Do The Green Thing on June - recycle so it will be reborn!

Every month we update you on the monthly green recommendation of our friends at 'Do The Green Thing'. This month they offer you to do the recycled/reborn thing.

What does it mean? The Green Thing team ask you to recycle everything you possibly can for one day this month and they explain:

"When you chuck something away, you’re effectively slamming the door in its face, calling its mother something unpleasant and saying you never want to see it again. But the thing is, you will see it again - and rather than being something useful like before, this time it’ll be something noxious. Maybe it’ll have turned into a greenhouse gas after decomposing in a landfill site – or perhaps it’ll come back as acid rain after being incinerated.

Either way, you’ve killed it before its time and it will haunt you like some kind of vengeful, pollution-spewing poltergeist. Which is why this month’s Green Thing is to recycle everything you possibly can for one day. Make sure your rubbish ends up Reborn as something new and beautiful instead of trashing our environment."

Here's someone who is doing it quite often - Jesse Hackett aka Elmore Judd goes to a recycling centre, picks up some random bits of metal and wood, uses them to make some amazing instruments and then uses them to make some amazing music. Filmed by the talented, willing and helpful people at Firecracker Films (www.myspace.com/elmorejudd, http://www.firecrackerfilms.com/)


Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Susan's Blog: Support Your Local Indie

Eco-Libris is proud to work with independent bookstores. We see them as we see them as a viable part of local economies, supporting both community life and regional sustainability.

Another supporter of independent bookstores is the author Susan Kelly ('The Lesser Evil', 'The Great Good') , who recently wrote a great piece in her blog about a bookstore called 'Page After Page'. I enjoyed reading it and thought you will enjoy it as well. We have the pleasure to republish it again (thank you, Susan!):

Support Your Local Indie (Susan Kelly, 6/2/08)

I recently had the privilege of being the guest of honor at a book signing. There was a very small turnout, in a small store in a small town. Needless to say, I sold a small amount of books. Certainly not enough to pay for my gas there and back.

BUT I met a wonderful bookseller who will now hand sell my books. Murrie is keeping them right on the front counter. He wants to try another signing on a Saturday when he has lots of foot traffic. He's ordering copies of my second book. And his store, PAGE AFTER PAGE, is a comfortable, lovely place full of character and history.

With the small number of customers, Murrie and I had a chance to talk about the business. Not just the writing and selling of my book, but the fate of independent book shops like his. There are no B&N or Borders within an hour or so of him, but there is a college bookstore. And that store is thinking of leaving campus and moving in a block from him. They're going to form a partnership with B&N and build a three story combination coffee shop and bookstore. If the town council passes this, Murrie will go out of business as will the little cafes that share the main street with him. And why do we care?

Independent bookstores like Murrie's are the doorway to the public for authors like me. He's willing to deal with my small publisher. He's willing to do loads of advertising for a relatively unknown like me. He knows the names of his customers and what they like to read.

We all need to support guys like Murrie. He can't compete with the big guys. And those big guys aren't always so ready to support us. Stop into your local indie bookseller. Stop and see your hometown version of Murrie. Get to know him or her and they'll never forget you.

Murrie's website:
http://pageafterpagebookshop.com

Susan Kelly's website:
http://www.susankelleyauthor.com

And the winner is...

Thank you for all the readers that took part in the giveaway of our copy of 'Green Babies, Sage Moms' and sent their comments. The winner is the reader Sandhi. Congratulations Sandhi! I hope you will enjoy the book.

And thank you all for the congrats for the birth of my baby Shira!!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Grateful Dead as a model for the publishing industry in the digital age

Paul Krugman is one of my favorite editorial writers in the New York Times. Today he wrote a very interesting column on the future of the publishing industry in the digital age ('Bits, Bands and Books.')

Krugman's advice to publishers: take an example from the Grateful Dead. In other words he offers a strategy of "giving intellectual property away so that people will buy your paraphernalia", or if you translate it to publishing terminology - "books may end up serving mainly as promotional material for authors' other activities, such as live reading with paid admission".

Too futuristic? maybe. Interesting and worth thinking about? Definitely!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Guest column: Beth Evans of Brooklyn College Library

From time to time we host on our blog a guest column of a friend from the books world. Today we're happy to have with us Beth Evans of Brooklyn College Library. If any of you is also interested in writing a guest column feel free to drop me a line.

