Happy New Year!

Annual assessments of Eco-Libris' planting partners are available online

This is our last post for 2008 and we're happy to close the year with good news - our annual assessments of our planting partners are now available online!

Here's a little bit more about these assessments: as part of our pledge to quality service to our customers, we decided at the beginning of our operations to conduct annual assessments of our planting partners.The two main goals of these assessments are: 1. to verify the quality of the planting operations and to make sure the high standards we promise to our customers are kept and 2. to provide our customers with details on the tree planting operations they support to balance out their books.

Our first year of operation ended in July 2008 and we conducted later on these assessments under the guidance of our environmental advisor, Gili Koniak. The process took couple of months and now the finalized assessments are available online at the following links:

SHI's First Year Assessment: http://www.ecolibris.net/SHI_Assessment.pdf

RIPPLE Africa's First Year Assessment: http://www.ecolibris.net/RIPPLE_Africa_Assessment.pdf

AIR's First Year Assessment: http://www.ecolibris.net/AIR_Assessment.pdf

We will do our best to continue and improve our quality assurance processes. We work closely with our planting partners and will continue to do so on 2009. Our goal for 2009 is to visit the planting operations of at least two of our planting partners.

We will keep you posted of course with more data, photos and hopefully also videos from the planting areas! Thanks again to our planting partners and to everyone that was involved in the work on the assessments.

Happy New Year,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

www.ecolibris.net

An update from Philly: A Judge is (temporarily) stopping the closure of 11 library branches

We reported two weeks ago on the fight to leave 11 branch libraries in Philadelphia open following the decision of Mayor Nutter to close them as part of a massive cost cutting effort of the city. Today we have an important update on this fight.

I firstly heard it on NPR and later on found it on the website of Friends of the Free Library Philadelphia (http://www.libraryfriends.info):

This just in from Chris Brennan from the Daily News at 1:15 p.m.: Court of Common Pleas Judge Idee Fox just ordered Mayor Nutter and the Free Library of Philadelphia to halt their plans to shutter 11 branch libraries after 5 p.m. tomorrow. A group of seven library patrons, along with the union that represents librarians, sued Nutter and the Free Library, saying that a 20-year-old ordinance prohibits the mayor from closing city buildings without approval by City Council. Three Council members — Bill Green, Jannie Blackwell and Jack Kelly — filed a similar lawsuit. In November, Nutter announced plans to shut 11 of the city’s 54 library branches as part of a massive cost cutting effort to shore up a $1 billion budget gap in the city budget over the next five years.

I also heard that Mayor Nutter wants to appeal on this ruling, so it looks likes we'll hear more updates from the court. In any case, it will be interesting to see if the Judge's ruling will make any difference or it's just going to delay the closing for some time and that's it. I definitely hope the time out given by the Judge will be used to find creative ways to keep these branches open!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Book review of "The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear" (and a giveaway!)

When I first heard about the title of our today's book, I thought to myself 'wow, that's an interesting combo'. After reading the book it's looks like there isn't nothing more natural in the world than a friendship of a ninja, cowboy and a bear.

Yes, the book we review today is "The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear" by David Bruins (author) and Hilary Leung (illustrator).

Firstly, few words on our collaboration with the author, David Bruins. As you can see from the photo of the cover of the book to your right, our logo is part of the cover, which means that for every copy printed of "The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear", a tree is planted with Eco-Libris. The book by the way is printed with vegetable-based ink on 30% recycled paper, by a FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified printer.

And now to the story. "The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear" is an illustrated children's story described as "a story about three friends (a ninja, a cowboy and a bear) who discover an important truth about equality, diversity and how to appreciate one another's unique traits".

I found it a great story about friendship and the way different characters can be friends. I believe the use of ninja, bear and a cowboy as the characters actually help kids to understand the way the idea behind the story and to identify with the way they act within the story.

The story has many lessons for kids and first and foremost is the idea that diversity is a good thing and can benefit us all if we approach it positively and from with the right approach.

This is all heavy stuff especially for kids and therefore it's a pleasure to see the way David Bruins and Hilary Leung are handling it and making this a fun story. The beautiful pictures of Leung together with Bruins' prose work together to capture children's attention, spark their imagination, and put a smile on their face.

The book also invites you (even if you're a grown up) to play the game Ninja Cowboy Bear, which is similar to to one you probably already know - rock, papers, scissors. The big difference is how you play it.. You can also play it online via the book's website.

Book details:

Book's name: The Legend of Ninja Cowboy Bear

Author: David Bruins
David Bruins spends most of his days as a computer programmer. However, he'd much rather spend his time riding his bicycle, playing guitar, or coming up with stories and telling them to anyone who will listen.
Illustrator: Hilary Leung
Hilary Leung is a designer by day, illustrator by night and ultimate player on weekends. Having spent the last five years pursuing other dreams, he is happy to return to his first true love - drawing.
Publication Date: November 2008
The book is available on: the book's website and on a long list of bookstores in Ontario
Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ninja-Cowboy-Bear/40018109739

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!

Author David Bruins is giving away a copy of the book, and of course it comes with a tree that will be planted for the copy!

How you can win? please add a comment below with an answer the following question: A new year is beginning this week (yes, 2009..) - what's your green resolution for the new year? Submissions are accepted until Sunday, January 4, 12PM EST. The winner will be announced the following day.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a Tree for every Book you Read!

Kindle and Sony Reader - big hits on the holiday season

Following yesterday's post on Amazon's successful holiday season and eco-friendly it is to buy online, we also tried to check out how e-books were doing this month.

