Announcing the winners of "I Can Save The Earth Sweepstakes"

We are big fans of Simon & Schuster's Little Green Books. This is a great line of eco-friendly children's books and we had the pleasure of partnering with Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing in an educational contest in celebration of the first new books in this line that were published last fall.

And now we have the WINNERS!

I Can Save The Earth Sweepstakes, asked children to tell us how you’re helping to save the environment and provided them with an opportunity to share their personal green stories and ideas. We got wonderful replies and we wish to thank all the kids who took part in the contest.

And it's not only for kids! If you look for inspiration and you want to feel a little bit more optimistic about the future, go ahead and read the letters of Lillie (age 7) of Arizona, Madison (age 7) of Connecticut, and Owen (age 6) of Florida, who are the winners of the contest. Congrats to all of you!

You can find their stories at http://www.simonlittlegreen.com/downloads/LGB_Sweepstakes_Winners_Small.pdf

The winners won a selection of Little Green Books and trees will be planted in their name with Eco-Libris.

This is also a good opportunity to update you that Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing launched last month www.SimonLittleGreen.com, their updated website devoted to our Little Green and Big Green Help titles. The site includes a family-friendly blog, interactive games, earth-friendly downloadable activities, green tips (including tips of Eco-Libris), a green glossary, a partner page and more!

Thanks again to Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing and all the kids that took part in the contest. We hope many kids and especially adults will be inspired from your enthusiasm and determination to make our world a better place.

More relevant links:

An interview with Alison Inches, the author of "I Can Save the Earth"

Review of 'Little Monkey' and 'Little Panda'

An interview with Lara Bergen, the author of 'The Polar Bears' Home'

I CAN SAVE THE EARTH! contest web page

On Eco-Libris website: http://www.ecolibris.net/littlegreenbooks.asp


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

Tell us what's your favorite monster and get a chance to win four Little Green Books!

Just one more day for our Little Green Books giveaway, so if you haven't think yet of your favorite monster, you still got time :-)

Here is a reminder of the details:

Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing are giving away one package of the 4 books published so far in the Little Green Books line: Little Panda, Little Monkey, I Can Save the Earth! and The Polar Bears' Home.

This is a great prize and firstly we thank Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing for it! How do you get a chance to win this prize? please add a comment below with an answer for the following question: what's your (or your kid's) favorite monster? don't forget to share with us the story/reason for the monster you picked..

Submissions are accepted until Sunday, February 15, 12PM EST. We will pick the comment we liked best and the winner will be announced the following day.

[You can add your comment to this post or to the original post, where you can also read the interview with Alison Inches, the author of I Can Save the Earth!]

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

Ten tips from RecycleBank on how to green your Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is almost here and everywhere you look you can find tips for the perfect gift or dish (my favorite: Mark Bittman's Chocolate Souffle) for your loved one.

We want to join the rest, but from our green point of view, and with the help of our friends at RecycleBank, that sent us great tips for greening your Valentine's Day. So here we go:

Valentine’s Day is all about flowers, chocolates and cards, but how can you spoil the special someone in your life and be eco-conscious at the same time? RecycleBank has come up with 10 tips for greening your Valentine’s Day that will help set the mood while saving the planet!

Here are RecycleBank’s 10 romantic ways to “green” your Valentine’s Day:

1. Set your morning in motion by sharing a pot of fairly traded and organically grown coffee. After all, you will want to keep the night young.

2. Since Valentine’s Day lands on Saturday, skip the power shower and enjoy a soak for two… and save water that way.

3. Get enlightened this year with his and hers, or hers and hers, or his and his (well you get the point) CFL’s. While saving tons of energy, they last up to 8 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs.

4. A rose is a rose is a rose…but is it fairly traded—and how far did it travel to get to your door? There is an abundance of organic, veriflora certified and fairly traded floral options, all perfect gifts.

5. Sweets for your sweetie? Organic and fairly traded cocoa options are sure to send that extra message of sincerity.

6. On this holiday, over one billion cards are sent worldwide. Translation: Save the Trees! Create your own card from recycled goods in your home. After all, it’s not the card, but the sentiment that counts.

7. Enjoy the outdoors. Make a snow-person together. Walk on the beach. Take a hike. Picnic in front of a gorgeous sunset. Or just lie on your backs and count the stars. It’s totally carbonRaz,Raz, free, healthy and romantic.

8. Make a candlelit homemade dinner for two. There is nothing greener than going local, so stop at your local farmers’ market and buy fresh and organic goodies.

9. Forget red or white; go for a bottle of “green” wine. There’s organic wine for whatever kind of mood you’re in… from Shiraz to chardonnay.

10. To end the night, choose organic cotton, bamboo and linen sheets, towels, duvets and comforters.

RecycleBank is a rewards program that motivates people to recycle by quickly and easily measuring the amount of material each home recycles and then converting that activity into RecycleBank Points that can be used at hundreds of local and national rewards partners. You can find more about RecycleBank on their website - www.recyclebank.com

Thank you to our friends at RecycleBank for these great tips!

Happy (green) Valentine's Day,

Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

Eco-Libris is available now at Hooray for Books! in Old Alexandria, VA

Did you have the chance to visit Old Alexandria? This beautiful old town just outside Washington DC has now another exciting thing to offer: a bookstore where you can balance out your new books with Eco-Libris!

We're very happy to announce on a new bookstore from Old Alexandria: Hooray for Books!

Hooray for Books! is an independent bookstore, owned by Ellen Klein and Trish Brown, who worked at A Likely Story, and after that store closed, decided to re-open a children's bookstore at the same location in Old Town Alexandria. You can read more about them here, and here. The Washington Post ran an article about them on June 23 that you can find here.