Making Friends Online: What Happens When a College Library in Brooklyn Meets up with a Sustainability Company on the Internet? by Beth Evans, Brooklyn College Library

If Eco-Libris’s mission is to find a more sustainable model of book publishing, then it’s natural that it should become friends with a library. After all, aren’t libraries the perfect example of the three “R’s” of the environmental movement? Along with our mission to be helpmates of the school systems in our communities (those institutions with the original version of the three “R’s”), libraries, by our nature, approach books with a mindset of reducing, reusing and recycling.

Imagine a world of communal property where everyone’s backyard is the public park and everyone’s bookshelf stands in the public library. Want a book? Take a trip to the library. Borrow the book, read it – or not – , return it (most definitely), and then the next reader gets a turn. If the only books available in the community were those available from the public library, we would see a publishing industry printing out a very small number of volumes (reduce), many people borrowing and reading the same volume (reuse), and books that don’t meet the needs of a particular community being passed on to libraries in other communities (recycle).

That’s how libraries do our business and always have.

One of the benefits-turned-costs of an economically successful society has been that very little property is communally shared and that more and more individuals own duplicates of items. So if all of the residents of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City (population: 2,486,235) and all of the residents of the city of Brooklyn in Cuyahoga County, Ohio (population:11,586) owned a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and discarded it in anticipation of the coming of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, nearly two and a half million copies of the earlier Harry would fill the respective town landfills of the two Brooklyns, or could pave a path made up of the books lined top to bottom covering the 462 miles between the two towns. Too much of a good thing is definitely a bad thing. For the environment, that is.

But libraries do continue to co-exist side-by-side with bookstores, providing access to hard-to-find, or out-of-print books and popular literature for those unwilling or unable to buy what they want. And, in a continued, though, perhaps, unconscious effort, to be the model of sustainability in the world of information seekers, libraries are increasingly subscribing to electronic information sources, books, journals and magazines that are never printed and never take the life of a tree in their creation.

One of the most apparent benefits of having electronic copies of content, and a benefit that certainly supports a healthier environment, is the fact that having an electronic copy makes duplication easy with low environmental impact. Many readers can access the same book at the same time if they are viewing the book on a web site. So duplication happens as needed and yet no trees are felled.

One of the ironies in the recent era of electronic book publishing marketing its wares to libraries was the incidence of a e-book publisher locked into contracts with its content providers, that, for copy-right reasons, forbade the virtual “lending” of its e-books to more than one individual at a time. Uh, duhhhhh… isn’t the whole point of electronic supposed to be multiple users at a time with no need for multiple copies? The next major player in the electronic book vending business with library content for sale was quick to do away with the one-book, one-user obstacle and there are a lot of happy librarians (and readers) as a result.

Libraries across the United States have gotten caught up in the greening movement, everywhere from Seattle to the Bronx. With a green approach to information and some municipalities mandating green construction, the only thing left for libraries to do is to change people’s behavior. So while the library visitors pass their time under a green-roof on a rainy day, reading paperless books at green computers and sitting on a SmartWood certified chair, they shouldn’t be surprised when the library coffee bar asks them to supply their own drinking mug.

'My Green Bookshelf' with Ron Gonen, RecycleBank's co-founder and CEO

I don't know about you, but when I read about green celebrities, CEOs of green companies, and other green figures, I'm always curious - what do these people read? what's their favorite green book? how many green books they have on their bookshelf? so I decided that it's time to try and get some answers.

Hence we begin today a new series - 'My Green Bookshelf'. In this series we will take a look at the reading habits of interesting people from the green world with special focus on their green reading. As a small token of appreciation to our gusest in the series, Eco-Libris will plant with its planting partners 50 new trees on behalf of each and every participant!

Our first guest in the series is Ron Gonen, the co-founder and CEO of RecycleBank.

RecycleBank is a Philadelphia based company that has revolutionized municipal recycling in America, by initiating a brilliant recycling program that rewards people for recycling at home. RecycleBank, which was founded in 2004, currently provides service in more than 35 municipalities in the states of Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

Prior to RecycleBank, Ron Gonen was a Senior Consultant at Deloitte Consulting. Ron was a co-recipient of Deloitte Consulting's National Impact Award in 2002 for his development and management of a consulting unit that provides pro bono consulting services to non-profit and charitable organizations. Ron holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Ron is not only a successful CEO of a great green company, but also an avid reader. He has agreed to share with us his reading habits and below you'll find his replies to our questions.

When do you find the time to read?

Before I get to sleep and on planes.

How many books do you have in your library at home?

A lot. I was a voracious reader back when I had time to read.

What's your favorite green book?

let my people go surfing by Yvon Chouinard

Do you borrow books from friends? do you lend yours to others after you read them?

Yes.

Are you registered to a library?

No.

If you had to go to a deserted island, what 3 books would you take with you?

1. Exodus by Leon Uris

2. Nelson Mandela's autobiography

3. Any book by Al Franken

E-book - for or against?

Not sure.

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

* photos of Ron Gonen and the logo of RecycleBank are courtesy of RecycleBank.

Back from the Trenches: Eco-Libris in Book Expo America. Part 1 – ABA's Day of Education

Just back from Book Expo America in Los Angeles. Although the word on the street is that this year was a bit slower than previous ones, it was still the number one book industry event in the US. Therefore it was definitely a good place for Eco-Libris to network, learn and discuss green policies, practices, and the planting of trees to balance out the paper used by the various members of the industry.

One organization that is starting to take environmental concerns seriously, is the American Booksellers Association (ABA). Eco-Libris was invited to meet booksellers that may be interested in our program for booksellers, in its “Green Retailing” session, held as part of ABA's day of education on Thursday, May 29.

Keynote by Ed Begley Jr.

The day began with a green keynote speech by environmental activist, actor, and author of “Living like Ed – A guide to Eco-Friendly Life”,Ed Begley Jr. He was introduced by outgoing ABA President Russ Lawrence , who also listed ABA's environmentally friendly efforts for the event: The elimination of the canvas goody bag that was given to all members in the past upon sign-up. It was replaced by a table of freebies, which members can pick and choose from, and carry in the bags they already brought with them. Paper use was also minimized. Whereas in the past, at the end of each session, an evaluation sheet was distributed to be filled up, this time the evaluation will be done electronically. Similarly, there were no handouts during the educational sessions, and all the material was made available on-line before the show. Whenever possible, material for the show was sourced locally in LA, minimizing shipping from ABA's headquarters on the east coast. And my favorite effort was that metro passes were given to all members to encourage using public transportation when commuting in LA during the show.

Compared to the non-existent green practices of the main event at Book Expo America (don't get me started! This rant will come later) the ABA demonstrated awareness and pro-activeness that I can only wish will be emulated and built upon by others in the future.

As always, Begley's speech was interesting and inspiring. He started by calling the booksellers in the audience “proud survivors of independent retails... American communities need you”, and went on to detail the ways in which he managed to live a green life as a poor actor living on a budget during his early career, encouraging people to take action according to their current means, and embrace the money saving aspects of the green movement.

During the Q&A session Begley was asked about his current favorite books, which included Bill McKibben's The End of Nature, Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, and Collapse by Jared Diamond.

Green Retailing Education Session

This session included three presentations moderated by ABA's Chief of Operations Oren Teicher, whom together with ABA's Lisa Winn, seems to be heading the organization's green drive. Presenters included Ferris Kawar, of green retail guide Greenopia, Natalie Frieberg of Los Angeles based green retailer, All Shades of Green, and Suzy Staubach of UConn Co-op. All three are involved with greening of retail space, and related to the booksellers in the audience their tips and practices on taking action in their own stores. Most practices suggested are not unique to book selling. These included recycling, the use of recycled material (for example for flooring), and encouraging sustainable commute practices by the staff, such as using public transport, biking or carpooling. More specifically for book selling was the focus on the place of the bookstore as a purveyor of information to the community. Bookstores were encouraged to create a green books section that will include related books, and those that were sustainably produced. Staubach of Uconn Co-Op also described an annual conference on sustainability that she organizes at the campus, and Frieberg described a workshop which took place at the store, that ended in the transformation of the shop's parking lot into a more sustainable system of capturing rain water.

Teicher of ABA introduced Eco-Libris and your truly to the audience and encouraged the booksellers in attendance to check out our program for bookstores. Eco-Libris enables the bookstore to offer its customers the opportunity to plant a tree for every book they buy. This introduction was very exciting and will hopefully result in many more stores joining in the near future.

At a later date I'll discuss the very timely “building community” session, and Amy Goodman's moving lunch speech, which ended in a standing ovation. Needless to say, this was a great event and many thanks and congratulations to its organizers.

Yours,
Eylon @ Eco-Libris

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

(Images: Bookselling This Week)