My article today on Triple Pundit about the settlement between Gibson Guitars and the DOJ

Here's an update on a new article I published earlier today on Triple Pundit with the latest news on the settlement between the Justice Department and Gibson Guitars following the accusations against Gibson of violations of the Lacey Act.

The article is entitled 'Gibson Guitars Settles in Lawsuit Over Illegal Wood Sourcing'. Here's the first part of the article:

If only life were like the Olympic Games – while in the Olympics participants either win or lose, life is full of compromise and most of the time there are no clear winners or losers. This seems to be the case in the fight between the Department of Justice and Gibson Guitars over whether the company imported wood illegally from Madagascar and India, violating the Lacey Act, a law requiring that all wood products and plants imported into the U.S. come from legal sources. This case, which made the headlines due to two raids on Gibson’s factory and accusations that Gibson is persecuted because of political reasons, ended last week in a settlement between the two sides.

To read the full article go to http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/08/gibson-guitars-lawsuit-lacey-act/

Links to other articles I wrote for Triple Pundit can be found at http://www.triplepundit.com/author/raz-godelnik/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant trees for your books!

Eco-Libris offers monthly subscription option for green readers with large libraries!

I'd like to remind you about one of the options available on our website - monthly subscription.

If you have a big library at home and you want to green it up one bookshelf or bookcase at a time, balancing out 5 or 10 books every month on regular basis, can be a good fit for you.

The process is very easy and similar to one-time purchase: Visit our website (www.ecolibris.net) and go to the subscription page, where 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. And that's it!

Then every month we'll balance out for you the number of books you chose by planting trees in developing countries with our planting partners. You will receive a confirmation email from PayPal following each monthly payment as well as our "one tree planted for this book" stickers.

And that's not all, if you're also a member at BookMooch, you will receive 1 bookmooch point for every 10 books you balance out!

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

We are very happy to offer this option to all the eco-conscious readers out there who want to green up many of their books but want to do gradually. 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: Promoting sustainable reading!

New children's book, Concerto Tutti by Tapio (publisher: Galaxias) is going green with Eco-Libris!

We're happy to announce on a new collaboration of Eco-Libris: the German publisher Galaxias is partnering with us to plant trees for a new great children's book: Concerto Tutti by Tapio.

One tree will be planted for every printed copy of the book! Already 800 new trees are being planted with our planting partners to green it up! In addition the book is printed on FSC-certified paper.

What's the book is all about? Here are more details on Concerto Tutti:

The book “Concerto Tutti“ by Finish German Author and Illustrator Tapio invites you to visit the peaceful lake “sleeping dino,” somewhere in the deep deep jungle. Visit the big crocodile, its friends the gorillas and the sassy little frogs, who tease the crocodile and other inhabitants of the lake by loud croaking and with their newly invented “water fart drive”. Until one day the crocodile calls for its old friends the pelicans. Pelican named Karajan finally finds a solution for the quarrels in the jungle and turns out to be a real “maestro”…

Currently the book is only available in German but Galaxias hopes to be able to spread the lovely story of the “Concerto Tutti” also in other countries.

Read more on www.galaxias-verlag.de (soon with English translation).

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Our website is down due to server problems

I wanted to update you that our website is now down due to a problem with the server. We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause and hope to be online again ASAP!


Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Update (7/30): The server's problems are finally over and Eco-Libris website is live and kicking! Visit us at http://www.ecolibris.net/

New children's book, Earth Remembers When by Dawn Wynne, is going green with Eco-Libris!

We're glad to update you on a new children's book that is going green with Eco-Libris: Earth Remembers When by Dawn Wynne.

100 trees will be planted with Eco-Libris to green up this great book that offers guidelines and solutions for children of all ages to make a positive impact on the environment. You can find our logo indicating that 100 trees are planted for this book on its back cover (see picture below).

Here are more details on "Earth Remembers When":

From best-selling author and award winning teacher, Dawn Wynne, comes Earth Remembers When, a richly illustrated story that visually demonstrates how humans affect nature. It offers guidelines and solutions for children of all ages to make a positive impact on the environment.

Filled with facts, tips, activities, and recipes, Earth Remembers When provides children with unique knowledge about animals and the planet along with self-empowering methods to make a difference in our world.

The book is not available yet for sale, but in the meantime you're welcome to check Dawn's other book "I Remember When," which is available on her website.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Moon Willow Press's Summer Reading Program offers free ebooks every week!

Moon Willow Press, a small publishing company committed to helping sustain forests while celebrating the written word, which partners with Eco-Libris to plant trees for its published books, is running this summer a great Summer Reading Program.

This program, which will run until September 8, 2012 is designed to promote reading and tree-planting. All summer, every weekend, Moon Willow Press will be offering free e-books! Check back weekly.

Here are more details on the Summer Reading Program:

Free Kindle downloads every weekend: Smoke Ghosts and Other Outré Tales is our seventh freebie during our summer reading promotion and is free July 14-15 from Amazon Kindle. Click here for the full schedule of free downloads this summer.

Contest to win a *$50.00 Amazon gift card: When you buy any paperback title from Moon Willow Press between June 1 – September 8, you will automatically be entered into our Summer Reading Contest to win a $50.00 gift certificate to Amazon.com. The contest is open to all ages. How does it work?

*Amazon.ca – $50.00 (CAD) for Canadian residents or Amazon.com – $50.00 (USD) for all other countries

1. When you buy a paperback book from MWP between June 1 – September 8, Moon Willow Press will enter your name and contact details into a summer reading database.
2. For each Moon Willow Press paperback title you purchase, you will be entered into the contest drawing. The more reading of our books that you do, the better chance you have to win! (You can only win once!)
3. On September 8, Moon Willow Press will draw ten names from a random generator and contact the buyers.
4. Of those ten, we will ask for a statement not to exceed 500 words relating what books you read over the summer and how reading has changed your life. These statements must be emailed to us by the official end of summer: September 21, 2012, midnight Pacific time.
5. Moon Willow Press’s Mary, and others, will judge the ten responses. We will be judging responses by a combination of how many books you’ve read over the summer (please be honest and list each one!), grammatical accuracy, interesting thought process (can be humorous, motivational, etc.), and timeliness of your response. Responses received after midnight PDT will be discarded, and those entrants will be ineligible to win.
6. All final 10 entries will win a free Moon Willow Press annual membership.
7. The winner and response will be announced September 24th, and the gift card will be emailed to the winner on September 25.

Reduced Prices: All 2011 paperbacks have been reduced in price. Click our Book Catalog for more information.

Tree-planting initiative: A portion of all sales during this time will be donated to Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for each book you read.

For more information on Moon Willow Press visit their website at http://www.moonwillowpress.com

Past collaborations with Moon Willow Press:

Infernal Drums by Anthony Wright

Smoke Ghosts & Other Outré Tales, by Anthony Wright

The Little Big Town by Mary Woodbury

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting sustainable reading!

House Improvement Ideas for A Greener Life At Home

This is a guest column by Aileen Pablo

As homes become older and people are opting to make improvements rather than move to new locations, more families are wondering what they can do to not only save themselves money but also create a more eco-friendly environment. After all, older homes were built without the innovative materials found in newer homes today making them more of an energy drain than most homeowners would care to admit.

If you are looking for ways to update your older home into a greener way to live, here are a few projects you can do in your house.

• Add insulation – This is the easiest way to keep moderate temperatures in and extreme elements out. With recent updates to insulation technology older homes are less equipped to help homeowners do this. Adding insulation can cut your energy costs year round by as much as 10%. And not only is this savings significant but so is the savings to the environment is energy it takes to heat or cool your home.

• Plant a tree – This is a great way to quickly upgrade the look of your home, add more carbon dioxide eating plants and create shade to help keep the sun from beating down on your house causing it to heat up faster. With so many benefits it is one of the easiest ways to make a quick and extremely green switch to improve your home.

• Go solar without the panels – Just as you want to cool your house naturally on hot days, you will also want to use the power of the sun to help heat your home on cold days. If you have windows that are exposed to the sun, direct the warming rays into your home by opening up your blinds and letting them in. Darkening your house only keeps the cool temperatures inside but exposing it to some natural solar heating helps you to naturally add some warmth without using excessive gas with your heating system.

• Save Water – Saving electricity is not the only way to make your home go green. You can also make quick and easy updates to your appliances to save water. This is especially true with older appliances such as toilets and showerheads. In fact, low flow toilets can save an average of 4,000 gallons each year and low flow showerheads can reduce your usage by as much as 50%. Update your home with new looks that come with water saving technology and cut your water bill by gallons each month.

• Use sensors on lights – You may feel more comfortable having your lights on in the early evening hours when there is traffic on the street and more people likely to stop by unexpectedly. However, once you are in bed and during the wee hours of the morning, save electricity and set your lights to turn off automatically. This way, you can cut costs without having to rely on your memory to turn off the lights each night before bed.

• Weather strip old windows and door jams – As much as 30% of your heating and cooling can slip out of your home and let in the extreme temperatures you are trying to keep out without the proper weather stripping. Visit your local home improvement store to find the right solution for your home and start insulating your door jams and windows easily and more efficiently to reduce costs immediately.

• Use zone heating methods intelligently – Many people think by having a wood burning fire they are adding to the warmth of their home. However, these fireplaces tend to suck more heat out of the home by allowing it to get sucked up the chimney then they add. Instead, use covered fireplaces to allow the heat to ventilate out of the fireplace and avoid it from being sucked up through the chimney.

• Replace your appliances with high efficiency solutions – New technology has given homeowners a way to go green and protect the environment through high efficiency appliances. Even more money saving and encouraging to make this switch are the utility companies that provide their customers with additional rebates just for making the switch. Contact your utility providers to see if this is something they will do for you.

Homeowners can save significant money each year by making these small home improvement updates and turn their home from an environmental drain to an eco-friendly living solution.

[Image credit: nikcame, Flickr Creative Commons]

Author Bio:

Aileen Pablo is part of the team behind Open Colleges, one of Australia’s leading providers of TAFE courses equivalent and interior design courses. When not working, Aileen blogs about travel, lifestyle, home improvement, and beauty tips. She is also often invited as a speaker in Personality Development Seminars in the Philippines.If you have a blog and would like free content. You can find him on Google+.