Sunday Times Best Green Companies Awards

The Sunday Times announced on a new green biz competition: The Sunday Times Best Green Companies 2008.

Actually it's a celebration of greenness no less than it is a competition, as the newspaper explains: "We are seeking entries for the inaugural Sunday Times Best Green Companies Awards – a project designed to encourage, acknowledge and publicise businesses and other organisations, which are striving to improve their environmental performance."

The Sunday Times works together with the leading environmental consultancy Bureau Veritas and data analysts Munro Global in this competition. They developed measures of environmental performance that will be incorporated in a two-part assessment: company survey (70% of the score) and employee survey (30% of the score).

There are five competitions within the overall contest in accordance that vary by size and environmental impact - from large companies of more than 5,000 employees and mid-sized companies of 250-4,999 employees, operating in high environmental impact sectors to Small companies operating in low impact sectors.

The winners will earn not only the prestige of best green companies, but also will be profiled in a dedicated Sunday Times supplement, which will be distributed with 1.3m copies of the paper in the spring next year, and their achievement will also be marked at an awards event.

This is very exciting news to all the green companies out there that fit into one of the 5 categories of the competition (unfortunately, Eco-Libris is too small for this competition..). Anyone can nominate a company, whether she or he works in this company or not. Just take into consideration that there are some costs involved (500 GBP to 1500 GBP in accordance with the company's size).

Entries are invited NOW. Registration will remain open until February 29. Further information can be found on the Sunday Times Best Green Companies 2008 page.

Good luck to all the green nominees!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Eco-Libris is available in two more bookstores

I am happy to announce on two new bookstores that will be offering their customers to balance out books they buy with Eco-Libris at the store: The Muse Book Shop in DeLand, FL (see photo on the left) and Sources of Hope Gifts & Books in Dallas, Texas.

These bookstores join seven other bookstores, where you can already find our stickers and balance out the books you buy on spot, which will result in one new tree planted for every book you buy. The list of bookstores include (by states):

California
East West Bookstore - 324 Castro Street, Mountain View, CA 94041 http://www.eastwest.com

San Francisco State University Bookstore -1650 Holloway Ave. San Francisco, CA 94132 http://www.sfsubookstore.com

Willow Glen Books - 1330 Lincoln Ave. San Jose, CA 95125 http://www.willowglenbooks.com/

Borderland Books - 866 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 http://www.borderlands-books.com/

New York
Mary Jane Books - 215 Western Ave. Albany, NY 12203 http://www.maryjanebooks.com

North Carolina
Black Bear Books - 2146 Blowing Rock Rd. Boone, NC 28607 http://www.blackbearbooks.com

Florida
Stetson University Bookstore - 421 N. Woodland Blvd., Unit 8259 DeLand, FL 32723 http://bookstore.stetson.edu

The Muse Book Shop -112 S. Woodland Blvd. DeLand, FL 32720 http://www.themusebookshop.com

Texas
Sources of Hope Gifts & Books -5910 Cedar Springs Road Dallas, Texas 75235 http://www.sourcesofhope.com

You can find more details on the bookstores at our bookstores page. If you're a bookstore owner and you want to get more details on collaborating with Eco-Libris, please email us at: bd [AT] ecolibris [dot] net

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

RecycleBank video in Davos

RecycleBank is one of the greatest green companies I know. Now it is not only known to the cities where it operates, but also to the people who attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland last week.

The Environmental Leader reported today that Coca-Cola, which invested 2 million dollars in RecycleBank, shared this video with the attendees of the World Economic Forum.



I was very happy to see that RecycleBank's brilliant recycling program, which I mentioned here few months ago, is brought to the attention of the economic and political world leaders who attend the forum in Davos. I was even happier to see that the example presented in the video for RecycleBank's work is from Wilmington, Delaware, which is only 20 minutes from where I live (Newark, DE).

I really hope that this video will help to spread the word on RecycleBank and bring their program to many more cities (including Newark hopefully) in the US and all around the globe.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

How about slow reading?

Today I read an excellent article in the New York Times about the slow movement ('The Slow Life Picks Up Speed').

Penelope Green described in the article the growth and development of the movement. If you thought that slow refers only to slow food, think again - now you can find slow design, slow cities, slow travel and much more. And it also goes online - in mid-march, according to the article, a new website - www.slowplanet.com will go online and it aims to be a hub for all thing slow.

Geir Berthelsen, who is the founder of the World Institute of Slowness, a Norwegian advocacy group, and who is behind the new website, said in the article: " The time is now ripe for trying to formalize this slow revolution". It got me thinking - is there also a slow reading?

But what can be defined as a slow reading? so here are few ideas that I thought about:

1. There's the literal translation of actually reading slower. In Wikipedia it says that "slow reading refers to practices that deliberately reduce the rate of reading to increase comprehension or pleasure. The concept appears to have originated in the study of philosophy and literature as a technique to more fully comprehend and appreciate a complex text."

2. The slow movement also has a strong theme of locality, so slow reading can be translated into supporting local independent bookstores, local writers and even your local library. Last November I mentioned Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, which is definitely an example of slow reading in terms of locality.

3. The slow movement is also endorsing alternatives to mass production and therefore I thought that print on demand (POD) can be considered as slow reading. It also goes well with the greenness of printing on demand.

These are only few rough ideas I had and I'll be happy to hear from you what is your definition of slow reading. Feel free to drop a comment and share thoughts with us.

For more information on the slow movement you can check www.inpraiseofslow.com, the blog of Carl Honore, the author of the great book "In Praise of Slow: Challenging the Cult of Speed".

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

A new movie on Wangari Maathai in a DC Environmenal Film Festival

If you like green films, you should check out the Environmental Film Festival that will take place in Washington D.C. ON March 11-22.

This is the 16th Annual Festival and it will include 100 documentary, featured, archival, experimental and children's green films. Screenings will include discussion with filmmakers and sincentists and are FREE. You can check the list of movies at the festival website - http://www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org/.

One of the highlights of the festival will be the new film 'Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai'. The film, produced and directed by Lisa Merton and Alan Dater, is about Wangari Maathai and the grassroots movement she founded, the Green Belt Movement of Kenya.

Here's a description of the film from its website: TAKING ROOT travels inside the world of one of today's most respected and inspired human rights and environmental activists, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. Maathai's groundbreaking work began in the 1970s in her native Kenya, where in opposition to an entrenched dictatorship, she nevertheless mobilized over one million Kenyans to take action against the destruction of their lands and the silencing of their voices.

Now in its third decade, Maathai's Green Belt Movement has helped transform Kenya's physical, cultural and political landscape through its advocacy for sustainable development.

Through Maathai's rich, tumultuous and uplifting life, TAKING ROOT will show how her work addresses this seminal and most urgent question of our time - how do we preserve our environment, while also meeting people's needs?

Maathai's deep understanding of the linkage between culture, conservation of biodiversity and a sense of individual dignity have been and continue to be paramount in her success as a visionary leader in Africa, and as an example to the rest of the world.

Wangari Maathai is one of my heroes and I am very excited to hear about this new film and I look forward to seeing it. Here are the details of the screening:

When: March 15, 2008 3:00PM

Where: Grosvenor AuditoriumNational Geographic Society, 1600 M Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20036 (phone: 202 857 7700)

Tickets: $15 (for National Geographic memebers it's $13). You can order tickets here.

After-film discussion: This screening will be followed by a discussion with filmmakers Lisa Merton and Alan Dater, and Chris Tuite, director of the Green Belt Movement's Washington office.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Interviewed by Daz Chandler on Radio 2SER

Last Monday (January 21) I had the pleasure to be interviewed by Daz Chandler (that's her on the left side) on her radio show 'Monday Overdrive'.

This program is broadcast on Radio 2SER (http://www.2ser.com/) 107.3FM, a local radio sation in Sydney, Australia.

For those of you who didn't have the chance to hear it, here it is:



Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Monday's green book: The Green Marketing Manifesto

Today on our Monday's green book series we're talking about green marketing. Our book for today is:

The Green Marketing Manifesto

Author: John Grant

John Grant co-founded St Luke’s the innovative and socially aware London ad agency. Working with clients such as the Body Shop as well as mainstream brands, St Luke’s pioneered the view of a company’s “Total Role in Society” and operated as an employee shareholder democracy. Since leaving in 1999 he has worked as an independent consultant.

John’s previous books which all deal with ‘what’s new?’ have earned widespread praise, popularity and critical acclaim, and include 'The New Marketing Manifesto' (1999), 'After Image' (2002) and 'Brand Innovation Manifesto' (2006). John is also a prolific blogger and writer of articles and reports. His current thoughts on green marketing can be found at http://greenormal.blogspot.com/ and he is also the official blogger for the Green Awards.

Publisher: Wiley

Published in: November 2007 (Hardcover)

What it is about: According to the book description, the Green Marketing Manifesto provides a roadmap on how to organize green marketing effectively and sustainably. It offers a fresh start for green marketing, one that provides a practical and ingenious approach.

The book offers many examples from companies and brands who are making headway in this difficult arena, such as Marks & Spencer, Sky, Virgin, Toyota, Tesco, O2 to give an indication of the potential of this route.

John Grant creates a ‘Green Matrix’ as a tool for examining current practice and the practice that the future needs to embrace.

In an interview to psfk.com, he explained where it all started: "I wrote the book (originally it started as a paper for a potential client project) to try to make sense of the torrent of recent green marketing initiatives. I wanted to sift out what was greenwash and what had substance – and also try to get to what was actually working, and why; and to map out the terrain a bit."

This book is intended to assist marketers, by means of clear and practical guidance, through a complex transition towards meaningful green marketing.

Why you should get it:
1. Marketing is not everything, but it is critical for the success of every green product or service.

2. The book is eco-friendly - printed on FSC certified paper and using vegetable-based ink. It's also written on its cover: Please don't put this book in a plastic shopping bag. It may sounds obvious, but it's the first book where I see such a text on the cover.

3. I like the way Grant defined it in another interview as a book "about a sustainable economy and making green normal as opposed to ‘green-washing’, which is making normal look green. "

What others say on the book: "brilliant book...that will forever change the way you look at green marketing." (psfk.com, Nov 27, 2007)

"outlines how environmentalism increasingly informs business strategy" (Reuters, Nov 29, 2007)

"...the book casts new insight into green marketing" (naturalchoice.co.uk, Tuesday 18th December 2007)

If you want to get to know better the author, John Grant, and what he has to say on green marketing, you can check his interesting blog, greenormal. Here are also few bits of him talking on the book launch in London (Nov 2007):



Enjoy the book, and if you're looking for the full list of green books reviewed and presented on our blog, check out our green books page.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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