Green Options - Victory for Greenies in Australia as $2.2 Billion Plant is Pulped

s part of Eco-Libris' ongoing content partnership with Green Options Media, we feature a post that was originally published by Ross Kendall on May 28 on EcoWordly. Today's post is about a battle over a pulp mill between a timber company and environmental groups in Australia due to a threat to some of oldest native forest ecosystems in Tasmania, Australia.

Environmentalists have claimed a victory in Australia where a major investment bank is said to be canceling its funding of a controversial pulp mill planned by the country's biggest harvester of old-growth forest timber.

Both the financial sector and the environmental movement were abuzz around Australia last week with the same piece of information. It looked very much like the Australia New Zealand bank (ANZ), one of the country's top four, had pulled out of its pledge to fund a controversial $2.2 billion pulp mill planned for the southern state of Tasmania.

But of course while the finance sector saw doom and gloom and proceeded to wipe 10 per cent of the share market value of the pulp mill's developer Gunns Ltd, the environmentalist were giddy with delight. If the rumor is true, and they certainly think it is, it could well be the final shot in a battle that has raged for years between Gunns and environmentalists.

Protest called off
Last week the environmental non-government organisation, the Wilderness Society, cancelled its plans for a major rally against the ANZ Bank over its involvement with funding for the pulp mill.

Wilderness Society spokesmen Mr Paul Oosting, congratulated the ANZ Bank for a socially and environmentally responsible decision to abandon the mill.

“Gunns’ pulp mill would see the destruction of high conservation value forests in Tasmania and the project does not have a social license. ANZ’s decision is in line with its new forest policy and with principles that set a high standard for corporate social responsibility.”

Is it too good to be true
After some initial certainty however, things do not seem so clear cut.

Australia's national broadcaster reported late last week that both the timber company, and the ANZ Bank were denying the speculation. The bank left the door opened when it claimed it was waiting for Gunns to clear more regulatory hurdles, before finalising its decision on funding.

So is all this just another story in a world were economic growth clashes with environmental concerns every day, not at all.

A historic battle
The issues of forest logging in Australia's smallest and southernmost state, Tasmania, has been the center of many political debates that have raged across the country, and arguably helped determine the outcome of recent federal elections.

In a nutshell Gunns is the monopoly timber operator in Tasmania were it affords good protection from the state government. Proponents saw it provides jobs and is the power house of the Tasmanian economy. The links between the state government and the company are strong and the 'revolving door' is in operation, state government politicians and employees frequently end up working for the company

Old growth for paper products
The problem for environmentalists is that Gunns chops down some of the oldest native forest ecosystems in the world to supply the paper pulp markets.

To add insult to this injury the company planned a huge "world class" pulp mill to help it add-value to its timber products and of course, provide more jobs and economic growth for the state.

But what a process pushing the mill has been. There have been endless committees, reports, consultations and regulatory hearings all they way to the country's highest government levels. All trying to determine just how much pollution the new plant would be allowed to create in pristine Tasmania.

But the arguments either way haven't changed anybody's mind, you were either for it or against it.

Determined despite the odds
Indeed all seemed lost for the environmentalist when even the prospect of a new federal government, which would include the former rock star with Midnight Oil, and one-time fervent environmentalist, Peter Garrett said they would support the new mill.

The last hope for the environmentalists was to target Gunn's financial backers. And in a testament to conviction it looks like they may well have pulled it off.

Not that environmentalists will be given the credit of course, they rarely are. One of Australia's leading financial commentators Alan Kohler, has said that considering all the turmoil in world markets it is very unlikely the financing will go through.

Everyone wins, but Gunns
This also means that the ANZ can save face and duck accusations that it was running scared of the reputational damage of being involved with the pulp mill. But somehow I don't think the environmentalist will mind this one little bit.

Monday's green books series: Green Babies, Sage Moms (plus a giveaway of one copy)

Last week my first baby was born. I knew then that it's the perfect time to finish reading Lynda Fassa's "Green Babies, Sage Moms: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Baby". The book is definitely for moms (and those who plan to be moms), but during the reading I found out that dads can also enjoy it and learn a thing or two on how be sage and green up their babies.

The book is guide "to becoming an empowered, environmentally conscious and raising healthy children" as the cover says. The author Lynda Fassa is very far from the crunchy granola type many still associate with green moms. She is a former Ford model, who founded Green Babies, an organic cotton clothing company, after she gave birth to her first (out of three) child and read an article in the NYT about farmers who abandon cotton in favor of growing organic cotton. There she started her green journey.

What Lynda found out and you can learn very quickly from the book is that going green equals becoming healthier and providing yourself with a better quality of life. This equilibrium becomes highly significant when it refers to the people you care the most about: your children.

The book is dedicated to the periods of time where the children are most vulnerable - during pregnancy and as little babies.

The first half of the book is focused on pregnancy - from the right food you should eat through the cosmetic products you should use to the safe way to clean the house to get it ready for the baby. This part is very women-oriented, but I still found there interesting information, which was relevant for me, like the various uses of my favorite wonder-material baking soda (who knew you can use it also as a laundry detergent?).

The second half of the book is full with great advices regarding newborns and babies. As I said, now that I'm a new father, I found these issues very relevant - for example, the diaper dilemma: how you do you do it without significantly reducing your comfort level and at the same time not harming the environment? I still didn't find the golden path, but the book, and it's the same for many other topics covered on it, does a great job by bringing you all the options and gives you to choose the right one for you - who knew there are so many options other than just disposable and cloth diapers to choose from?

One of the things I liked about the book is the dozens of stories on green products brought by the people who established and run the companies that sell them - these are not free ads but truly interesting stories about their green journey and how they started with their products. For anyone who is interested in green business in general this is fascinating stuff.

You can find these days many guides to green living, but I think that the focus of this book, the information that was carefully collected, the experience of the author as a mother of three and her approach which I found both positive and open-minded make this book a great guide to any mom or dad that would like to have a green compass that will guide them during the pregnancy and the early years of their children.

Would you like a free copy of the book? from now on we'll give away every copy of a book we receive to review and this book is going to be the first one we'll start with! All you need to do is to add a comment with an answer to this question: what's the most important thing I should do to keep my baby's ecological footprint to minimum? (and don't forget to include your email please..)

We'll choose from all the comments we'll receive to this post by Friday (6/6/08), 12pm EST the one we like the most and send the happy winner the review copy of the book.

Title: Green Babies, Sage Moms: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Baby

Author: Lynda Fassa
Publisher: New American Library, a Division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Published on: January 2008
Pages: 256
Official Website: http://www.greenbabies.com/catalogue/gbsm.htm

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

A bookseller in Clarksburg, MD is going green with Eco-Libris

Another bookseller has joined the growing list of bookstores that participate in Eco-Libris bookstores program. This time we're happy to present you with Novel Places of Clarksburg, MD.

Novel Places started 2 years ago by Patrick Darby who has almost 30 years experience in book retail. The store started as an antiquarian online store, but recently, new titles and accessories were added. The rekindled Literary Society restarted by Patrick last year is a book group by today's standards, which help promote the store. Patrick tries to emulate the history of the Society, which dates back to 1833!) by inviting authors to read and talkabout their books. The plan is to include unpublished authors to getfeedback on their creations.

The books offered by Novel Places can also be found at Mayorga Coffee (23207 Stringtown Road Clarksburg, MD). The online store offers a community forum to discuss issues and books. Patrick says he designed it the way he would want his brick and mortar store to be like - a place where people can come and relax by a fire or in a comfy chair for conversation, reading, and purchasing a good book. And now there's also going to be there the opportunity to plant a tree with every book you purchased with Eco-Libris. Customers will be receiving our sticker (made of recycled paper) saying "one tree planted for this book" with every new book purchased at Novel Places.

Patrick is also very involved with the local community and the businesses in Clarksburg - he is the president of the Clarksburg Chamber of Commerce, which is focused on going green in the community and the businesses. Their logo has a green circle to represent an eco-friendly community, and their events and forums incorporate environmental programs as much as possible. For example, they're launching a shop local campaign to inform people about the advantages financially, for the environment, and the convenience.

This Saturday (June 7) you can also find Novel Places in a a special local event in Clarksburg, MD - Clarksburg Day, celebrating the founding of Clarksburg 256 years ago. There will be a lot of activities there and Novel Places will be offering a selection from antiquarian to new releases. The event will take place at the Clarksburg High School and Recreation Center on the corner of Frederick and Wims Road in Clarksburg, MD from 10am - 4pm.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Revolutionizing the publishing industry in American Idol style

American Idol gave a chance to names you haven't heard before like Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood to become famous singers. But how about writers? is there any similar platform that like American Idol will give talented writers a chance to bypass the industry's typical boundaries and hit the spotlight? well, actually there is. It's called: WEbook.

What's WEbook? here's the intro on their website: "WEbook is the home of groundbreaking Community-Sourced Content. We hope to do for publishing what American Idol did for music. Founded in 2007, WEbook is the vision of a few occasionally erudite people who believe there are millions of talented writers whose work is ignored by the staid and exclusive world of book publishing. It just makes sense: If you create a dynamic, irreverent, and open place for writers and readers to meet, write, react, and think together, the results will be extraordinary. Cue WEbook.com, an online platform that allows writers, editors, reviewers, illustrators, and others to join forces to create great works of fiction and non-fiction, thrillers and essays, short stories, children’s books and more. The WEbook community will rate and elevate the very best work for publication under the WEbook imprint."

For aspired writers WEbook offers the chance of being published. The screening process is a bit unique - the community itself vote for its favorite content, and a la American Idol, help to choose the next published books for the WEbook imprint. The selected authors also enjoy two big advantages - zero costs and the best royalites in the business (according to WEbook) - 50% of all profits generated from the sale of WEbook titles.

But WEbook is more than a platform of ‘get the love of the audience and get famous’ a la American Idol. It is also a community of authors, editors, reviewers, illustrators and others who meet online and join forces together to create the great next books.

WEbook published their first book last February, a thriller titled Pandora (a joint effort of 17 authors!), and according to Springwise they have plans to publish another 3 to 5 books this year. Beginning July 4, the WEbook community will begin selecting the lead candidates for the next publication cycle.

This is definitely a non-traditional publishing model and I like it! It combines the advantages of both the digital age and social networking/online communities, creating a revolutionary platform to create great new books. I am not saying this should come instead of the traditional platforms, but it’s definitely time to have a lit version of American Idol that will offer anonymous talents an alternative way to become the bestsellers of tomorrow.

It’s also worthwhile to pay attention to the investors backing this venture and their team. These guys are serious and mean business, and my guess is that they aim higher than just being a lit version of American Idol. I believe that they would like to see WEbook revolutionizing publishing in the way Yair Goldfinger (one of the investors) and his colleagues in ICQ revolutionized instant messaging and the online world as a whole. Just wait and see.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

2007 went well for book publishers but what's next?

It's BEA time now and the book publishing industry is on the news. Today the New York Times present interesting sales figures of the industry. The bottom line? 2007 was a good year to the industry but this is already the past. The future is uncertain.

The article ("Potter Was Still Magical, But Not All Books Rose") reports the following: "Publishers sold 3.13 billion books last year, compared with 3.1 billion in 2006, an increase of just 0.9 percent, according to Book Industry Trends 2008, an annual report that analyzes sales in the United States. Higher retail prices helped net revenue increase 4.4 percent, to $37.3 billion, from $35.7 billion."

Though this sounds like a good news, it seems that publishers are worried. It is of course because of the weak economy and the uncertainty it brings with it to business. The estimates for 2008 sales according to the Book Industry Trends Report are for a small decline of 0.7% in comparison with 2007. Growth projected to the next few years is either flat or less than 1%, which atcually is no different than 2007 figures (0.9% growth).

Is there a green angle here? I believe there is. I think and I intend to go into it more thoroughly in the next couple of weeks that publishers that will go green will be in a much better position than those who won't. I can see it in every level of the operations - strategically (becoming well-prepared to a carbon-regulated market), financially (achieving greater efficiency in every element of the operations), marketing wise (establishing differentiation from competitors, more positive media attention) and last but definitely not least - meeting growing customers' concerns on the environmental impacts of their life style and providing them a greener offer so many are looking for.

I hope many publishers will find the green route not as a luxury, but as a route that can help them go through a relatively weak economy and strengthen their business. As I mentioned we'll get into it in the next couple of weeks with more details about what does it actually means for publishers to go green, with some examples of publishers that already enjoy the fruits of their decision to go green.

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Recommnedation on a guide with the best green books to read this summer

Summer is almost here (maybe already here, depends where you live..), and nothing like a good green book to chill a hot day.

Which green book fits summer the best? SmartPlanet's team chose ten of the hottest eco books of the season, from ethical wedding and green beauty guides to eco getaway listings and tips for recycling rubbish.

This guide includes green books such as How Green Are My Wellies?, by Anna Shepard, Ecoescape 2008, by Laura Burgess and more. You can find the SmartPlanet's guide at http://www.smartplanet.com/news/household/10001230/10-great-green-books-for-summer.htm.

The guide also reminds that you can always green up these books by balancing them out with Eco-Libris, as well use swapping books sites such as BookCrossing and greenmetropolis.com. We definitely support both recommendations!

And last word - thank you to all the dear people who sent their congrats for my beautiful new baby girl - Shira (see photo below)! Shira is already doing her first green steps and I can't wait to read her a green book :-)

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

BookExpo America - here we come!

Tomorrow will start in Los Angeles BookExpo America (BEA) 2008, the premier publishing industry event in the U.S.

This is very exciting event and with over 2,000 exhibitors from around the world, BEA showcases the world's largest English-language selection of books. It will also have special industry and author events, including some very interesting panels on green issues.

If you're looking for green panel, Friday (May 30) is your day:

9:30 -10:30 a.m. (room 402B) - Environmental Trends: Where Does the U.S. Book Industry Stand Today?

This panel is sponsored by the Green Press Initiative with the following panelists: Michael Healy (Executive Director, Book Industry Study Group), Tyson Miller (Director, Green Press Initiative), Nicole Poindexter (Director Strategic Planning, Hachette Book Group), Jen Slajus (Operations Manager, Borders Group, Inc.)

10:00 - 11:00 a.m. (room 402A) - Buying, Packaging & Publishing Green Books: The Publishers' Perspective

Beyond the physicality of Green books, rather, an in-house discussion perspective; finding niches and meeting the demands of an explosion of green lifestyles. Today, Green is pervasive in just about every aspect of daily living - building, investments, travel, retirement, cooking etc., - which was not the case two years ago. How are publishers addressing this phenom?

Moderator: Edward Nowotka - Books Columnist, Bloomberg News & Southern Correspondent, Publishers. Panelists: Mark Tauber - Deputy Publisher, HarperOne, Kathy Schneider - Assoc. Publisher, HarperCollins, Martin Rowe - VP & Editor-in-Chief, Lantern Books and Suzanne Taylor - VP, Gibbs Smith

11:30 a.m - 12:30 p.m. (room 402A) Raising Dangerous Boys and Daring Girls: Children, Literature, and the Green Movement

There was a time when literature inspired children to explore nature and reveal in the great outdoors, but a new generation of plugged in children raised on Ipods, Guitar Hero, and the Internet shows little interest in discovering the natural world. What's the future of the environmental movement if kids choose the virtual world over the real one? Can literature continue to inspire children and parents to go outside and play?

Moderator: Collette Morgan - owner, Wild Rumpus bookstore. Panelists: Jessica Woods - Children's Mgr., Northshire Books, Chris Morrow - GM, Northshire Books, Richard Louv - author, Last Child in the Woods and TA Barron - Audubon Medal recipient, The Great Tree of Avalon

1:00 - 2:00 p.m (room 402A) Investing in a Sustainable World: How the Green Revolution will Create New Industries, Opportunities, Economies and Fortunes

Moderator: David Andelman - Executive Editor, Forbes and author, A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay. Panelists: Dr. Matthew Kiernan - Founder and CEO, Innovest and author, Investing in a Sustainable World and Michael Shellenberger - author, BREAK THROUGH: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility

1:30 - 2:30 p.m. (room 402B) Climate Change and the Book Industry

Many U.S. publishers, large and small, are responding to environmental challenges in innovative and successful ways. Join this session to discover more about these innovations and to learn how leading industry pioneers have conducted their own carbon audits, calculated the average carbon output from the lifecycle of a book, and taken simple steps to reduce climate impacts, use renewable energy, and much more.

Moderator: Tyson Miller - Director, Green Press Initiative. Panelists: Tona Pearce-Myers - Prod. Dir., New World Library, Andrew Van Der Laan - Sr. Project Manager, Random House and Michael Powell - President, Powell's Books.

2:30 - 3:30 p.m. (room 402A) Changing How We Shop: Understanding the Shades of Green Consumerism

Panelists: Lori Bongiorno - author, Green Greener Greenest, Diane MacEachern - author, Big Green Purse, Richard Bangs - author, Adventures with Purpose and Quest for Kaitiakitanga

Two more events that we would like to recommend on are:

1. Panel on Green Retailing at the, on Thursday (May 29, 2008) - 11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. It's part of the ABA Day of Education at BookExpo America. The program is open exclusively to ABA bookstore and provisional members.

This session will present a panel of experts from bookselling and beyond who will discuss how we can all be smarter, cleaner, more efficient retailers, and how we can save money by going green!

Moderator: Oren Teicher of ABA

Panelists: Suzy Staubach, Manager of University of Connecticut Co-op (Storrs, CT), Natalie Freidberg of All Shades of Green (Los Angeles, CA), and Ferris Kawar, VP Sustainability Greenopia and The Green Media Group, LLC.

2. On Friday (May 30), don't miss Thomas Friedman who will discuss his new book: 'Hot, Flat and Crowded'.

As you can see BEA will have many interesting green events, but does it also walk the talk? well apparently not so much. According to AP, around 30,000 event guides, just over 40 pages long, will be distributed at the Los Angeles Convention Center, along with 19,000 copies of the 700-page program guide. More than 10 million pages in all will be printed, none on recycled paper.

When asked about it, BookExpo vice president and show manager Lance Fensterman told The Associated Press that "we are fully aware that improvement can be made in our green-related efforts," and also that BookExpo welcomes any "constructive suggestions". Well, here's a constructive suggestion - give us a call! We have few ideas that can help you green BEA up.

My colleague, Eylon Israely, who runs Eco-Libris in Seattle will attend the show and will send us reports from there, so stay tuned for more news from BEA.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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