Upset about the death of the climate bill? Now it's the time to make sustainable choices!

Now when the climate bill is officially dead, this video,which is from 2008 and talks about our responsibility as producers and consumers to make sustainable choices when it comes to paper, is relevant than ever.

It's sad that Washington can't find the political will to incentivize sustainable choices and push the economy to the right direction, but it doesn't mean that we can't do anything in the meantime. This video reminds us of our options when it comes to paper and the consequences of continuing the business as usual status quo.

This video is from the excellent resource The Secret Life of Paper - A Project of Inform, Inc.

How is paper production related to forest destruction and global warming? Why is recycling and buying recycled paper important?




Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Audiobook of the month: Every Last One by Anna Quindlen (and a giveaway!)

Today we start a new series of recommendations on audiobooks. Each month we'll share with you an audiobook we loved to listen to.

Why? We have a special interest in audiobooks as we believe they represent one of the options to read books sustainably, especially when you download them - an option that represents right now about 21% of all sales (the rest are CDs). Therefore we would like to encourage you to take this option into consideration when you're thinking about your next literary purchase!

Our audiobook for this month is:

Every Last One

Author: Anna Quindlen
ANNA QUINDLEN is the author of several bestselling novels (Rise and Shine, Blessings, Object Lessons, One True Thing, Black and Blue), and nonfiction books (Good Dog. Stay., Being Perfect, Loud & Clear, A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Living Out Loud, Thinking Out Loud, How Reading Changed My Life). She has also written two children's books (The Tree That Came to Stay, Happily Ever After). Her New York Times column "Public and Private" won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. Her column now appears every other week in Newsweek.

Read by: Hope Davis

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Published on: April 2010

What this book is about?
The latest novel from Pulitzer Prize-winner Anna Quindlen

In this breathtaking and beautiful novel, the #1 New York Times bestselling author Anna Quindlen creates an unforgettable portrait of a mother, a father, a family, and the explosive, violent consequences of what seem like inconsequential actions.

Mary Beth Latham has built her life around her family, around caring for her three teenage children and preserving the rituals of their daily life. When one of her sons becomes depressed, Mary Beth focuses on him, only to be blindsided by a shocking act of violence. What happens afterwards is a testament to the power of a woman's love and determination, and to the invisible lines of hope and healing that connect one human being with another. Ultimately, as rendered in Anna Quindlen's mesmerizing prose, Every Last One is a novel about facing every last one of the things we fear most, about finding ways to navigate a road we never intended to travel, and about living a life we never dreamed we'd have to live, but find ourselves brave enough to try.

What we think about it?
I certainly agree with the description of "Every Last One" as a"breathtaking and beautiful novel". I listened to it while driving and I can tell you this audiobook got me to drive more slowly on my way home just because I couldn't stop listening to it. I hope the other drivers (and my wife) could forgive me..

Nevertheless, it's not an easy story to listen to. I don't want to get too much into it, not to ruin it to those of you who haven't listened to it yet, but I can say it gets you very emotional. And this is again the place to remind the great advantage of an audiobook - when it's narrated well, it generates another dimension to the story and it gets to you in a way that a physical book, or even an e-book just never does. And the reader of "Every Last One", the wonderful Hope Davis, is doing a great job, so this added value can definitely found here.

The story as the description mentions is about facing every last one of the things we fear most, and I know not everyone might not feel comfortable to deal with fears. At least I know I don't. But even so I felt this journey with the Latham family was worthwhile and I was happy I took it.

Bottom Line: Recommended! Don't forget to put some tissue in your glove compartment!

Disclosure: We received a copy of this book from the publisher.

You can listen here to the author, Anna Quindlen, talking about the audiobook:

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!

We're giving away one copy of this audiobook, courtesy of the publisher.

How you can win? Very simple. All you have to do is to retweet this post with the hashtag #everylastone. We will have a raffle on Thursday, July 29, 5:00PM EST between all the readers that retweeted this post. The winner will be announced the following day.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

When will Amazon start being more transparent about the Kindle and their ebook sales?

