Green Options - Greening Print Marketing: Is Soy Really Better?

As part of Eco-Libris' ongoing content partnership with Green Options Media, we feature a post that was originally published by Heidi Tolliver-Nigro on September 17 on The Inspired Economist. Today's post is about an important question to anyone interested in green printing: is soy ink really more friendly to the environment?

Many printers these days are promoting their use of soy-based inks as a way for marketers to “green” their print marketing programs. Certainly, any vegetable-based ink—such as cottonseed, linseed, and, most commonly, soy—sounds like it ought to be more environmentally friendly than petroleum-based inks. But is this really the case?

It is true that vegetable-based inks (in this post, we’ll look at soy) have very low levels of VOCs. Many soy proponents also claim that these inks come off the paper more easily than petroleum-based inks, making the paper easier to recycle. (However, evidence on this appears to be mixed.)

While “soy ink” sounds exotic, these inks have become so refined that they are now mainstream. They are readily available for sheetfed and newspapers. Heatset inks are also said to be “soy-based,” but this is really a mischaracterization, since the fast-drying requirements of the heatset process require that “soy inks” still be made primarily of petroleum.

Do You Give Up Anything?

Do marketers give anything up by using soy?

Green book of the week (and a new partner): BUTT UGLY by Lynn Montgomery

The green book we present you this week is triple green: it has a green theme, it's printed on recycled paper (and much more!) and it also collaborates with Eco-Libris!

And did we mention it has a great name? We're happy to present you with:

BUTT UGLY by Lynn Montgomery

Let's go over all of the book's green layers:

Firstly, the theme - the book is about a little green runt who needs a home. Here's the description from the book's web page: He's green. He's puny. And nobody wants to give him a home. What happens to the runt of the litter when he's abandoned on a doorstep in a Ding-Dong-Ditch? Mutts of the world unite! This book is for every 4-legged, 2-legged, and even 50-legged creature who has ever felt a little shy, a little alone, or a little butt ugly. And for all the heroes who have opened their homes and their hearts to love them.

Second, the book is printed in a very eco-friendly manner:

- on recycled paper

- with vegetable based inks

- no chlorine bleach

- printed with wind power in the U.S.

And last but not least, we are happy to announce on a collaboration with the book's author, Lynn Montgomery. At the first stage of our collaboration, a tree will be planted for every copy of the book sold this upcoming weekend at the Santa Barbara Book Festival. Readers will also receive our sticker (made of recycled paper), saying "One book planted for this book".

Lynn is one of the featured authors at the Santa Barbara Book Festival this weekend, and she will be speaking on Saturday on the Children's Book Panel from 3-4 in the Townley Room at the Library. It is a FREE event and fun for the whole family! You can find more details on the festival at http://www.sbbookfestival.org.

We will continue working with Lynn to plant trees for the upcoming prints of the book and our logo will be on the book. We are very excited to work with such an eco-friendly book that walks the talk, and we are very also proud to work together with the author, Lynn Montgomery, who is a very talented and creative author and won an Emmy for her writing.

Here are few more details on the book:

Book's name: BUTT UGLY

Author: Lynn Montgomery

Lynn Montgomery won a Los Angeles area Emmy for writing and producing a documentary on Child Abuse. She won a Writer's Guild Award for her Showtime Television adaptation of the beloved Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. She created the NBC and Disney Channel series, The Torkelsons. She has worked for Disney Feature Animation, developing classic children's literature for motion pictures. She has written for television, radio, and newspapers.

Illustrator: Terrie Redding

Publisher: ZuZu Petals Books

Distributor: IPG (Independent Publishers Group)

Publisihing date: Spring 2009 (the book is now available in a limited edition through the publisher's website - http://www.zuzupetalsbooks.com/, selected Santa Barbara venues and personal appearances)

Enjoy the book!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Great green (and naughty) giveaway on Alternative Consumer

Naughty and green giveaway? sounds like a weird combo, but it can definitely suit the Naughtibod, this week giveaway prize on Alternative Consumer.

So what is exactly the Naughtibod? it is a pocket-sized, phthalate-free, self-pleasuring device that dances to the beat of the music on your iPod, iPhone, or MP3 player. Wacky, crazy stuff — and a high-quality gizmo to help you relax. This little ‘velvety finished’ device also hooks-up to laptops and the like. Comes in four colors, and you can even switch to the ‘manual’ endcap which has 7, potent, non-musically motivated speeds.

I was very to hear about this giveaway from our friends at Alternative Consumer (one of favorite green blogs by the way), as it sounds really cool and and fun device, and it is also a very green sex toy - it's molded from premium grade hypoallergenic non-toxic, non porous ABS plastic with a PU coating with chrome finish detail. This product is phthalate free.

Alternative Consumer is offering truly lucky winners the Naughtibod (they can also choose their color preference). How you can participate? check out their post for further details: http://www.alternativeconsumer.com/2008/09/19/naughtibod-great-green-giveaway/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

A new clip from our new partner Mille Poetes

We like video clips, especially when we're in them and today we have one to show you from our new partner, Mille Poetes.

Mille Poetes Editions is a Montreal based, French language publisher that has been created for authors, poets and readers. It's also a new partner of Eco-Libris! Its main focus is poetry and the facilitation of the publication process for the artists.

Mille Poets Editions dedicate 2% of their monthly sales to planting trees to combat deforestation, desertification and poverty. An interview with the publisher will be posted here soon, so stay tuned. More information can be found on their website: http://www.mille-poetes.com/.

And now for the video clip that shows our collaboration in pictures, text and music. Enjoy!

More video clips with Eco-Libris:

Eco-Libris on the coolest online green TV series

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

The lit zine "We'll Never Have Paris" is going green with Eco-Libris

We're happy to announce on our collaboration with the lit zine "We'll Never Have Paris" (http://neverhaveparis.blogspot.com/). Not only that it has a great name, but it also goes green with Eco-Libris.

Here are the details: "We'll Never Have Paris" volume 2 has gone into second printing! To celebrate, they have partnered with Eco-Libris and purchased 50 trees for 50 issues at no extra cost to the reader, who will also receive our sticker with their volume. WNHP, a literary zine of nonfictional essays for 'all things never meant to be' is for sale at neverhaveparis.blogspot.com

The writers on volume 2 are: Mark Rosenberg, Amanda Boekelheide, John Berendzen (as Joao XXX), Steve Green, Tiffany Stevens,Andria Alefhi and Russ Josephs. Drawing by Patty Liang. Volume 2 is currently for sale at $3 and can be purchased at neverhaveparis.blogspot.com by clicking on the Paypal link. It will also be for sale at some fine independent bookshops across the country, a list of links will be added to neverhaveparis.blogspot.com.

We're very excited to collaborate with this lit zine and hope to see many more volumes of it go green in the future and to contribute to its success.

If you are interested in writing to the magazine, here's your chance - Volume 3 will be out November 1st, and appropriate submissions are always welcome. Deadline extended to October 15. Send 1,000 words or less of fiction once removed or narrative nonfiction as a word doc attachment, single spaced, title and name at the top. Do not send as the body of an email. Please send submissions to neverhaveparis@gmail.com

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Signing event of 'Paranoia' this weekend at The Book Bin

Here's an update on the next signing event of 'Paranoia'. Author John Braun will sign copies of his new book 'Paranoia' at The Book Bin, 725 Arnold Ave., Point Pleasant Beach, NJ this upcoming Saturday (September 20), during the annual Festival of the Sea. John will be signing from 10am-1pm.

John is collaborating with Eco-Libris to green up his book - a tree will be planted with us for every book sold at this signing event. Also, all buyers of the book at the event will receive with the book our sticker saying "One tree planted for this book". One more thing - 10% of Profit from sales of the book will be donated to the Twin Towers Orphan Fund (http://www.ttof.org/).

So if you're around Point Pleasant Beach, NJ this Saturday, you're welcome to stop by the Book Bin and get yourself a copy of Paranoia.

If you want to learn more about this great book, check out our post 'Paranoia is going green with Eco-Libris."

Yours,
Raz @Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Greenbottle - the green future of milk bottles is already here and its made of recycled paper

I really love milk, so I was very happy to hear about this new great idea that is coming from the UK: a milk bottle that is made mainly of recycled paper and can be recycled again. In one word: Greenbottle.

Greenbottle (http://www.greenbottle.com) has developed a much greener solution which can replace plastic milk bottles. The outer shell is made from recycled paper which can then be further recycled, or if left it will just decompose within a matter of weeks. The inner liner, which takes up less than 0.5% of the space of a plastic bottle if dumped in a landfill, prevents liquid from contaminating the paper outer.

The GreenBottle, according to their website, consumes about a third of the energy required to make a plastic bottle and has a carbon footprint that is 48% lower than plastic.

The Telegraph reported last month that Asda, the big supermarkets chain, is stocking its Lowestoft store in Suffolk with the Greenbottle after a successful trial in a move that could herald the demise of the plastic bottle. According to the article the supermarket chain hopes to agree a roll-out of the packaging to stores across the east of England, with the potential to take it nationwide further down the line. Sounds like great news to all the UK green milk lovers!

Just to give you an idea what this bottle can save - according to the article, Britons drink around 180 million pints of milk every week, of which around two-thirds is bought in plastic bottles.
More than 100,000 tons end up in landfill each year - equal to 260 jumbo jets. They take 500 years to decompose.

One last fact that made me fall in love with Greenbottle - Its inventor, Martin Myerscough, came up with the idea in the pub. You can never be wrong with such ideas :-) of course, later on he worked on it for 18 months before Asda started a 'concept' trial last year.

Kudos to Martin and Greenbottle. This is the kind of innovation we need to move the green revolution forward. I hope to see these bottles very soon on the shelves of the supermarkets here in the U.S. (and actually everywhere) as well.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!