Another innovative green idea from an Israeli entrepreneur

John Markoff reports today at the New York Times on Shai Agassi and his revolutionary plans to "reinvent the world’s automobile industry around battery-powered all-electric cars".

Agassi is a very successful serial Israeli entrepreneur. In 1992, he founded in Israel TopTier software, a leading enterprise portal vendor that was acquired by SAP in April 2001. Then Agassi became a member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, where he also served as the President of Products and Technology Group. Currently he's devoted to alternative energy and in the article today I learned about his new innovative idea - Project Better Place.

The new company will install and operate an electric recharge grid consisting of charging spots and battery exchange stations worldwide. Agassi believes in the electrical car in all of its sorts as the environmental solution for transportation and thinks that "existing technology, coupled with the right business model and a scaleable infrastructure can provide an immediate solution and significantly decrease carbon emissions."

To simplify the idea, he gives the following example - "We’re basically saying this is just like the cellular phone model. If you think of Tesla as the iPhone, we’re AT&T."

Earlier today Agassi announced in New York City that he has raised $200 million from private venture partners for this project, including the Israel Corporation, Vantage Point Venture Partners, as well as a group of private investors including Edgar Bronfman Sr., the and James D. Wolfensohn, former head of the World Bank.

I started following Agassi and his entrepreneurial achievements at the late 1990s, when I was working as an assistant to a financial manager in an accounting firm that managed R&D funds for a project that TopTier was involved with.

I think Agassi is one of the most talented entrepreneurs out there, and therefore I was very happy to read this morning on his new project. When so much of our green future is depended on innovation, we need more people like Aggasi who will help us move forward as fast as possible toward sustainable future.

If you want to learn more on Project Better Place, please check their launch webcast from today. Agassi also has a great blog - The long tailpipe.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: A Great Green Gift for the Holidays!

Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter - Holiday green gift guide for book lovers: part 2

Last week I started the weekly Holiday green gift guide for book lovers - the guide that will help you find the best green books to give as gifts this holiday season.

Today I am very excited to bring you the second part of the guide, which includes the recommendation of Nick Aster.

For those of you who don't know him, Nick Aster is the founder of Triple Pundit and media architect behind TreeHugger.com. He currently works for a major print and online magazine and occasionally blogs at Triple Pundit.

Nick's recommendation for this holiday's gift is:

Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter

Author: Lloyd Kahn

Publisher: Shelter Publications

Originally published in: 2004

What it is about: Building on the enormous success of his book 'Shelter', Lloyd Kahn continues his odyssey of finding and exploring the most magnificent and unusual hand-built houses in existence. Page after page, the book describes homes built from the soul, inventiveness free from social constraint, but created with a solid understanding of natural materials, structure, and aesthetics.

From yurts to caves to tree houses to tents, thatched houses, glass houses, nomadic homes, riverboats and more, each hand built dwelling finds itself at one with its environment, blending harmoniously with the earth, using organically sustainable material.

'Home Work' is featuring over a thousand photos, including three hundred line drawings, stories of real people building and living in their own houses, plus Kahn's recollections, reminiscences and observations gathered over the 30 years since his previous book, 'Shelter', was first published.

Why it's a great gift: Inspired guide to hand build homes and shelters. Everything from Strawbale to Yurts. I've spent hours paging through this book and fantasizing about what to do with the imaginary land I'd someday buy. A perfect book to put on display for guests.

I looked at the book at Google Book Search and it looks like a great book. Thank you Nick!

If you choose to give your friends or family this book as a present on the holidays, you are more than welcome to balance it out with Eco-Libris, add its sticker to the book and make it the perfect green gift for the holidays.

And just a reminder on past recommendations on our series:
Part 1 - The Man who Planted Trees by Jean Giono

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: a great green gift for the holidays!

Reader's Recommendation: Gaia Girls by Lee Welles

One of our myspace friends sent us the following book recommendation:

"Need a great holiday gift? I am a retired teacher, and the award-winning Gaia Girls series by Lee Welles are the best kids books I have seen in years. Kid eco-heroes! Each book deals with a several related real-world environmental issues, has accurate science, great illustrations, wonderful storylines and even hidden codes. Despite the title, boys enjoy it as well. Middle readers, 7 - 12, tho "green" teens and adults love them, too." - Silverfox

So Thanks Silverfox, and thanks Gaia Girls! Now as an avid Power Puff Girls fan I can't help but await the animated series ;-)

Eylon @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant a Tree for Every Book you Read

MySpace and HarperCollins collaborate to publish a green handbook

BostonHerald.com reported on Wednesday that MySpace is collaborating with a children’s imprint of HarperCollins on an environmental handbook coming out April 22, Earth Day.

The idea behind the book is that it will feature ideas from MySpace users, who through Nov. 7 can post environmental tips on http://www.myspace.com/ourplanet. According to Brenda Bowen, vice president and publisher of the Bowen Press, a HarperCollins imprint, about 40 such suggestions, their length ranging from a sentence to a paragraph, will be woven throughout the text.

What to MySpace and environmental issues? Tom Anderson, co-founder and president of MySpace said in a statement "MySpace has entire online communities, such as the Impact Channel and OurPlanet, dedicated solely to environmental and social causes. The first MySpace book is just one more way we are working to engage the MySpace community in environmental issues and encourage people to take action."

The book, "MySpace/Our Planet" will be about 160 pages and will cost about $12.95, and a first printing of 200,000 copies is planned.

I am wondering if MySpace and HarperCollins will take one step forward and print the copies on recycled paper, or balance them out. I believe that every book on environmental issues, especially green guides, should walk the talk and shouldn't have adverse environmental impacts.

Let's see how this one goes..

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Everyday with Rachael Ray goes green

Our focus is on books, but we shouldn't forget that there are other publications that consume virgin paper such as magazines and newspapers. Therefore I was very happy to read on the Environmental Leader (brought from Folio Magazine) that Everyday with Rachael Ray has announced that the magazine will be printed on 85 percent recycled paper.

According to report, Ray wrote in the editor’s note of the magazine's November issue that "Starting this month, we’re printing our magazine on recycled paper and saving 11,500 trees with every issue—that’s 115,000 trees a year!”

According to 'Everyday with Rachael Ray', the chlorine free recycled paper is 10 percent post-consumer waste and 85 percent post-printing waste, according to the magazine.

Kudos to Rachael Ray and her magazine for the bold move! We hope to see many publications following Ray's steps.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Tonight is the second part of Planet in Peril

'Planet in Peril' is CNN's four-hour documentary that examines global environmental issues. The first part was on CNN last night and the second part will be broadcast tonight at 9PM ET.

This documentary looks at four key issues: climate change, vanishing habitats, disappearing species and human population growth. To tell this story, Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin traveled to some of the most remote and remarkable places on Earth.

I saw the first part yesterday and I enjoyed it, as much as you can enjoy a documentary on these troubling issues.. Yet, this is a good opportunity to see these issues and not just to read about them. Also, they try to discuss these issues from more unique angles, to make them more interesting for the viewers, and I think they do it well.

For more information on Planet in Peril, please check CNN's website.

You can also get an idea about Planet in Peril from this trailer:



Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Joe Wikert and the future of the publishing industry

I haven't recommended for a while on a bookish website, and therefore I was happy when I learned few days ago about Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog.

For anyone who is interested in the future of the book publishing industry (and I definitely am), Joe Wikert's blog is a great place to get information and news from an insider perspective - Wilkert is a Vice President and Executive Publisher in the Professional/Trade division of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Only on this month's posts you can learn on issues such as print on demand (POD), future of textbooks, e-books, Microsoft's Live Book search program, and more.

The blog has a clear techie orientation, but even those who are not very interested in new media formats can benefit from it. Sustainable reading is about awareness, vision, leadership and economics, but also about technology.

So you're welcome to check it out. I will certainly will.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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