Amazon announced yesterday that for the last three months, sales of books for its e-reader, the Kindle, outnumbered sales of hardcover books.

Amazon's release didn't provide a clear picture on their e-book and Kindle sales, but nevertheless created of course a lot of buzz and there was almost no media outlet that didn't report about it.

BUT, is the information Amazon released really significant and why can't they just be fully transparent once and for all??

First, the significance of the information: Amazon said that in the past three months, it has sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books. In July, sales of e-books accelerated to 180 sold for every 100 hardcover versions. Also, Amazon said Kindle device sales accelerated each month in the second quarter—both on a sequential month-over-month basis and on a year-over-year basis.

Jeff Bezos tried of course to build a positive momentum from these figures, saying in a statement that the shift at Amazon is “astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months". According to the Wall Street Journal, he also said that "the growth rate of Kindle device sales had "reached a tipping point," having tripled since the company lowered its price to $189 from $259 last month, following a similar move by competitor Barnes & Noble Inc. to cut the price on its Nook e-reader."

Some analysts also got excited from this data. The WSJ quoted Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney who said "That is dramatic evidence of how powerful the e-book is now. What the iPad and other book reading devices have done is just raise the overall e-book market—and Amazon is extremely well positioned to take advantage of it." The New York Times quoted Youssef H. Squali, managing director at Jefferies & Company in charge of Internet and new media research, who said that "Amazon’s latest sales figures are “clearly an indication that the iPad is complementary to the Kindle, not a replacement.""

But what these figures really mean? Is the e-book market growing? Definitely. Is the whole book market growing or people are just buying e-books instead of hardcovers? It's not clear, although Amazon said its hardcover sales continued to grow. And What about paperbacks? Nada. Amazon says nothing about this segment.

So even though this information is another clear indicator of the e-book market growth, is it really a "tipping point" as Bezos calls it, or a " dramatic evidence of how powerful the e-book is now" as Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney describes it? I'm not so sure. As the WSJ pointed out it, Amazon still attracts an online audience that is more inclined to be early adopters of new reading technology. This is still not the mainstream. And it certainly goes hand in hand with the forecast of Gina Centrello, President and Publisher of The Random House Publishing Group that eBooks which represented 3% of the market will increase this year to about 10%. Impressive? Yes. e-Revolution? Not yet..

We have to remember that Amazon wants to paint a picture of accelerating growth in sales of e-books, which should serve it to outweigh a negative sentiment because of the iPad launch and concern that Amazon would lose market share to the iPad and other competitors. You could see it, as the NYT reports, on Amazon’s stock price that is down about 16% in the last three months, in part because of those fears.

It was very clear that Amazon is not presenting the whole picture, but only bits of information that can help generating the right sentiment. For some reason, there wasn't almost any criticism about it on the media. Only few media outlets and bloggers such as David Rothman on TeleRead wrote about it (at least that's what I managed to see online..).

That brings me to the second question - why Amazon is not more transparent? Rothman on TeleRead titled his post "Amazon needs to reveal actual Kindle unit sales numbers and stop misleading investors." No matter if you agree or disagree if Amazon is misleading its investors or not, I'm sure you'll agree that their practice of revealing only few pieces of the puzzle is certainly annoying. For example, although Amazon is a public company and sell the Kindle since 2007, the company has never said how many Kindle devices or e-books it has sold (

And it doesn't stop there. As we mentioned here in the past, the company does not make environmental data available. Amazon also ignored requests for providing such information. Here are two examples:

- When Joe Hutsko of the New York Times tried to learn more about the Kindle, he reported that “phone calls and e-mail messages to Amazon inquiring about the materials in the popular Kindle device have thus far gone unanswered.”

- Emma Ritch of Cleantech Group who wrote the report “The Environmental Impact of Amazon's Kindle” wrote that “Amazon declined to provide information about its manufacturing process or carbon footprint.”

I believe that transparency is not just something Amazon owe to its investors and stakeholders, but also a powerful tool that can actually become beneficial for Amazon. I totally agree here with Jeffrey Hollender, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Seventh Generation, who wrote on GreenBiz the following:

Information technologies now let the public keep an eye on everything we do, and we invite this scrutiny. Publicly sharing all our activities preempts our critics, and more eyes on our behavior means more advocates and friends. Radical transparency also creates new partnerships and in this way becomes the first step towards overcoming the deficiencies that ultimately harm our profitability.

Will Amazon do it? I think eventually they won't have a choice, especially when competing with companies like Apple and Google that take a different approach towards information sharing and transparency. How much time? well, it depends on Amazon and even more on their stakeholders and the pressure they're willing to put on the company.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

A new collection of poetry and prose of author Janice Winokur is going green with Eco-Libris!

We're happy to announce on a new collaboration with author and educator Janice Winokur on her first collection of poetry and prose, In the Light of an Alabama Rain: A Meditation. One tree will be planted with Eco-Libris for each copy of this book!

Here's more about In the Light of an Alabama Rain: A Meditation:

Containing a rich tapestry of insights and reflections, this highly readable collection of vignettes is both memoir and spiritual exploration.

The pieces in this book are drawn from Winokur’s journal, recorded in Alabama during the late 1980s. As the author was getting ready to discard some old papers recently, she began to read through her journal. According to Winokur, “I was surprised to find that a number of entries still felt true, even with the passage of years, and that together they seemed to compose a meditation.”

She assembled these entries and they became In the Light of an Alabama Rain: A Meditation. Readers who look for inspiration in stories and words will be lifted up by the glimpses of light discovered here in the smallest, and sometimes the darkest moments of life. A childhood memory, a parent’s decline, the absence of a loved one, and many other experiences, are probed by Winokur for their sparks of illumination.

Read from beginning to end, the book is a single, Spirit-filled love poem that embraces all of life, both the mundane and the profound.

The book retails for $12.95 and can be purchased at area bookstores. Orders can also be placed by contacting Simple Harvest Publications at:

PO Box 284
Grantham, NH 03753
E-mail: simpleharvest@comcast.net.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

The green book of the week: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping (including a giveaway!)

Today we have a book about one of the most hottest trends that is buzzing around!

Our book is:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping

Author: Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer

Publisher: Alpha

Published on: May 2010

What this book is about?
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping has all the information a beginA-ning beekeeper needs to know to start a hive and keep it buzzing. Expert beekeepers Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer, owners of Golden Rule Honey, take readers step by step through the entire process-from information on the inhabitants of a hive and how it works to collecting bees, keeping them healthy, raising a queen, harvesting honey and wax, and storA-ing hives for the off- season.

What we think about it?

The popularity of beekeeping keeps growing. The Telegraph reported last month, for example, that "A new trend among the middle classes for keeping bees has doubled the number of hives over the last two years". According to the British British Beekeepers Association (BBKA), the increase had partly been driven by concern for the environment and the recent fashion for grow-your-own food.

And it's on the other side of the ocean as well. Epoch Times reported on May about "Landmarks across North America becoming hives of activity", mentioning that "beekeeping became legal in New York City in March, much to the delight of the hundreds of residents who had been keeping bees in violation of the city’s health code. San Francisco has an abundance of apiaries, mostly on condo and apartment rooftops. The South Lawn of the White House boasts an apiary, as do Chicago’s City Hall, the Paris Opera House, and London’s upscale food emporium Fortnum & Mason."

And the benefits of making your urban surroundings buzzing? Adam Aston who documents his experiences and observations as a novice beekeeper in the urban jungle at Bees NYC explains: "The benefits of urban beekeeping are substantial. Despite the conventional view of the city as a slough of pollution, urban honey is likely to have significantly less chemical residue than commercial honey made beyond the boroughs...Local honey will benefit the health of the planet as well: minor transportation costs, no-fuss manufacturing (courtesy of the bees), minimal processing, simple recyclable packaging and centralized retailing provide a model of effective, low-carbon production and distribution."

So as you can see 'The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping' was released in a perfect timing. The buzz is already here and many people wants to learn more about beekeeping, or at least better understand if they can or should get into it. Well, this book is definitely a good place to get some replies.

As always with this series, this book covers all the basics - information on bees, essential gear, where to get your bees, what they eat, how to inspect your hive and even what they call 'Bee Sex 101' (Did you know that when a drone mates with a queen his sexual organ explodes and he dies??). And as with many other books in the series, this book provides you enough information you need to establish knowledge about the subject, so if you're becoming serious about it, you can go to stage two - going to experts and asking questions.

But let's go back for a second to stage 1 - the basics. Keep in mind that beekeeping is more complicated than learning how to grow tomatoes in your back yard, but at the same time, it's not rocket science. Still, there's a lot to learn - as the authors write in the introduction to the book: "No matter the accumulated knowledge, no matter the sophistication of the tools, every answers we get yields countless questions. The closer we look, the deeper we go, and it never seems to end. This is the nature of the honeybee."

The book definitely makes an attempt to address all the challenges involved with beekeeping, and full with useful information, easy to navigate and full with interesting facts that makes it more than just a practical guide. It's not National Geographic on bees, but still I found myself learning a lot. Here's for example one practical advice I hope I won't have to use: "For normal pain an itching from bee stings, try applying a poultice of plantain leaf... A common "home remedy" is a paste of baking soda and water."

Bottom Line: If you're considering to join the buzz, but don't really know too much about bees, this is the book for you.

Disclosure: We received a copy of this book from the publisher.

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!

We're giving away our review copy of this book, courtesy of the publisher.

How you can win? Very simple. All you have to do is to add a comment with an answer to the following question: Would you consider beekeeping? We will have a raffle on Saturday, July 24, 5:00PM EST between all the readers that will add their reply. The winner will be announced the following day.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Is going green really worthwhile for authors?

The post this week on James Kaela, who is going to ride his bike for 1900 miles in 40 days to promote his new zero emissions book reminded me of the last piece missing in our series on the green future of the book industry - the one about authors.

Yes, just like publishers and bookstores, we believe authors can be a significant force in moving the book industry ahead toward a sustainable future. Just think about J.K. Rowling and the role she had in making Harry Potter so green (including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which was called the greenest book in publishing history).

It's true of course that not every author has the power J.K. Rowling had (she for example blocked the Finnish version of Harry Potter no. 7 from being printed on local paper because it lacks the ecological FSC certification), but on the other hand it doesn't mean that authors are powerless unless they're best-sellers. Authors can make a difference, whether they're called Margaret Atwood or James Kaela.

But the (maybe) more interesting question is whether green choices are better for authors? When we talked about the future of publishers and bookstores, we made an argument that making greener choices in their cases is not just great for the environment, but also has a strong business case. Is this the case with authors?

We believe that although such a move won't necessarily generate benefits to authors in all cases, there's still enough evidence to support the assumption that going green is worthwhile to authors. Here are couple of examples:

1. Greener choices receive positive media mentions, which help to spread the word about the book and promote it. The book tours of Margaret Atwood and James Kaela are good examples.

2. Making sure your book is printed on recycled paper or FSC-certified paper can get the author a warm endorsement from NGOs, like in the case of RAN that published a list of 25 children’s books that are “rainforest-safe.” All books on the list are printed on post-consumer recycled, FSC certified or recycled paper, allowing parents the assurance of knowing that their childrens’ books are not contributing to the loss of Indonesia’s or other endangered rainforests.

3. Print On Demand (POD) not only reduces waste and books' footprint, but also gives authors (and publishers) a way to save money. Though not suitable for every author, in a future, where Smashwords's Mark Coker estimate that "most authors will be indie authors", this is certainly a win-win solution for many of them.

4. Creative green ideas can generate more sales - Even just using the Internet and social media networks for marketing instead of more traditional off-line marketing channels with greater carbon footprint is a win-win solution, generating usually better ROI and reduced environmental impacts.

5. Diversifying to other forms of publishing such as e-books might prove itself as another way of generating sales while reducing the book's footprint. Of course, as we say every time, we don't know yet how green e-readers really are, but from what we do know, we can definitely assume that they will come a more solid green alternative in the near future.

Given the relatively easy and cheap process of creating an e-book, it should be a good way for authors to go green while generating more sales from the growing numbers of readers who like to read their books on screens instead of paper. These are just couple of examples. We're sure that there are plenty more. In all, we believe that the future of authors is no different from the future of the book industry, meaning that they go through the same trends.

These trends no matter how you look at them are either already green (POD, online marketing) or will be in green in the near future (e-books). What I like about these trends is that you don't necessarily have to be green to utilize them, but no matter what is your reason, both you and the environment will benefit. We do believe nevertheless that authors that will also know how to position themselves as "green" authors will even benefit more. What do you think? We'll be happy to hear your thoughts!

Here are the articles we published so far in our series on the green future of the book industry:

Why should the book industry go green?

Can publishers build an effective green brand?

Is there a future for Barnes & Noble and Borders? Is it a green one?

Can monetary incentives + local benefits generate a brighter future for independent bookstores?

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Read more about JK Rowling wants Green Paper for Harry Potter by CreativeCloud from the UK's leading supplier of printer cartridges

Read more about JK Rowling wants Green Paper for Harry Potter by CreativeCloud from the UK's leading supplier of printer cartridges

GPI will have a webcast this Friday on the Latest on the challenges and opportunities of printing in Asia

Last month we wrote here about a report published by Rainforest Network Action (RAN) which connects children's books to the destruction of endangered rainforests in Indonesia. We also work now on an interview with Ian Lifshitz, Sustainability & Public Outreach Manager at Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), which is at the center of the report.

The challenges (as well of opportunities) of printing in Asia are also the topic of an upcoming webcast organized by our friends at the Green Press Initiative. The webcast will take place this Friday, July 16, 2010 at 11:30 AM (ET). Registration is free, but you need to register online until July 15 to attend it. You can do it at http://greenpressinitiative.eventbrite.com/

It is expected to be a very interesting webcast, so we recommend everyone who wants to learn more about these issues to join. Here are more details on the webcast:

Manufacturing books in Asia has risks and rewards. Aside from ensuring compliance with the Lacey Act, socially responsible publishers need to take new steps to ensure that they are not impacting communities or the world’s most biodiverse and Endangered Forests. This webcast will attempt to update you on the realities of sourcing from Asia and provide perspectives on your options and related tools. Panelists will address the connections to Indonesia and present success models and clear steps for minimizing risk and utilizing your market leverage for positive benefit.

Panel Details:

Linda Kramme, Global Forest & Trade Network - North America, World Wildlife Fund
Linda will discuss the biodiversity and climate impacts that illegal and unsustainable logging in Indonesia is having on the country's shrinking forest and wildlife resources. She will also share some tools that WWF has developed to help paper purchasers "green" their supply chains and reduce impacts.

Lafcadio Cortesi, Rainforest Action Network
Lafcadio will discuss the impacts that logging in Indonesia has on local communities. He will also discuss Rainforest Action Network’s campaign to encourage children’s book publishers to stop sourcing fiber from Indonesia and recent tests which indicate that much of the fiber in books printed in Asia is sourced from Indonesia.

Shona Burns, VP Production, Chronicle Books
Shona will discuss Chronicle’s efforts to print books in Asia while ensuring that paper is made from fiber that is responsibly sourced.

Kurt Andrews, Production Director, Melcher Media
Kurt will discuss the success Melcher Media has had reducing the portion of books that are printed in Asia and increasing domestic production while at the same time maintaining margins.

Todd Pollak, Program Manager, Green Press Initiative
Todd will moderate the panel, and will also introduce a newly developed tool from Green Press Initiative which identifies overseas paper suppliers that are at low risk for Lacey Act violations or impacting endangered forests or local communities.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading