A new website provides with everything you wanted to know about the life cycle of paper

Looking to stay informed about paper is always a challenge, as you have many bits of information here and there, but it's difficult to understand the big picture. Although there are already some good sites that try to meet this challenge, we always felt there's still a need to have one more good website we can always go to when we need information. Now it looks like we got one.

The new website, which was launched this week, is called Paper Life Cycle. It was created by Metafore, a program of GreenBlue, a nonprofit institute that works with the private sector to enable the positive redesign of industrial systems, in collaboration with stakeholders across the paper supply chain.

The new website explains its promise:

The Paper Life Cycle project is a multi-stakeholder initiative that provides key environmental information about the sourcing, production, use and end of life of paper so that buyers of paper and fiber-based products can make better-informed, more sustainable purchasing decisions.

This online resource promotes greater understanding of the key issues throughout the paper supply chain, covering topics such as climate change, forest practice management, recycling, illegal logging, energy use and product performance.

On their press release, Tom Pollock, Senior Program Manager of Metafore says that “we found there was a need in the marketplace for information about the many environmental considerations across the life cycle of paper. This is an online resource for businesses to make informed purchasing decisions that integrate environmental and economic performance.”

The site includes in-depth articles, trend reports and guidance on key questions facing paper manufacturers and buyers. From the couple of visits I made so far in this website, it is very comprehensive and user-friendly (including a search option), and I also liked the fact that it is constantly updated with reports, news and trends to make sure the information in it stays up to date.

I will definitely keep using this new resource and you are also welcome to check it out at http://www.thepaperlifecycle.org/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading

Happy birthday - Eco-Libris is three years old!

Last weekend when the United States celebrated Independence Day, Eco-Libris had its own birthday celebration - we have just turned three years old!

Yes, another year passed and just like the year before, it wasn't an easy one. Like many others we had to cope with a challenging economic environment and that wasn't easy :) Still, we did our best not only to keep our head above the water, but also to grow and move forward in our quest to make reading more sustainable.

And indeed it was a year of progress - we managed to create more partnerships, launch a unique campaign promoting books that are printed in an eco-friendly manner, enhance our educational work, join the Book Industry Environmental Council, contribute to the discussion on how green e-books and e-readers are, provide further analysis of the green trends in the book industry, visit one of our planting partners and of course plant more trees!

I am proud to report that Eco-Libris balanced out so far 145,347 books, which resulted in 158,949 new trees, of which 47,559 are the result of our operations on the third year.

Here are our tree planting figures over our three of operations:

2007/8	65,865
2008/9	45,525
2009/10	47,559
Total:	158,949

*Photo above is courtesy of our planting partner AIR from the 2009 planting season - AIR volunteer and young helper planting Aliso trees to fertilize family crop, in El Tablon, Guatemala.

We would also like to take this opportunity and thank everyone involved in our efforts - from the dedicated eco-conscious readers that balance out their books with us, through our partners - publishers, authors, bookstores, businesses, organizations and others that take action to support sustainable reading and of course our wonderful planting partners, which are doing such a great job in planting the trees in developing countries.

Here's a reminder of some of things we did on this year, month by month:

July 2009
Our planting partner SHI is getting mentioned on Oprah Magazine

The state of green printing: An interview with Livio Ciciotti of Monroe Litho

August 2009
A new children's book, "A Lion's Mane" is going green with Eco-Libris

Global Sky, a leading Philippines-based call center is partnering with Eco-Libris

September 2009
Analysis of a new report that finds Kindle to be greener than physical books

Write Bloody Publishing is partnering with Eco-Libris, starting with a poems collection by Taylor Mali

October 2009
Pick-a-WooWoo Publishers, an Australian publisher, is going green with Eco-Libris

Kabbalah Publishing, publisher of "The Power to Change Everything" by Yehuda Berg is collaborating with Eco-Libris

November 2009
Our Green Books Campaign is taking place with over 100 bloggers who take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by publishing reviews of more than 100 such books

A new book from Flux, "Turning to One Another", is going green with Eco-Libris

December 2009
We publish the annual assessments of our planting partners

Everything you always wanted to know about forestry carbon credits - A special interview with Paulo Lopes of Carbon Clear

January 2010
Presenting a new series: How green is the iPad?

