent as much deforestation as possible. And let's not forget that some of these trees are cut down for paper, so less virgin paper used for printing books can definitely help to make Prince Charles and the Norwegians' job easier.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

New subscription option on Eco-Libris website

We open the new year with a new option that we add to our website - subscription.

If you have a big library at home and you want to green it up one bookshelf or bookcase at a time, this is a great option for you.

The process is very easy and similar to one-time purchase: On the subscription page you choose how many books you want to balance out each month. Then just click on the 'Buy' bottom and complete the payment process on the PayPal page (you DON'T need a PayPal account and can also pay with your credit or debit cards). That's it. Now, every month we'll balance out for you the amount of books you chose by planting trees. You will also receive a confirmation email from PayPal on the monthly payment, and of course you will also receive our stickers on monthly basis.

If and when you'll decide that you want to suspend your subscription, you will be able do it easily and quickly on PayPal site.

We are very happy to offer this option to all the eco-conscious readers out there who want to balance out many books, but want to do it step after step and not all in once. If you have any questions about the subscription option, please feel free to email me at: raz [at] ecolibris [dot] net.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

How green is your New Year's resolution?

There's nothing like a fresh start. Fresh start is a hope for a better future leaving the hurdles of the past behind. And what date is better than January 1st for a fresh start?

Many people have their own New Year's resolutions promising themselves and the world to be better this year. And this year, for many better means greener - half Of U.S. adults, we learn from a new survery, will make a green New Year’s resolution.

Thanks to Environmental Leader I learned about a survey conducted by GfK Roper that checked how much Americans are thinking of going green this year. The results were published on a news release of Tiller, LLC, and here are some of the interesting findings there: 49% of all American adults say they will make a green New Year's resolution this year. It's more popular within young Americans (58% of Americans 18-24) in comparison with older ones (40% of Americans 65+).

Here are some of the green resolutions cited by responders and their popularity within the responders:
reducing household energy usage (75%)
recycling more (74%)
reducing the use of harmful household chemicals (66%).
reducing one's "carbon footprint" (43%)
Carrying fabric bags to the supermarket (42%)

Another interesting factor that was checked was guilt - according to the news release, 31% of the responders admitted to feeling guilty in recent years about not living a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Women (36%) are more likely than men (26%) to feel "green guilt."

Well, it's great to see that so many people are feeling committed to change their lifestyle. Let's just hope the willingness will really transform into action. Now more than ever it's time for action. Green action. If each and every one of us will take few steps this year to go green, 2008 might become the year of change.

We hope of course that going green this year will also include a step or even two towards sustainable reading. We look forward to seeing eco-conscious readers as well as publishers, writers, bookstores and others go green with Eco-Libris and in many other ways.

Let's make it together a year with less deforestation, less greenhouse gasses, less waste, less pollution and more trees and hope for a brighter and greener future.

Happy New Year,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Picture Courtesy of RIPPLE Africa

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

Alex Steffen presents inspired ideas for a sustainable future

Last week we had the last part of our holiday green gift guide for book lovers. I would like to thank all the people who contributed great recommendations to the guide. Thank you all! You can find the whole guide right here - http://www.ecolibris.net/holiday_guide.asp.

Today I want to share with you an interesting talk of Alex Steffen, cofounder and executive editor of WorldChanging.com and also one of the contributors to our guide.

I found it on Triple Pundit and it's from a 2005 TED conference in Oxford, UK. Steffen talks about the problems we're facing and presents some of the most inspiring solutions and ideas that will help us to face the current global challenges and reach the still unimaginable sustainable future we're looking for.

Here's the description given by TED to the talk: Worldchanging.com founder Alex Steffen offers a fast-paced round-up of radical (but possible) answers to our planet's greatest challenges, ranging from green cities and buildings, to digital collaboration tools, to ingenious tools for the developing world (flowers that detect landmines; straws that purify water as you drink; merry-go-rounds that pump water using the energy expended by children at play). As Western-style consumerism spreads to developing countries, we must re-imagine our world.

So, here it is. Enjoy!



Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Eco-Libris is now available in two more bookstores

At the beginning of the month we announced here that you can find Eco-Libris stickers in three independent bookstores in Northern California, all of them members of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA), which Eco-Libris is proud to work with.

Now I am happy to update you that Eco-Libris stickers are available in two more independent bookstores:

1. Borderlands Books - 866 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, http://www.borderlands-books.com. Borderland Books is specializing in and selling only Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror (both used and new ones). It is also a NCIBA member.

2. Mary Jane Books - 215 Western Ave. Albany, NY 12203, http://www.maryjanebooks.com. Mary Jane Books is located on the corner of Western and Quail in beautiful Albany, NY and is independently owned and operated by SUNY graduates.

In these bookstores you can buy a book and balance it right there on spot. You will receive a sticker of Eco-Libris that you can proudly display on the new book, and of course a new tree will be planted to balance out the paper used for printing your new book.

If you're a bookstore owner and you want to get more details on how you can join the list of bookstores that provide their customers with the opportunity to balance out the books they bought on spot, please email us at: bd [AT] ecolibris [dot] net

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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