Hooray For Books!, which is the only independent children's bookstore in Alexandria, VA, opened its doors in June 2008. They're committed to serving their community, not only by providing extraordinary customer service but also by being environmentally responsible. They believe that partnering with Eco-Libris helps us achieve both these goals.

Customers at Hooray For Books! will have the opportunity to pay $1 to plant a tree to balance each book they purchase in the store. They will also receive an Eco-Libris sticker (made of recycled paper) at the counter for each book they balance out, saying 'One tree planted for this book'.

We're very happy that our first collaboration in Virginia with such a great bookstore, and we invite everyone to visit the store and their website to learn more about them.

Store's address and contact details:

Hooray For Books!
1555 King St., Ste 101, Alexandria, VA 22314
phone: 703-548-4092
fax: 703-548-4094
e-mail: info@hooray4books.com
Web site: www.hooray4books.com

Website and blog:
Website: http://www.hooray4books.com
Blog: http://hooray4books.wordpress.com

The full list of bookstores that participate in Eco-Libris bookstores' program can be found at
http://www.ecolibris.net/bookstores.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

Good news: Americans are using less paper and recovering more!

"Each year, we are using less paper - and recovering more of what we use." This is definitely good news and it comes from a new report, 'State of the Green Business 2009' published by Greener World Media, Inc. (www.greenbiz.com).

The data reported on this excellent and detailed report shows that paper intensity, which means the amount of paper used (in thousands of tons) per billion dollars of gross domestic product, has decreased from 8.9 in 2006 to 8.4 in 2007. This is the largest decrease since 2001, when the paper intensity decreased by 0.7.

When you look ten years back, you see a greater change. In 1997, 11,400 tons of paper were used for every 1 billion GDP generated. In 2007, this figure dropped in 27% to 8,400.

Meanwhile, the report shows, the recycling rates for paper have grown from 44 to 56 percent. The data does not include 2008 figures, so we can't really learn on the impacts of the fall in the price of recycled paper, which is one of the consequences of the current economic downturn.

Since reduction in paper consumption equals budget savings, I hope that at least one good result out of this economic environment will be that more businesses and individuals will look for ways to save in paper and we'll see even a greater drop in the indicator of paper intensity on the next report next year.

The report can be downloaded for free at www.stateofgreenbusiness.com (the paper intensity info is on page 54).

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

A green publisher beats the recession!

Did all publishers do badly on 2008? Well, apparently not.

mediabistro.com GalleyCat reports that Chelsea Green Publishing, a publisher that is focusing on politics and the practice of sustainable living, actually had the best year ever!

I was very happy to read it as Chelsea Green Publishing is one of my favorite publishers, not only because of their great green books, but also because they walk the talk and exercise many green practices, including "printing 95 percent of our books on recycled paper with a minimum 30 percent post-consumer waste and aiming for 100 percent whenever possible."

The piece on mediabistro.com GalleyCat referred to an interview with Margo Baldwin, the president and publisher of Chelsea Green Publishing, on Conversational Reading. This interview was part of an ongoing series of interviews with publishers on what the recession means for their business.

I found this interview fascinating and I warmly recommend reading it. Not only that you will learn about Chelsea Green Publishing and how they manage to thrive and grow in such economic environment, but also very interesting thoughts about the future of the book industry, publishers, bookstores, and so on.

What I found especially interesting was Baldwin's explanation on the connection between the topics of their books and their success in times of recession. Baldwin explains there that "Our books do very well in recessionary times. If you want to eat, you learn how to grow your own food. If you want a house, you can learn how to build it yourself. If you want to reduce your energy use, you can figure out how to harvest your own power. Survival is a wake up call and we have the books to educate people on that front. "

So don't miss this interview and for more information on Chelsea Green Publishing please visit their website that has become an excellent resource of sustainable living news (and be sure to check their great podcasts) - www.chelseagreen.com.

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

New green wrappings at Wishrap.com for Valentine's Day (and a giveaway!)

Valentine's Day is almost here (guys, I hope you have it on your calendar - February 14!) and it's time to think not only how to do something nice for your loved once, but also how to do it in a green way.

One place where you can always go green and save paper is wrapping. Did you know that in the U.S., an additional 5 million tons of waste is generated during the holidays and four million tons of this is wrapping paper and shopping bags?

So what you can do? well, there are many ways to make packaging more eco-friendly. If you look for a specific recommendation, one company that is also taking steps about it is Wishrap.com. They're launching new environmentally-friendly packaging with two featured Valentine's Day packages - Double Shot of Love and Nuts About You.

The new bags and boxes for these gifts are made of a natural jute fiber - a plant that is harvested and grows faster than bamboo and in a smaller footprint. The included cards and tissue are made of post-consumer recycled paper and the boxes and bags are reusable, designed with practicality in mind so that they can be reused over and over again. The boxes are collapsible, great for storage, and the bags make great reusable totes.

Wishwrap.com is a unique gift site that puts the thoughtfulness back into gift giving. Every Wishwrap gift comes with a custom greeting card created especially for the recipient and is "wishwrapped" in luxurious packaging at no extra cost. The two featured Valentine's Day packages will be the first to ship in the new green packaging, which will then be transitioned in for all packages.

For further details on their offers please visit their website at www.wishwrap.com.

And we have a special giveaway!

Wishrap.com are giving away cool set of plantable greeting cards. Each card is handprinted with soy-based ink on 100% recycled paper embedded with seeds. The card itself is biodegradable and can be planted in the backyard or a community garden, all set to flourish. The set includes two cards with wildflowers and a third with basil and chives.

To get a chance to win this cool prize please add a comment to this post with the best gift you gave or received for Valentine's Day.

Submissions are accepted until Valentine's Day, February 14, 12PM EST. We will pick the comment we liked best and the winner will be announced the following day.

Happy Valentine's Day,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!