GreetQ is celebrating 650 new trees that are being planted with Eco-Libris following their operations in 2009

February 2010
Eco-Libris starts a new campaign rewarding green readers with green gifts

Karen Finneyrock's new collection of poetry is going green with Eco-Libris

March 2010
Plant a Book: ELI, a leader in educational publishing, is partnering with Eco-Libris in a new program aiming to plant tens of thousands of trees

A new memoir, Coming Clean by Sarah Dean, is going green with Eco-Libris

April 2010
The reissued novel The Birth Machine by Elizabeth Baines is going green with Eco-Libris

Launching new pages on the future of publishing and the future of bookstores

May 2010
Moon Willow Press plant trees with Eco-Libris for their first e-Book: The Little Big Town

Speaking with green marketing experts in an attempt to to find out if book publishers can build an effective green brand

June 2010
Infinity partners with Eco-Libris to launch the first green program for self-publishing authors

How green is my iPad? Analyzing the iPad's environmental report (4-part series)

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading

We have a winner on our giveaway of "The Real Man's Guide to Fixin' Stuff"

We have a winner on our giveaway of the "The Real Man's Guide to Fixin' Stuff"!

Following our review of "The Real Man's Guide to Fixin' Stuff: How to Repair Anything You Need (or Just Want) to Know How to Fix" by Nick Harper. We asked you to share with us what was the last thing that you have fixed.

We got many interesting replies and we have a winner! Our winner is Danielle a.k.a Yellie who wrote:

I fixed my vacuum. My son ran over a guitar string that had broke on his guitar and he had just thrown on the floor and ended up running over with the vacuum. He knew it was bad when he heard the crazy noise it made. Fortunately it sounded worse than it really was and after I unwound it from the brush, it was all good. He's lucky because it was our Dyson that we seriously splurged to have.

Congrats Danielle! You won a copy of "The Real Man's Guide to Fixin' Stuff" and we'll also plant a tree for this book. Thank you also for all the rest of the participants!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading

Three new children's books published by Pick-a- Woo Woo go green with Eco-Libris!

We are happy to announce a new collaboration with our partner, the Australian publishers Pick-a-Woo Woo, on not one, not two, but three new children's books they're publishing now!

We started working with Pick-a-WooWoo last October to green up children's books they publish by planting trees. We began with 625 trees planted for "The Boy Who Was Born To Love Frogs" and now we continue with planting 625 trees planted for "Angel Steps", 625 trees for "Oceans Calling" and 825 trees for "KC the Conscious Camel".

This brings us to a total of 2,475 new trees planted on behalf of Pick-a-Woo Woo!

Based in Western Australia, Pick-a-Woo Woo Publishers are publishers of Mind Body Spirit books for children. Their inspirational books are designed to help children connect with their intuition and inner guidance, develop their awareness skills and enhance their Mind, Body, Spirit connection.

Here are more details on the three new books:





















Angel Steps

About the book:

Love You, Miss You. Through five easy steps Paris learns how to call upon Archangel Gabrielle ...the Angel of messages. Paris wishes to share with her Nana, how much she still loves and misses her. Paris is overjoyed when Nana, in return, gives her some very special messages.

"Angel Steps sensitively illustrates the process used to heal, comfort and send a message of love"

Author: Lidija Pretreger
Illustrator: Carolyn Maree Rose





















Ocean's Calling

About the book: An enlightening journey to the lost city of Atlantis.

Filled with the ancient knowledge of colour and crystal healing, this beautifully illustrated story follows the journey of a young girl who meets blue dolphins and a magical mermaid. Deep beneath the waves, they find a hidden city where they discover a secret which helps them to heal the ocean. Both children and adults will want to immerse themselves in this timeless underwater adventure.

Author: Jacqueline Nicholl
Illustrator: Gabriel Evans

KC the Conscious Camel

About the book:

When K.C.'s dear friend, Sticky the Pig, is ridiculed by the class bully, Ginger the Red Fox, for an unfortunate mud puddle incident, KC shares with Sticky the tools to owning an emotion and then moving beyond it. KC demonstrates the need for acting instead of reacting. Throughout the day, the precocious camel points out opportunities for he and his friends to tune in to their inner peace, joy, and unconditional love. KC shows them how to stay connected to these productive and positive emotions through meditation.

KC and his classmates ultimately demonstrate to their teacher and to each other that they are capable of complex spiritual evolution...and a harmonious day on the playground!

Author: Suzanne McRae
Illustrator: Alexander Mortimer

More information on these books and other titles published by Pick-a-Woo Woo can be found on their website - http://www.pickawoowoo.com

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Will we have a federal subsidies for green printing?

Well, it might be. What used to be only a fantasy of few is becoming an actual plan .

Frank Locantore reported on Better Green Project that "c (PBO) will announce plans to introduce legislation in the US Congress that will allow companies to receive refunds from state sales tax as a reward for purchasing environmentally responsible print projects."

This announcement is going to take place this month (July 19-20) at the Print Oasis 2010, which is a print buyers conference and exhibit. Now, at first it sounded strange to me - regulation that will support green printing? But in second thought, why not? I mean, so far the green printing market is based on voluntary initiatives of companies and printers, but if that's a lesson we can learn from other green markets, it's that voluntary initiatives are fine and can change things to some degree, but to see a real change, we need a regulation that will back it up and provide adequate incentives to do the right thing.

