2007 People's Choice Award for the Green Business of the Year - introduction

You've probably heard the exciting news about Co-Op's 2007 People's Choice Award for the Green Business of the Year - last week Co-Op America announced the names of the of ten nominees for this prestigious award.

As this is the people's award, your votes are going to decide which business will win the award. The vote is open for everyone and can be made on Co-Op America's website until October 15. The announcement of the winner will be made on November 10 at the Green Festival in San Francisco.

All of the nominees are really great and choosing your favorite one is not an easy task at all. Anyway, how much do you know about these businesses, their green practices and the way they try to make a difference? That's where Eco-Libris blog comes to your help! I will start tomorrow my People's Award Nominees series, where I will try to provide you with relevant information on each one of the nominees.

In order to do that, I sent all the nominees a short questionnaire that they were asked to reply. I hope their replies will make it easier for you to compare between the nominees and decide which one is your no. 1.

Here are the nominees:

1. Flexcar
2. Greenfeet.com: The Planet's Homestore
3. Green Living Now
4. Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods and Oils
5. Mountains of the Moon
6. Only Natural Pet Store
7. Pizza Fusion
8. ReusableBags.com
9. UsedCardboardBoxes.com
10. Yoga Nine/Buddha Body Fair Trade Store

As you can see, Eco-Libris is not included in the list (well, we're only 3 months old), but maybe next year..

So stay with me for the exciting nominees series starting TOMORROW!

Raz

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

Green as a Thistle: small changes, big impact

Today I would like to recommend on a great blog - Green as a Thistle.

This is a blog of Vanessa, a journalist at the National Post, based in Toronto. She decided to challenge her self and make a small eco-friendly change every day for one year (yep, 365 small changes). Her idea is to try and keep change her lifestyle, but not in a one big radical change, but in small simple steps that all together will make a big impact.

Vanessa explains it on the blog: "I decided to take on a bit of a challenge: Spend each day, for an entire calendar year, doing one thing that betters the environment. The idea is that everything I do, I keep doing (so if I switch brands, it's a permanent switch; if I turn down my thermostat, I keep it down), so that by day 365, I'll be living as green a lifestyle as it gets. I hope, in the end, this proves that being an environmentalist doesn't necessarily have to require massive change, compromise or Greenpeace levels of dedication — it can be simple, and inspiring."

So far Vanessa completed 207 days and she brings up great ideas. Let's check what she did just last week:

Monday, Sept. 17 - committing to use towels at least 5 times before throwing them to the laundry.

Tuesday, Sept. 18 - eating only sustainable fish using information taken from SeaChoice.

Wednesday, Sept. 19 - cutting off the end of the toothpaste tube for its maximum usage.

Thursday, Sept. 20 - putting 'Do Not Disturb' sign in a hotel room to avoid unnecessary everyday replacement of semi-used toiletteries in new ones.

Friday, Sept. 21 - forgo any plastic or aerosol cans and use incense or beeswax candles, instead.

Saturday, Sept. 22 - whenever she's at a workshop, a lecture or meeting, she's going to make a point of requesting they illustrate our points using a chalkboard and not a flip chart with papers.

Sunday, Sept. 23 - watering your plants in the evening, when the sun’s not out to evaporate the water before it gets down to the roots.I find it all very impressive.

Way to go Vanessa! Eco-Libris is totally supportive of your approach. We also believe small changes can be fairly simple and make together a big impact on one's life.

So, check out Green as a Thistle and get some inspiration and new ideas from Vanessa.

Raz

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

No car today (and perhaps tomorrow?)

Today is Carfree Day, where you leave your car untouched..

It's a worldwide celebration highlighting the many problems caused by our dependence on cars, including air pollution, global warming, stress, and other issues.

According to World Carfree Network's website "Every September 22, people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighborhood blocks to remind the world that we don't have to accept our car-dominated society."

The idea of the movement is of course to challenge the concept that we cannot live without cars and encourage people to check out eco-friendly alternatives (public transpiration, walking, cycling, etc.). They also call governments to assist people who want to replace their car with greener alternatives by making these options more available and convenient.

For many people, especially those who don't live in big cities, life without a car is not an option, as there are no real other options even to get to the supermarket or a local coffee shop.

In any case, for everyone today is a good opportunity to leave the car untouched and think of the ways we can make our transpiration choices more sustainable.

To get more information about this day and what's going on today all over the world (How about having a parking meter party ?), please check out the World Carfree Network's website.

Enjoy this car free day,
Raz

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

Recycling rocks in Philly!

At first I learned about it after reading a post of Sarah Schmalbach at Philly STYLE Magazine. Then I went to GreenFest Philly and saw some of the people involved in it. And now all is left to do is to get to Philly on Saturday, Sept. 29 and climb to the roof of Whole Foods on market and 10th streets. There you'll find a unique event combining activism and party - Rock & RecycleNOW.

So what is it all about? over the past 18 months RecycleNOW Philadelphia has been collecting over 12,000 signatures, lobbying for public hearings, and making sure the next mayor of Philadelphia will implement a dependable weekly curbside recycling program for everyone in the city.

Their request is simple: expand the recycling pilot projects conducted in Chestnut Hill and West Oak Lane by RecycleBank to all of the city. RecycleBank is a private company that initiated a brilliant recycling program based on an offer people cannot refuse - receive incentives to recycle more. The program rewards resident participation by each with up to $400 a year in discount shopping coupons. You recycle more, you get more coupons.

The idea was to combine attractive incentives with simplicity and comfort - residents were given a single 35 gallon container for all recyclables: glass metal and plastic food containers and all kinds of paper including Cardboard. This way it became much easier for them to recycle (check RecycleBank's demo to see how it works).

RecyleBank created a Win-Win-Win program where everybody wins: residents (more comfort, more coupons), the city (smaller amounts of garbage save the city money) and the companies providing coupons (green promotion for them). No wonder the program is a huge success and increased the percentage of recycling according to RecycleNOW Philadelphia in as much as 125 percent. But somehow, the organization says Philadelphia's city officials remain skeptical of these results and, as it has with previous successful pilots, called for more study.

And now they need your help and support. As they write on their website "Enough is enough. The Recycling Alliance of Philadelphia here calls on you and all Philadelphians to raise our collective voices and let our elected officials know in no uncertain terms: implement and expand Recycle Bank™ recycling program immediately, every week from homes and businesses in every neighborhood across the City."

I support this call as RecycleBank's model succeeded where many other models and ideas have failed and this is the reason they have spread to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York. So, it seems only logical to expand it to the rest of Philly for the benefit of both the residents and the city.

The event will feature live performances by Philly’s best local bands: The Capitol Years, The Swimmers, The Adam Monaco Band, Adam and Dave’s Bloodline, Sarsaparilla, Tough Guys Take Over.

The event will take place between 3 to 7 pm. Tickets are $15 and available at http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/fundraiser.html

So rock and recycle, show your support and come to the party!

See you there,
Raz

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

And the Emmy goes to..

Last Sunday was the night of the Emmy awards. I didn't see it, but later on I heard that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, hosts of two of my favorite TV shows (the Daily Show and the Colbert Report), presented together the winner of , joked about green stuff, from Al Gore to carbon offsetting. So, I looked for it and found it on YouTube (is there anything that doesn't get there?).

So for all of Stewart and Colbert fans who didn't see it, here it is.

Enjoy,

Raz

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

As The Wheel of Time Turns... R.I.P.: Robert Jordan

Never been good at obituaries so I'm going to let this piece from Shelf Awareness bear the brunt of it:

"Robert Jordan, the author of the Wheel of Time fantasy series, died on Sunday of the rare blood disease amyloidosis. He was 58.

Tor publisher Tom Doherty called Jordan "one of the great storytellers of the 20th and early 21st centuries; Jim's Wheel of Time is a towering epic of power and scope, he was a man of courage and heart and vision but for me, first of all, he was my friend of 30 years."

Jordan, whose given name was James Oliver Rigney Jr., taught himself to read at age four and began reading Mark Twain and Jules Verne a year later. He was a graduate of the Citadel, where he studied physics, and was a Vietnam veteran. He started writing in 1977. He wrote the Michael Fallon historical romance trilogy under the nom de plume Reagan O'Neal and seven of the Conan novels. His Wheel of Time series, which includes 11 volumes and a prequel, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. Jordan was reportedly working on an 12th volume at the time of his death. His blog is at dragonmount.com "

I've read all 11 volumes in the series, and plan to get my hands on the prequel. I discovered Jordan while living on an island with only one ok book store, and an outrageous customs policy on importing books privately. Luckily they stocked the series, and I discovered it while browsing the shelves. Throughout the better part of 2 years I always had a Wheel of Time book somewhere in my vicinity, and I am grateful of that.

Best,
Eylon @ Eco-Libris

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

How Do you Say "Sustainable Reading" in Chinese?

Martin Daniels of The Booksellers Association brings us this story about an interesting business model coming all the way from Shanghai, which allows book readers to get their books for free by allowing sponsors to plant advertisings in the pages. Sounds familiar? No wonder, this is more or less the business model that keeps most of the content on the internet free, and many free magazines floating. Only this time we're talking printed books. Yep, it's time for China to teach us something about innovative business ideas, and BookGG may be just the first of many.

So how does this work? Martin Daniels explains:

"The consumer selects the book and then selects the sponsors with their placement on your book until the price of the book drops to zero. The book is then printed and posted.

For every free book, you need to have a book ticket, which you get once you have registered. You then earn further book tickets by referring new users or orders or buying into an account, which will issue new tickets every month.

Every advertising sponsor can only be selected by an individual once so promoting you to spread your sponsors and in effect find out about others. The sponsor receives all personal information.

Finally the books are printed on demand by Bookgg and contain your sponsors adverts."


So although I personally don't relish the idea of flipping through my new book while being annoyed by ads, I do believe that I would go for it to get a very expensive book I really want for half the price. And frankly I don't mind my purchases being sponsored, especially when I can choose the sponsor, and if sponsors are categorized for me with some conscious labels such as "fair-trade" and "organic".

But what most appeals to me from a Sustainable Reading point of view is the fact, that a successful venture like this in the west can also help popularize print-on-demand technology, which is apparently already quite popular in oh so unsustainable, or so they say, China.

So let's wait and see, shall we?

Best,
Eylon @ Eco-Libris

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