Al Gore's new Audiobook, OUR CHOICE, read by John Slattery and Cynthia Nixon is released today!

Almost 3.5 years after "An Inconvenient Truth" was published, Al Gore is back with a new book - "OUR CHOICE: A Plan To Solve the Climate Crisis", which is being released today. A book by Al Gore is always exciting news, but it's get even better - it is also available as an audiobook, read by no other than John Slattery and Cynthia Nixon.

The audiobook is released today by Simon & Schuster Audio who provided us an excerpt of the book, just to give you a taste what it all about:

Our Choice Audio Trailer - Al Gore

Here's more about "OUR CHOICE" from Al Gore's introduction to the book:

It is now abundantly clear that we have at our fingertips all of the tools we need to solve the climate crisis. The only missing ingredient is collective will.

Properly understood, the climate crisis is an unparalleled opportunity to finally and effectively address many persistent causes of suffering and misery that have long been neglected, and to transform the prospects of future generations, giving them a chance to live healthier, more prosperous lives as they continue their pursuit of happiness.

Our Choice gathers in one place all of the most effective solutions that are available now and that, together, will solve this crisis. It is meant to depoliticize the issue as much as possible and inspire readers to take action -- not only on an individual basis, but as participants in the political processes by which every country, and the world as a whole, makes the choice that now confronts us.

There is an old African proverb that says, "If you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." We have to go far, quickly.

We can solve the climate crisis. It will be hard, to be sure, but if we can make the choice to solve it, I have no doubt whatsoever that we can and will succeed.

It sounds like a great book and I warmly recommend to get the audiobook - not only that you'll be saving paper, but you'll have it read by John Slattery and Cynthia Nixon, which is a great added value to the interesting content the book has to offer.

"An Inconvenient Truth" made a difference in the way the world is understanding and dealing with global warming and contributed greatly to the progress we have seen in the last couple of years. We can only wonder what impact this book will have.

Here's more about OUR CHOICE - this time it's Al Gore talking on his audiobook (from S&S website):



Last but not least, we want to thank Simon & Schuster Audio for their support of our Green Books campaign. They have contributed five copies of the Al Gore's audiobook as prizes for the participating bloggers, including one signed copy!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

You can still win a copy of "Green Earth Guide: Traveling Naturally in France"

We remind you that we have an ongoing giveaway of a great book - Green Earth Guide: Traveling Naturally in France.

This book is a great guide for those who wish to travel to France and want to have fun and enjoy the trip while keeping their footprint as low as possible. We announced on a giveaway of one copy following our review of the book last week and it's ending tomorrow.

So how you can win? Please add a comment on the book's review post and share with us a green experience you had in one of your last trips to another country.

Submissions are accepted until Tuesday, November 3, 12PM EST. The winner will be announced the following day.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

10 more days to our green books campaign!

10 days left to our green books campaign - It's Time for a Green Book: 1 Day, 100 bloggers, 100 green books, 100 reviews, with more than 110 blogs registered to the campaign!!

This campaign is part of our efforts to promote green books, i.e. books that are printed using recycled and FSC certified paper. Our idea was to have 100 bloggers, who review books on regular basis, simultaneously publish on Tuesday, November 10 2009, exactly at 1:00 PM EST, their book review of a "green book" of their choice.

Today we bring you the third part of the list of books and blogs participating in the campaign.

With each list, we bring you also a fun fact about the campaign. Today it's about gender - on our campaign, women rule! More than 90% of the participating blogger are women!

And now to our list - part 3:

21. Easy to Be Green: Simple Activities You Can Do to Save the Earth

Author: Ellie O'Ryan

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Books

Will be reviewed at: readerbuzz



22. The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle

Author: Alison Inches

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Books

Will be reviewed at: everydaytrash



23. I Can Save the Earth!

Author: Alison Inches

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Books

Will be reviewed at: Booking Mama




24. The Polar Bears' Home

Author: Lara Bargen

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Books

Will be reviewed at: Find Your Next Book Here




25. Raw for Dessert

Author: Jennifer Cornbleet

Publisher: Book Publishing Co.

Will be reviewed at: So Many Books




26. Local Bounty: Seasonal Vegan Recipes

Author: Devra Gartenstein

Publisher: Book Publishing Co.

Will be reviewed at: Book Chatter

27. Simple Little Vegan Dog Book: The Cruelty-Free Recipes for Canines

Authors: Michelle Rivera

Publisher: Book Publishing Co.

Will be reviewed at: Candid Canine




28. Sustainable Sushi: A Guide to Saving the Oceans One Bite at a Time

Author: Casson Trenor

Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Will be reviewed at: Valentina's Room




29. Fresh: The Ultimate Live-Food Cookbook

Author: Sergei Boutenko and Valya Boutenko

Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Will be reviewed at: Mindful Momma





30. I Am Grateful: Recipes and Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude

Author: Terces Engelhart

Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Will be reviewed at: Robin Shreeves on Sustainable Food



Other parts:
Part 1
Part 2

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting sustainable reading!

Winners of the Student Climate Change Solutions Contest

We reported here last July that Madeline Kaplan, author of the children's book "Planet Earth Gets Well", who partners with Eco-Libris to plant a tree for every copy printed of the book, is partnering with Earth Day Network to promote the 2010 Student Climate Change Solutions Contest for K-4th graders in schools across the country.

And we've got an update on the winners of the contest:

First Place: Saham Alkaify, 4th Grade, PS/MS 20, Police Officer George J. Werdann, III School in the Bronx, NY 86% of U.S. Energy Consumption is Fossil Fuel!

















Second Place: Jemma Kelly, 2nd Grade, Hayshire Elementary School in York, PA

My poster shows ideas for solutions to stopping climate change. Recycling helps our planet keep valuable resources and stop waste. We can all work together to recycle many products we all use everyday. My poster shows some ideas for how everyday products can be recycled into new ones.

You can read more about it at http://www.earthday.net/climatechangesolutionscontest

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

On digital publications - an interview with Cindy Marks of Catstone Press

As part of our exploration of the printing market, trying to get learn more on sustainable practices in this field, we often hear about digital alternatives that become more popular.

Therefore, when I was contacted by Cindy Marks of Catstone Press, which is creating digital publications, I was happy for the opportunity to learn more about this world, how it interacts with old-school printing and how important the "green" factor is here. Cindy was happy to answer our questions and here's the interview with her:

Hello Cindy. Can you tell us about Catstone Press? What is your area of expertise?
I started CatStone Press two years ago. I was poking around on the web for a client who wanted some Flash for his website and stumbled upon one of the companies creating the back end software for digital publication development. I was impressed and excited by the possibilities. I spent several days absorbed with the budding industry growing from this page flip concept and checking out how each company was moving forward.

I settled on working with Yudu and have been very happy with their product's capabilities. They provide a flexible structure that then allows me to create very high quality digital magazines, newsletters, books and brochures. My expertise is in knowing the ins and outs of how these products are constructed and optimizing the potential for the client. I also offer design skills honed in creating a publication with browser viewing and reader experience in mind.

Sadly, many of these digital publications are thrown up almost as an after thought and I think they don't do nearly as well as they could for their publishers and readers. As with anything, you need to understand the potential and limits of the product and really design with the results in mind. CatStone has also made a number of additions to what is normally offered with digital publications so we can give our clients little extras like interactive forms, animations, custom pop-ups. We spend a lot of time brainstorming what will work best for a client and then doing the problem-solving and programming to make it happen.

What are the "green" characteristics of your operation?
Hopefully there are green characteristics to my business that I won't even think of because it's been second nature for a long time. Prior to magazine design, I was in the natural foods industry. Becoming more green was a big part of why I jumped at digital publishing.

I'd been trying to leave paper behind for years - as much of a paperless office as possible, subscribing to only the most necessary magazines and getting the rest of my fun and information online. I will admit that while it certainly seems very green to publish without the paper and chemicals and gas used for distribution, I have also tried to delve into the footprint of doing things electronically. There are a lot of factors to consider, but I still believe that if nothing else, I'll hopefully save a lot of trees and contribute to cleaner water. Some of the rest depends on how people use their electronics and gadgets and I do my best to act responsibly with those as well.

What are most popular digital formats? What are the pros and cons of digital publications?
There are all sorts of digital formats whizzing around the web right now from websites that are called digital magazines to Kindle versions to these page flip options. Not to mention good old pdf documents. I've settled into Flash based publications for a few reasons, namely that the readers treat these more as they would a paper magazine - browsing more slowly, enjoying the view. I also like that the "view" can be as beautiful as some of our best printed pieces and remains a relatively easy translation from the pdfs we would normally use to print anyway.

I favor these over downloading a pdf document because I can save the space that a pdf would take up on my hard drive, not to mention the time it would take to download a large, image oriented pdf. Flash-based publications also seem slightly easier when adding rich media - putting video and voice-overs within the pages. So far the Kindle-type versions don't have rich media and I'm not sure even with color that they will be as fun to read. If tablet size viewers make an appearance soon, with internet capability, my best guess is that these Flash publications will really fly. Getting mobile versions is one of the biggest hurdles right now, but it's coming along.

Is it important for your customers that no paper is used for their publications when they order? for how many of them this is the major reason to go digital?
With clients, I have a mix of those who continue producing a paper product and those who do not. Most of the clients who hire CatStone to design from the ground up, are doing so to go purely digital and they think in terms of using rich media content and let us refine the designs to suit digital viewing. Some of those who still produce paper versions are using CatStone to make a transition away from using as much paper.

Very wisely, they are aware that in some situations and with some audiences, you will still use traditional print. But they are taking their digital versions as far as we can push them, creating an enhanced experience with lots of interactivity. Those with a good web presence use their digital versions for more direct reader contact and have links that pull readers back and forth between a good site and several good digital publications.

In the long run, I guess you'd have to say using less paper would be the goal with all my clients, whether it's for an environmental reason or just to save on print and distribution costs. They can potentially reach a wider audience with less expense and offer an experience that also enhances their web presence. This is an easy way for them to flip their paper content assets into digital content assets, whatever their reason for doing so.

David Carr wrote in the New York Times earlier this month that we're facing " a paperless recovery"? do you agree with him?
I would have to agree with the article's quotes that many of the changes in the publishing industry, mostly involving advertising money, are likely not to be cyclical, but permanent. I can't say that I see advertisers rushing to embrace web advertising either.

They are being very cautious and asking more questions about what they will get for their dollars. One good thing about the digital publication model is that for those advertisers supporting a publication that produces both a paper and good quality digital product, they are getting quite a bit more bang for their buck. Not only do they have a paper ad as usual, but they now gain a large (in comparison to banner ads) web ad with a live link to their own website and can potentially enhance that ad even further with video, animations or sound.

Other parts of the article address the need for monetary support of top notch journalism. I couldn't agree more. But allocating those funds is probably not directly influenced by whether publishing is done on paper or digitally. There's an opening for information, trivia or propaganda on any platform. The issue is more likely that there is stress on the system right now due to all the changes that are occurring.

What do you say to a customer that still wants to print their publications? do you partner with green printers?
For the most part, with CatStone, I've not been directly involved in clients' paper publishing, though I would certainly make recommendations on environmental choices if given the opportunity. I do see more clients coming to me who are interested in both digital and print-on-demand self publishing and as a result, I'm currently exploring options for the print-on-demand clients. I would welcome any and all information on "green" options there. Thankfully, I see most of my print design clients aware and leaning towards environmentally better print solutions.

What are the main concerns about the footprint of the digital processing and what are the best ways to deal with them?
The environmental footprint of the digital publication lies within the framework of electrical usage and the hardware behind the viewing. We've come a long way in realizing that there are environmental consequences to everything we do and thus, there are studies underway about internet usage and it's impact. Huge variation can come into play depending upon one's choice of computers or other hardware, the age of that hardware, the service provider.

The footprint created as CatStone creates a publication is one aspect and we do our best to remain energy conscious while meeting the deadlines and needs of our clients. The computers we use, as with everyone's, are finally becoming more recyclable and continue to improve on energy usage.

Overall, I believe footprints boil down to volume and I really hope that by reducing the need to physically reproduce information via traditional printing we will have reduced the usage of raw materials and allowed more people access to that same information using a new medium. I'm sure that like most human endeavors, that will remain to be seen. For now we should all be savvy consumers of electronics and try to remain educated about recycling opportunities for each brand and learn ways to reduce our use of electricity.

Thanks, Cindy.

For more information on Castone Press please visit their website at http://www.catstonepress.com/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

12 days left to our green books campaign - here's the second list of participating books!

12 days left to our green books campaign - It's Time for a Green Book: 1 Day, 100 bloggers, 100 green books, 100 reviews. As we mentioned earlier, we already have more than 110 blogs registered to the campaign!!

This campaign is part of our efforts to promote green books, i.e. books that are printed using recycled and FSC certified paper. Our idea was to have 100 bloggers, who review books on regular basis, simultaneously publish on Tuesday, November 10 2009, exactly at 1:00 PM EST, their book review of a "green book" of their choice.

Today we bring you the second list of books and blogs participating in the campaign.

Also, with every list of participating books we present here, we'll tell you a fun fact about the upcoming campaign: All the books participating in the campaign are written in English, except one. Any idea what book it is? Well, this is the Portuguese edition of "Sleeping Naked is Green" by Vanessa Farquharson! The book is originally written in English, but it will be reviewed by a Portuguese blogger reading the Portuguese version of the book.


And now to our list - part 2 (check out part 1 here):


11. The Horned Wiper

Author: Gill Harvey

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books

Will be reviewed at: Frenetic Reader





12. Stormy Weather

Author: Debi Gliori

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books

Will be reviewed at: Reading to Know



13. Nice to be Nice

Author: Bella Flowers Books

Publisher: Bella Flowers Books

Will be reviewed at: Tara's View on Books




14. Syren

Author: Angie Sage

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books

Will be reviewed at: Sparrow Review





15. The Trouble with Dragons

Author: Debi Gliori

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books

Will be reviewed at: Brimful Curiosities


16. An Environmental Guide From A to Z

Author: Tim Magner

Publisher: Green Sugar Press

Will be reviewed at: latercera.com

17. Hope and the Super Green Highway

Authors: Helen Moore & Louise Rouse

Publisher: Lollypop Publishing

Will be reviewed at: Green Design & Other Ideas



18. Let Me Out: How to Enjoy the School Run

Author: Ann Kenrick

Publisher: Lollypop Publishing

Will be reviewed at: Eco Child's Play




19. Yucketypoo - The Monster That Grew and Grew

Author: Jilly Henderson-Long

Publisher: Lollypop Publishing

Will be reviewed at: Literacy Launchpad

20. The Adventures of an Aluminum Can

Author: Alison Inches

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Books

Will be reviewed at: SMS Book Reviews


Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting sustainable reading!

Green printing tip no. 21: What new developments have surfaced in Green papers?

We have another tip for you on our weekly series of green printing tips, where we bring you information on green printing in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.

Today Greg is beginning a 4-part series that will focus on the companies that have a vital part in green printing - the paper companies.

What new developments have surfaced in Green papers?

Tip #21

This is the first part of a series I will run on paper for the next 4 weeks. In this series I will feature the major mills and the variety of "green" options they offer. Today, I am just touching on two mills: Mohawk Paper and Neenah Paper.

1. Mohawk Paper

A. Beckett Cambric
They have introduced 100% post-consumer waste fiber to this prestigious line. Cambric has a linen finish, and I recommend this paper for stationery orders. Cambric is FSC certified and produced using Wind energy.

B. Options PC 100
Mohawk has added an I-Tone finish to their flagship 100% PCW line. The I-Tone finish allows this grade to print heavy solid coverage on the new Indigo presses. The printing on this paper allows for a flat finish, like offset printing. Options PC 100 is FSC certified and produced using
Wind Energy.

C. Genesis
Mohawk has taken over Smart Paper Mills. I recommend this 100% PCW line when you need
darker colors, like kraft. I make a lot of pocket folders on this line. Genesis is FSC certified and produced using Wind Energy.

2. Neenah Paper

A. Environment
This is the leader in the industry for 100% PCW and Tree Free. Environment has added Tree Free Bamboo & Sugar Cane, mixed with 50% PCW. The resulting line comes in two natural colors an white. I do a lot of postcards and business cards, and stationery on this addition. Their 100% PCW lines have expanded to 5-6 colors. Environment is FSC certified, and Green E certified.

B. Classic Linen/Laid/and Crest
Neenah added 100% PCW to all three finishes. These papers have been used for over 30 years,
and are the standard for quality text papers. I recommend them for brochures and high quality stationery orders. Like all of my recommendations, these papers are FSC and Green E certified.

C. Translucent paper

They added a recycled version. This paper separates sections in a brochure, etc.

Pricing: These papers are moderately priced. The one advantage of printing on uncoated
papers, is they bulk higher than coated papers, and you can use a lighter sheet to accomplish your thickness needed. For instance, you could use an 80# weight, instead of a 100# weight in
coated. That would save 25% in paper bought. Also, these lines feature 100% post-consumer waste, which I promote the most.

Next week, I will feature my less expensive paper ideas.

To learn more about the mills and their offers please visit their websites - www.mohawkpaper.com and www.neenahpaper.com. On their webiste you can find information on the weights, the sizes, etc. Neenah has also the color chips online (Mohawk will have their color chips online soon).

If you have any further questions about today's tip, please email me at greg@ecofriendlyprinter.com

Also, if you have any questions you would like us to address in future tips please email us to info@ecolibris.net .

Latest tips:

Green Printing Tip #20 - How to create a green packaging job?

Green Printing Tip #19 - How can graphic designers make a difference and green up your printing jobs?

Green Printing Tip #18 - What is rock paper and why is it considered a green paper?

You can find links to all the tips we published so far on our green printing tips page, which is part of our green printing tools & resources.

You can also find further valuable information on Greg Barber Company's website - http://www.gregbarberco.com.

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing!