Kudos to Philly! The city plans to become the greenest city in the U.S. by 2015

Philadelphia is the nearest big city to Newark, DE where Eco-Libris is headquartered and we love this great city. We're also a proud member of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (SBN).

All of this introduction is just to explain why we're so happy to hear today that Philly is aspiring to become greenest city in the U.S. by 2015.

Yep, it's true. Mayor Michael Nutter announced today the plan in a speech at the Franklin Institute. The plan entitled 'GreenWorks Philadelphia' is a comprehensive plan to make Philadelphia the greenest city in the United States by 2015. It includes more than 150 initiatives and sets goals in five areas — energy, environment, equity, economy and engagement — all designed to help create jobs in the emerging green economy and reduce the city’s environmental footprint.

"We've put out a plan that is aggressive, achievable and measurable," said Nutter. "The green economy is a pathway to the future. We [Philadelphia] were known for innovation many years ago and now we are reinventing ourselves."

According to the Environmental Leader, key target goals of Greenworks Philadelphia include:

• Decrease city government energy consumption by 30 percent
• Reduce energy consumption in buildings citywide by 10 percent
• Retrofit 15 percent of housing with insulation, air sealing, and cool roofs
• Purchase and generate 20 percent of electricity from alternative energy sources
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent
• Improve air quality toward attainment of federal standards
• Divert 70 percent of solid waste from landfill
• Manage storm water to meet federal standards
• Provide park and recreation resources within 10 minutes of 75 percent of residents
• Offer local food within 10 minutes of 75 percent of residents
• Boost tree coverage toward 30 percent in all neighborhoods in 2025
• Reduce vehicle miles traveled by 10 percent
• Increase the “State of Good Repair” of city infrastructure
• Double the number of low- and high-skill green jobs to 28,8000

This is great news and we are positive that with the leadership of Mark Alan Hughes who runs the Mayor's Office of Sustainability (MOS) and is the person responsible to the implementation of this plan, GreenWorks Philadelphia will not only meet its goals but will also inspire other cities to follow suit.

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

Aaspirations Publishing believes recession is the time to expand and opens an office in India

Eco-Libris is a proud partner of Aaspirations Publishing, a green publisher of Toronto, Canada that is opening now a second office in India!

We're collaborating with Aaspriations Publishing to plant a tree is for every copy of their new titles, which will also carry our logo ‘One tree planted for every book’. We have planted so far trees for great books such as "The Micro Meanies" by Lynda Anderson and "Where the Buttercups Grow" by Shelley Meyer.

Aaspirations Publishing is reporting that a close association is planned between the two offices to nurture and bring talent to the forefront and enable increasing book sales in both countries through co-publishing deals.

The first three books to be launched in India will be The Micro Meanies by Lynda Anderson and Melanie Bennett and The Haven Spear by Nick Mucci.

Both the books are part of a brand, with multi-title series and the possibilities for merchandising and more. 'I see a closer connection between books and movies, merchandising and music, and between different countries as talent abounds and gets an outlet to expand,' says publisher Anjali Sondhi.

More details on Aaspirations Publishing and their books is available at http://www.aaspirationspublishing.com

This is great news and we wish Aaspirations Publishing a great success with their move!

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

Monday's green books series: The Legend of Honey Hollow (and a giveaway!)

I love bears. Polar, Panda, Brown - you name it. Therefore I was immediately was fond of our books this week - a children's book that takes place in a little bears' heaven and where the main characters are bears (and very funny ones!).

Our book this week is:

The Legend of Honey Hollow

We mentioned it firstly last month when we announced on a collaboration with the author who plant a tree for every book sold on her signing events and provides buyers of the book with our sticker (made of recycled paper), saying: "One tree planted for this book".

Author: Jeanne McNaney
Jeanne McNaney lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, with her husband, Joseph, and their three children. In addition to her passion for raising awareness about the environment and the plight of endangered species, she is dedicated to causes that enhance the lives of children and their families throughout the world.

Illustrator: David Cochard
David Cochard has been a freelance illustrator since 1996. He currently resides in Argentina with his wife, Sandrine, where he runs his own illustration company, Ilustra World, and pursues his other passions-traveling and studying science and ecology.