We didn't find much data on e-books, but we did find an interesting article on the New York Times that reported on good sales for Amazon's Kindle. Maybe too good - there are no sales figures but we do know that the $359 Kindle, it is out of stock and unavailable until February. Actually, PC Magazine reported already on December 1st that "Amazon now lists the Kindle's shipping date as 11 to 13 weeks".

Apparently it's the "fault" of Oprah Winfrey, who praised the Kindle on her show in October, and got many people to buy it. I guess Amazon didn't take Oprah into consideration and hence left with not enough Kindle devices for the holiday season.

The NYT reports that "the shortage is providing an opening for Sony, which embarked on an intense publicity campaign for its Reader device during the gift-buying season. The stepped-up competition may represent a coming of age for the entire idea of reading longer texts on a portable digital device."

Steve Haber, president of Sony's digital reading division, is quoted in the article saying that the sales of Reader 700, a $400 device, "had tripled this holiday season over last, in part because the device is now available in the Target, Borders and Sam's Club chains." He also said Sony had sold more than 300,000 devices since the debut of the original Reader in 2006.

How is it compared with the Kindle? it's hard to tell. Estimates mentioned in the article are anywhere between 260,000-1,000,000 units, and that's before Winfrey's endorsement.

Still, to put things in propotion we have to remember that e-books are still small fraction of the market. According to the artilce and other sources publishers like HarperCollins, Random House and Simon & Schuster say that the sales of e-books for any device constitute less than 1 percent of total book sales.

More related links:

Happy Holidays for Sony Reader by Craig Morgan Teicher - Publishers Weekly, December 22

No Happy Holidays For Publishing (Host Scott Simon speaks to Charlotte Abbott, contributing editor for Publishers Weekly) - NPR, December 20

E-books vs. paper books - Eco-Libris resource page

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Amazon is doing well this holiday season. Is it also good news for the environment?

Amazon.com announced yesterday that the 2008 holiday season finished as its best ever, with record sales of 108 million products from Nov. 1 to Dec. 25. The company did not report holiday sales figures last year.

Many books were purchased on the holiday season (although Amazon.com don't disclose figures), and it got me to think if the fact that Amazon is doing well is good not only for its bottom line but also to the environment, or in other words - is it more eco-friendly to purchase a book online?

Firstly, let's take a look on what the top sellers were on the holiday season - well, according to the press release "top sellers in books included "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" by J.K. Rowling (standard edition, hardcover), "Eclipse" by Stephenie Meyer (The Twilight Saga, book 3, hardcover) and "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer (The Twilight Saga, book 4, hardcover)."

One bit of information Amazon did release was that "Amazon.com sold enough "Breaking Dawn" books that stacked end to end they would reach the summit of Mt. Everest eight times." You're welcome to do the math and figure out how many copies were sold..

And back to our question - are online purchases of books as well as other items on Amazon.com greener than driving to a local store and making the purchase there? well, it depends.. yes, it seems it's very difficult to give here an unambiguous answer. But we'll do our best :)

One good source I found on this question is 'Ask Umbra' of Grist. On her column last year "Mall me: on online shopping" she explains that "driving alone to a faraway place to buy very little is worse than having a few things shipped". But what about driving to a nearby local store? well, that's more complicated, especially when you add to the green equation the "local economy factor", which is the support your dollars provide to the local economy and to your community when you buy local. With Amazon it might work out if you live in Seattle but not otherwise.

Umbra's bottom line back then was "The jury is out. Follow your common sense until the jury comes back in. Don't take long, single-occupancy, single-purpose car trips for lightweight consumer items. (I leave you an out for picking up a potter's wheel or an anvil.) Avoid shipping by air -- plan ahead and don't be impatient when online shopping. And bundle shopping, shipping, and driving with others when possible."

This year Umbra was asked again about this issue ('The Click and the Dread', Nov 19, 2008). Umbra mentions a new research prepared the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which basically says that (and this is a quote of the ORNL's environmental scientist Jesse Miller) that "using several assumptions and data from several authoritative sources, we can reasonably estimate that nearly half a billion kilograms of carbon dioxide are kept out of the atmosphere by shopping on-line."

Another source I found is AskPablo of Triple Pundit. On his column "Online Shopping", Pablo is also trying to solve this riddle. He is examining a Digital Europe Project study entitled "The Environmental and Social Impacts of Digital Music," which published in July 2003, as well as some other studies.

His conclustion? "My conclusion is that dematerializing services that were previously delivered through the purchase of a physical good (CD's, books, movies, etc.) is less materials intensive. Additionally, delivery of purchased items in fully loaded semi trailers is much more efficient than driving to a store with an otherwise empty personal vehicle." So Pablo is leaning more towards online purchasing but also for him it's still not a clear cut.

Our conclusion? it looks like in general buying online is making more sense in terms of the purchase's footprint, especially if the alternative is driving by yourself for a relatively faraway store. But buying local is also important and therefore our advice would be to check local bookstores for books, see what they have to offer on their websites, compare prices and then make your decision.

This process might take a little bit longer but it will give you a much better chance to make the decision you will be the best fit for you and what you believe in.

And what about the sales of e-Books this year?? about that we'll talk tomorrow..

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Happy Holidays (and an advice on what to do with your holiday cards)

It's the festive season now and we would like to wish you all happy, peaceful, enjoyable and of course green holidays!

It's also an opportunity to remind you that if you look for tips and ideas how to green your holidays, you should check the great website of our friends Lynn and Corey of Celebrate Green! - http://www.celebrategreen.net/

And if you're one of those who already got many holiday cards (you've got a lot of friends..) and don't really know what to do with them other than just throwing them to the recycled paper bin, here's a video that might be helpful, especially if you're looking for something creative to do with your children (source: Do The Green Thing):



Best wishes,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!