According to Suzanne Morgan, President and Founder of PBO, who introduced this initiative in an email last month, "this legislation proposes that any print project that is bought in an environmentally sustainable way is eligible for refunds of state sales taxes by the Federal government."

The most interesting question to me (and others as you can read on tree dead edition) would be what would be the standards a printing project will need to meet to be eligible for the refund. Ms. Morgan's email doesn't go too much into details (it promises that the exact legislation is very achievable and will be presented in detail on July 19, 2010 ), but it implies that the standards can be recycled, include 15% or more PCW, are printed on paper that is legally harvested, etc.

Given that the minimum post-consumer waste content required by the EPA for uncoated papers is 30% (it's 10% for coated paper), 15% sounds a bit low. It would be also interesting to see if there will be a mention of FSC certification and chlorine usage, which are also crucial elements.

I guess we'll have to wait for July 19 and see. In any case I believe POB deserves big kudos for their efforts. If regulation can support and incetivize green buildings, green cars, green energy and many other green products and services, why not green printing??

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing!

Sell Your Mobile For The Best Price With SellMyMobile.com

Today we have a guest column from our friends at Sell My Mobile who present the important green service they provide - a mobile phone recycling price comparison site.

Mobile phone recycling is still a fresh new idea of earning yourself some extra cash, and people across the world are still very much unaware to the potential that is behind this new money earning arrangement.

If you have any old mobile phones lying around the house, no matter how old or cosmetically damaged they are, then now is a great time to trade them in for a cash return, and the course of action couldn’t be any easier to send them off to the recyclers. Sell My Mobile compare all the UK’s leading mobile phone recycling companies to give you the greatest price viable on your phone, saving you time and money from having to physically make notes of each company’s quoted cost.

The process of selling your phones for cash is clear-cut and will only take you a few minutes to finalize. Using the succeeding four steps can see you receive your cash within a couple of days and with payout of up to £350 your phone could be worth a lot more than you suppose.

1. Search for your mobile phones model in the search box provided
2. A list of results will be displayed giving you a range of prices with the best price displayed at the top with the phone recycling company that will offer it you.
3. Visit the company website that offers you the best price and fill in your details. You will then receive an email with instructions on how to send your phone away (freepost)
4. You will receive a cheque in the post within 1 – 3 days on average.

Why Choose SellMyMobile.com To Sell Your Old Mobiles?

• We currently compare over 30,000 prices on over 4,000 phones everyday – and currently have the best search comparison engine in the market
• The original and the best! - SellMyMobile.com was the 1st mobile phone recycling price comparison site in the UK
• 147,000 visits per month
• Comprehensive comparison table identifying phone recycler payment methods, best prices offered and freepost options.
• On average 650 phones are sold per day on Sell My Mobile
• 68 million phones are lying around in people’s homes, unused
• The most valuable phone to recycle/sell is the Apple iPhone 3G S 32GB, which can be sold for £302 (May 2010).

In conclusion you are not spending a penny when you recycle mobile phones with Sell My Mobile, yet you’re acquiring additional money to put towards a luxury or unpaid bill, plus you are helping out the environment that we live in.

To E Or Not To E? Litopia After Dark is hosting me on the net’s foremost literary salon

Yesterday I had the pleasure to be the special guest on Litopia After Dark, the net’s foremost literary salon, in a show that was entitled 'To E Or Not To E?'.

The show is available now online and you can listen to the show at http://radiolitopia.com/enclosures/lad/lad_123.mp3

It was my second time on this great show that is hosted by Peter Cox and it was so fun! Here are more details about the show (from Litopia's website):

How green is your e-book? How much do you care about the environmental impact of the words you read… or about the sweatshop workers who assembled your shiny new iPad? Tonight’s special guest is Raz Godelnik from Eco-Libris - the organization that encourages readers to do something to make the world greener – and he’s got some surprising facts about the relative impact of e-readers compared to paper books.

Still on an iTheme, Dave Bartram proposes the notion that technology is changing the way we think and making it harder for us to concentrate on one thing at a time… such as reading. “Reading on my iPhone sucks”, says Dave. “It’s not immersive enough… and it’s far too easy to be distracted.” If this is true, the publishing industry hasn’t even begun to consider what impact this may have on our reading, and writing, habits.

It’s Donna Ballman’s last appearance for a few weeks – she’s off for a highly-merited vacation, and we’ll miss her while she’s gone. She’s leaving us with five habitual lies that authors tell themselves!

And Eve Harvey has picked up on one of Litopia’s own tweets – what makes writers particularly susceptible to the demon drink? Is it cause – or effect? Do some people actually write better while inebriated? If he had not become such a drunk, would Truman Capote have finished Answered Prayers? And if he did – would it have been any good?

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!