Publisher: Ovation Books/Joey Publishing

Published on: January 2009

Reading level: ages 4-8

What this book is about? Honey Hollow is not a place known to humans, but it is well-known to the bears of the world. Bears travel to this beautiful forest sanctuary to escape habitat destruction and global warming. The magical paradise has now been discovered by man. When the trees are cut down by developers, can the bears and the children of the loggers join together to save Honey Hollow for the future?

Why you should get it? This is a very moving story for kids and what I mostly liked about it is that although it's a story for children, it keeps a very realistic ton and is not afraid to present environmental issues in a very frank way. It gets children to face critical issues such deforestation and the impact of human beings on the nature in general and animals specifically.

Nevertheless, it's also a fun story with funny characters that make you laugh and also get you to identify with them from the first page and follow them breathless in their adventures. The author found a great balance between the various elements and the result is a book that teaches kids a valuable lesson about humans-nature relationship and the importance of community, gets them to appreciate wildlife and the environment and at the same time tells them a great children's story.

The author, Jeanne McNaney, said that she hopes the book will bring environmental awareness to a younger generation. I believe this unique story, with its bear characters, the beautiful illustrations and the optimistic message that we can still change things and make them better is doing a great job in increasing the awareness of youngsters and educating them to do the right thing.

And last but not least, the book is printed on environmentally-friendly paper and a percentage of all profits from the sales will go to organizations that support wildlife conservation and endangered species preservation.

What others think about the book?
“This book is just adorable, and it has real meaning.” – Billy Powell | Lynyrd Skynyrd

“It's a big hit in our house. My girls request it all the time. The story weaves in useful topics of environmental consciousness and social responsibility, which are nice teaching opportunities. The global cast of characters also led to some fun discussion. It reminds me of one of my favorite books from growing up: "If Everybody Did", by Jo Ann Stover, which was a pioneering effort in kids literature.“ – John Cassidy | Creative Dir., Comedy Central

You can get more information about the book on its website - http://www.honeyhollowbears.com/

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!

We're giving away one copy of the book, courtesy of the author, Jeanne McNaney, and of course a tree will be planted for the copy!

How you can win? please add a comment below with an answer the following question: what is the best way to teach children to appreciate wildlife? Submissions are accepted until Sunday, May 3, 12PM EST. The winner will be announced the following day.

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

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

A new book in Swedish about social entrepreneurship is going green with Eco-Libris!

We're happy to announce on a new collaboration with the Swedish publisher, Bookhouse Publishing, to plant trees for their new book with the great title “Making money and saving the world” (or in Swedish - "Tjäna pengar och rädda världen") by Erika Augustinsson and Maja Brisvall.

The new book deals with social entrepreneurship and presents examples, mainly Swedish, but also from other countries (Grameen Bank for example), and discusses the future of this form of business and it’s role in today’s economy.

It joins two other wonderful books we worked with Bookhouse Publishing on to plant trees for the printed copies - the Swedish edition of "'Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism'" by Prof. Muhammad Yunus and the Swedish edition of "Getting to Scale" by Jill Bamburg.

More than 1,000 trees will be planted with Eco-Libris in Malawi, Africa by our planting partner, RIPPLE Africa, on behalf of BookHouse Publishing to balance out this edition. Inside the book you can find Eco-Libris' logo ('one tree planted for this book') with details on our vision and operations.

The book is in Swedish, so if you're speaking (and reading) the language you can check Bookhouse publishing's website for further details at www.bookhouse.se/main/index.asp. The rest of us will wait impatiently to the English translation :)

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

Looking for an affordable and unique green birthday gift?

What's the connection between William Shakespeare, actor Tom Welling, action movie star Jet Lee and the comedian Carol Burnett?

They were all born on April 26! If you're also celebrating your birthday today - happy birthday to you too!

We love birthdays and therefore we're happy to remind you of the option to celebrate a birthday of friends, family members, colleagues and anyone you care about with Eco-Libris!

Eco-Libris is offering you now to plant trees to balance out the books of your loved ones who celebrate their birthday. Not only that new trees will be planted to balance out their books, but they will also receive our stickers with a beautiful birthday card made of recycled paper. And we also try to keep it affordable - the added charge for the birthday card is only $1.5.

All you need to do is to choose how many of the birthday person's books you want to balance out on our special birthday gift page, change the shipping address on the payment page to the address of the gift receiver and we will take care of the rest!

This is also a great green add-on if you're buying a book as a gift for the birthday person, especially if you're buying her or him a green book.

The birthday cards we send are made by Doodle Greetings (see picture above of one of their cards). Not only these cards come with a beautiful design, but they are also eco-friendly - printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and are made chlorine-free and acid free. Sounds like a good fit with Eco-Libris stickers!

And of course, if it's your birthday and you want to give yourself a green present - get yourself a nice green book and plant a tree for it with us!

Happy Birthday,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Amazon did great on the first quarter. Can it also help the book industry to go green now?

Amazon.com announced yesterday its first quarter (Jan-Mar 2009) financial results and not surprisingly it did very well and even managed to beat Wall Street expectations.

Here are some key figures from Amazon's press release:

Net sales increased 18% to $4.89 billion in the first quarter, compared with $4.13 billion in first quarter 2008.

Operating income increased 23% to $244 million in the first quarter, compared with $198 million in first quarter 2008.

Net income increased 24% to $177 million in the first quarter, or $0.41 per diluted share, compared with net income of $143 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, in first quarter 2008.

So how come other companies both in the book industry (as well as outside the industry of course) are struggling so much and Amazon is doing so well? well, there are couple of good reasons:

1. The Kindle factor - Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO is quoted on their press release saying "We’re grateful and excited that Kindle sales have exceeded our most optimistic expectations." Now, Amazon didn't release new sales numbers, but according to a couple of estimations we discussed earlier this year when Kindle 2 was released it can be very substantial. In any event, the Kindle definitely helps to generate a positive buzz around Amazon and generate a positive sentiment.

2. The weakness of Brick and mortar companies - Imran Khan, an analyst at JP Morgan told the New York Times that "Brick-and-mortar companies are going bankrupt and going out of business altogether and that is helping Amazon gain market share".

3. According to Reuters, Bezos also said shoppers enrolled in the Amazon Prime discount shipping program were boosting growth, as they were picking up goods across multiple categories.

I don't know if Amazon actually sold more books on the first quarter in comparison with the first quarter of 2008. Books are part of the media segment, which we know that rose in 7% this quarter to $2.7 billion sales. But we don't know more than it, so we could only estimate and my estimation is that there was probably a modest growth, which is also impressive in the current economic environment.

The last but not least point I wanted to make is regarding the carbon reduction goals of the book industry we discussed here on Wednesday. As Amazon gains a greater importance in the book industry, I thought of an idea that could generate a stronger incentive for the publishers to meet their goals (and I'm leaving the impact of selling more e-books aside for a moment, as this is still inconclusive).

My suggestion is that Amazon will provide better pricing to publishers that will meet certain carbon reduction goals. As the biggest bookstore, a carbon-based pricing can definitely drive publishers to put more efforts into their carbon reduction attempts.

It makes sense if we look at it through the ultimate test of 'creating a shared value' - publishers will gain more profits with better pricing on sales of their books and Amazon can gain by strengthening the green side of its image and attracting more customers that will feel good about being part of such a program and supporting the environment without the need to pay any premium. Looks like a win-win model to me.

I can only hope Amazon will take the challenge of leading the book industry not only by sales, but also with the efforts to reduce the industry's carbon footprint and make reading more sustainable.

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

And the winners on our Earth Day raffle are:

As we announced last week, in celebration of Earth Day we had yesterday a raffle of three great green-themed books between our newsletter subscribers.

And we have three winners!

Amy from New Jersey won a copy of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organic Living" by Eliza Sarasohn and Sonia Weiss.

Ethel from Quebec, Canada won a copy of "Gardening Eden" by Michael Abbaté.

And Courtney from Minnesota won a copy of "Of Parrots and People" by Mira Tweti.

Congrats to all the winners!!

If you're not subscribed yet to our monthly newsletter, which also includes every month unique offers and giveaways to our subscribers, it's very easy to do it - all you need to do is to add your email address on the box on the right side of the page saying 'Join Our Email List', click on the word 'join' and that's it.

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