What's your forest footprint?

Will companies be accountable to their forest footprint and will need to disclose it in the near future?

Well, I am not sure about it, but an important step in this direction was taken with the establishment of the Forest Footprint Disclosure Project (FFD project) a new UK government-supported initiative, that was created to help investors identify how an organisation’s activities and supply chains contribute to tropical deforestation, and link this 'forest footprint' to their value.

Environmental Leader reported yesterday that started with a $123,000 grant from the government and the support of 12 financial institutions, the Forest Footprint Disclosure Project will reveal corporations’ forest stewardship practices - or lack thereof - to investors on an annual basis.

So what is a forest footprint? according to the FFD's website it's "the total amount of deforestation caused directly or indirectly by an organisation or product." And if you ask yourself how important it is for the environment to be aware of this footprint, just remember that up to 20% of all carbon emissions are caused by deforestation in the tropics and subtropics – more than from the global transport sector.

Here's more information about the work the FFD is planning on doing from their website:

Modelled on the successful Carbon Disclosure Project, it aims to create transparency and shed light on a key challenge within investor portfolios, where currently there is little quality information.

Participating companies will be asked to disclose how their operations and supply chains are impacting forests worldwide, and what is being done to manage those impacts responsibly. They will also gain a better understanding of their own environmental dependencies, and how the changing climate and new regulatory frameworks could affect access to resources and the cost of doing business in the long term.

The disclosure information will be reported annually, enabling investors to identify the sustainable businesses of the future as well possible risks related to a company’s forest footprint.

The first report is due out in January. The group’s Global Forest Footprints Report (PDF) details how corporate activities affect deforestation. Books are not mentioned in the report (it's more focused on commodities like soy, timber, beef and so on), but it will be interesting to see if anyone from the book industry will participate in this program. Given the fact that virgin paper is responsible for most of the book industry's carbon footprint, it can definitely be a good fit for this new initiative.

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

Green printing tip #2 - How you can save money while using 100% recycled paper

Last week we started a new with our new series of green printing tips, in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.

As promised we try to keep it as informative and practical as possible and we hope you will find it valuable!

Today Greg's tip is referring to one of the most common questions in green printing:

How using eco-friendly printing practices while printing a brochure or a book will save me money?

Tip #2

I would suggest using a less expensive paper in 100% post-consumer waste, recycled paper. Many of my clients use 90 brightness paper, instead of 96 brightness, which saves them 50% on the paper. That might save 20% overall in your printing.

This paper can be used for printing brochures, flyers, newsletters, books, stationery, pocket folders, etc.

One example is the book Food For Thought: Hazon’s Sourcebook on Jews, Food & Contemporary Life which was printed on this paper. Here's some food for thought - this 130-page sourcebook not only looks terrific (you can see it even just by looking at the cover), but was also printed within its original budget and of course is friendly to environment, all by using the less expensive paper 100% post-consumer waste, recycled paper. Needless to say that no compromise on the quality was made!

If you have any further questions following our tips, or you have a specific question you want us to address, please email us to info@ecolibris.net.

More relevant links:

Tip #1

You can also find further valuable information on Greg Barber Company's website - http://www.gregbarberco.com.

All the tips are archived and saved on http://www.ecolibris.net/greentips.asp

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

What's the best green book to give your dad on Father's Day?

Father's Day is almost here (June 21st) and we are continuing a tradition we stated last year on Mother's Day and Father's Day, where we provide you with some ideas for green books that can also be great gifts for Father's Day.

As we did last year, we went over all the books reviewed and covered on our blog and chose ten books that we think will suit ten different types of dads we detailed below.

So check out the our list and we hope you find the right green book to your dad!


1. For the father who likes to cook

Big Green Cookbook: Hundreds of Planet-Pleasing Recipes and Tips for a Luscious, Low-Carbon Lifestyle

Does your father like to spend time in the kitchen? is he enjoying making a good meal from time to time? is he in charge of the unofficial menu at the house? if you answer Yes to even one question, then he'll be thrilled from this 386-page book!

Big Green Cookbook by Jackie Newgent, RD (Wiley), is like a hybrid … the “Prius” of cookbooks. And there’s something in it for everyone—whether a little green or already completely eco-conscientious. Chockablock with plant-based recipes, informative sidebars, and useful tips with every recipe, Big Green Cookbook is a comprehensive climate-conscious cookbook that’s ideal for both culinary novices and experiences cooks. The book contains 200 simple and environmentally-friendly recipes for fresh, delicious, all-natural food, with a chapter for every season plus a year-round-recipes chapter.

2. For the father who dreams about urban gardening

The Urban Homestead - Your guide to self-sufficient living in the heart of the city

This is a book for all the fathers who loves their urban life but have heard/seen/read Michael Pollan, are going steady to the local farmer's market, rushed to see Food Inc. and their big dream now is to grow their own food. The only problem is they don't really know where to start.

The Urban Homestead is the solution. It's a practical, hands-on book, full of step-by-step projects that will get you started homesteading immediately, whether you live in an apartment or a house.It is also a guidebook to the larger movement and will point you to the best books and Internet resources on self-sufficiency topics. Projects include: How to start seeds, how to compost with worms, how to grow food on a patio or balcony, how to preserve food and son on.

3. For the traveling father

Disappearing Destinations: 37 Places in Peril and What Can Be Done to Help Save Them

If your father likes to explore new places and cultures around the world, and only the thought about his next trip makes him happy, this is the right book for him.

Actually with this book he better hurry up. This book is a beautiful and memorable look at some of the most gorgeous endangered places on the planet. Machu Picchu for example is a mesmerizing, ancient Incan city tucked away in the mountains of Peru, but it is rapidly being worn down by the thousands of feet treading across its stones. Glacier National Park is a destination long known for the stunning beauty of its ice floes, but in our lifetimes it will have no glaciers due to global warming.

These places - along with many others across the globe - are changing as we speak due to global warming, environmental degradation, overuse, and natural causes. From the Boreal Forests in Finland to the Yangtze River Valley in China, this book is a treasure trove of geographic wonder, and a guide to these threatened destinations and what is being done to save them.

4. For the father who enjoys thrillers

Freezing Point

This is the perfect book for all the fathers who are thriller fans and know a good thriller when they see one. Freezing Point a great thriller! No matter if you're interested in global warming (and we hope you do..) or not, if you're looking for an exciting thriller with an original plot, this is your book right here. It's not a coincidence that the author, Karen Dionne, was called "the new Michael Crichton".

Fascinating and action-packed, Freezing Point is about Environmentalist and engineer Ben Maki who sees the possibilities for Earth's future in a mountain-sized iceberg. If the Soldyne Corporation can tap into the ice, it can provide clean drinking water for millions, and if the company's vision isn't all philanthropic, well, there are always trade-offs. But environmental terrorist Rebecca Sweet lives for her cause -- free, fresh water for everyone -- and she will do anything to stop Soldyne.. We won't tell you more :-)

5. For the faithful father

How Creation Care Will Change Your Faith, Your Life, and Our World

Is your father a man with faith? does he see Planet Earth as God's creation? if he does, and no matter what religion he is part of, he will be enjoying Michael Abbate's unique book.

Gardening Eden invites you to consider a new, spiritual perspective to practical environmentalism. The question is not whether our souls find expression and inspiration in our incredible planet, but how best to preserve that fundamental connection. Discover creation care as an act of worship and a call to deeper harmony with our Creator, our fellow gardeners, and our living Earth. Gardening Eden is the primer in how this shift will transform not only our world, but your very soul.

6. For the biz type father

Strategies for the Green Economy: Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business

Is your father interested in business topics such as strategy and marketing? does he like to explore economic trends and new markets? if he is, then this book, one of the finest written on the green biz market lately is for him.

This book, providing a road map to the green marketplace, is written from a very unique point of view of Joel Makower, who has been both following and participating in the evolvement of the green economy in the last two decades. This unique perspective is differentiating this book from other green biz books and makes it very valuable for any dad who is interested in green business and especially to those who want to better understand what's the green noise is all about.

7. For the clean father

Clean Body: The Humble Art of Zen-Cleansing Yourself

If your father likes to spend a lot of time in the bathroom and he even knows the name of the shampoo and soap he uses, not to mention using facial cream, this book can be a great fit for him.

Clean Body, written by cleaning guru Michael DeJong, is not merely about washing away the dirt: it embodies a mindset, a philosophy, an alternative to mass consumerism. DeJong draws from Eastern belief systems—especially the element theory in Chinese medicine and Asian cooking—and harmoniously balances five pure essentials in his recipes, using baking soda, lemon, olive oil, salt, and white vinegar as the basis for his all-natural concoctions. Including special, separate sections for men and women, Clean Body has ideas for everything from facial exfoliants and natural aftershave to moisturizers and creams for itchy skin, discolored knees, and smooth feet. EVERY part of the body, from head to toe, is covered.

8. For the father who is interested in volunteering

The Idealist.org Handbook to Building a Better World: How to Turn Your Good Intentions into Actions that Make a Difference

If your father is looking for ways to volunteer,get involved in a non-profit, and in general follow President Obama's request to "put your shoulder up against the wheel", this book has all the information he needs.

Part career guide, part activist's handbook, The Idealist.org Handbook to Building a Better World provides tools and inspiration for anyone who wants to make a difference but doesn't know where to start. Inspired by Idealist.org's 600,000-member online community and their ongoing search for work that gives back to the world, this practical reference walks readers through the different ways they can get involved and the range of possibilities for applying one's interests and skills to meet their community's needs.

9. For the father who drinks only bottled water

Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It

Did you father forget the taste of tap water? do you see him all the time with a bottle of water in his hands? well, maybe it's time for revealing the world behind these bottles, and no book is better for that matter like Bottlemania of Elizabeth Royte.

In Bottlemania, Elizabeth Royte ventures to Fryeburg, Maine, to look deep into the source—of Poland Spring water. In this tiny town, and in others like it across the country, she finds the people, machines, economies, and cultural trends that have made bottled water a $60-billion-a-year phenomenon even as it threatens local control of a natural resource and litters the landscape with plastic waste. Moving beyond the environmental consequences of making, filling, transporting and landfilling those billions of bottles, Royte examines the state of tap water today (you may be surprised), and the social impact of water-hungry multinationals sinking ever more pumps into tiny rural towns.

10. For the father that is fantasizing about life in a green house

Green Beginnings: The Story of How We Built Our Green & Sustainable Home

Do you catch your father looking at photos of green houses on his laptop, mumbling something about how a green home with less energy costs and more of everything else will make him a happy guy? if you know what I'm taking about Green Beginnings is the ultimate guide for him.

Green Beginnings is following the journey Avrim and Vicki had while building a new green sustainable home from scratch, one that will be eventually awarded the USGBC’s LEED Silver and Energy Star Qualified Home designations in October, 2008. The book provides homeowners, architects, contractors, and engineers a common understanding of that which they are about to undertake and empowers everyone involved in a project with a common vision and language to work with.

If you choose to give your father a book as a gift, you are more than welcome to balance it out with Eco-Libris, add our sticker to the book and make it the perfect green gift for Father's Day.

Happy Father's Day,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Share with us what you're reading this summer and you can win great reusable bags!

We started yesterday a new series on our blog - 'My Summer Reading', where our partners in the book industry will present throughout the summer their choices and recommendations for books that are just perfect for the summer.

Our first guests were the publisher Christian Valentiner of the Norwegian publishing house Flux and Avrim Topel, co-author of "Green Beginnings".

You're welcome to follow these summer updates every Thursday on our blog. And we are also interested to hear what your summer reading recommendations are and invite you tho share them on our Facebook group's wall (at the middle of our Facebook group's homepage).

We also have great prize for the first 3 members that will add their summer reading recommendations on the wall - a set of Joey Totes (http://www.JoeyTotes.com), which are durable and convenient reusable bags designed to help people move away from disposable bags. Made from rip-stop nylon, Joey Totes can hold up to 40 pounds each, are machine washable and stow into a tiny built-in pouch that easily fits into a purse or coat pocket.

Each one of the 3 winners will receive a set of 3 reusable bags (see photo above) - 1 Big Joey and 2 Regular Joeys. You can of course use them also to carry your books with you when you go to the park or to the beach :)

Link to our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=4590684259&ref=ts

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibirs.net

Free (and green) alternative for book lovers at three European airports

Have you ever planned to pack a book for a flight, but forgot it in the last minute? And what happens if you're in a mood for reading at the airport but you already finished the one you brought with you?

A new initiative of Oneworld alliance, which is both free and green, provides you with a solution! Springwise reports that starting this month, travellers passing through Brussels, Milan Malpensa and Rome Fiumicino airports can download three audiobooks for free.

The process is very simple -when you travel through one of these three airports, simply log on to the airport wifi signal and enter the following URL (free access): http://library.oneworld.com.

Then you can download audiobooks to your laptop, smartphones or PDA—any device that connects to the airports' wifi networks. You can pick from forty titles, covering fiction, business, society and travel; available in English, Dutch, French and Italian.

This is a great initiative, as it provides customers with a valued service at no charge and it's also eco-friendly as these are audio books, which is one of the greenest forms of books, especially when you're using your laptop for that matter.

You can of course argue that if you have Kindle or any other eBook reader device it will give you a much better solution. BUT firstly not everyone have it as it's still expensive, second not everyone like to read from an eBook device reader and last but not least, it might not be such an eco-friendly solution as we don't know yet if eBooks readers are better for the environment (you can find more about it at http://www.ecolibris.net/ebooks.asp)

One more kudos to Oneworld, a global alliance that brings together ten of the world's biggest and best airlines - all travellers, whether Oneworld customers or not, can use this service.

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

My Summer Reading - Avrim Topel, co-author of "Green Beginnings"

Our second guest on the new series 'My Summer Reading' is Avrim Topel, co-author of "Green Beginnings: The Story of How We Built Our Green & Sustainable Home".

"Green Beginnings" is following the journey Avrim and Vicki Topel had while building a new green sustainable home from scratch, one that will be eventually awarded the USGBC’s LEED Silver and Energy Star Qualified Home designations in October, 2008. It is also part of a greater effort of the couple to share their experience with others, which includes tours in the house and a documentary video.

Eco-Libris is collaborating with the authors to plant trees for the copies sold of the book.

Here are Avrim's choices for this summer:

Hi Ave, what are you reading now?
1001 Albums You Must Hear before You Die by Robert Dimery

Any recommendation on a good summer reading?
Corsair by Clive Cussler

What you are planning to read this summer?
Medusa by Clive Cussler

What is your favorite place to read in the summer?
On the beach and on my screened porch

Thanks Avrim!

You can find more information about Avrim and Vicki Topel and their great book at www.greenbeginningsconsulting.com

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

My Summer Reading - Christian Valentiner of Flux

Summer is here and it's time to have fun, enjoying the outdoors, going to the beach, hiking, relaxing and of course reading a couple of good books.

BUT which books are the best fit for summer? It is well known that there are books that are a good fit for the long winter nights, or the bloomy spring, but which stories will be your best choices for hot and humid days where you just look to find some shade and dream about a cold drink?

We decided to check out with our partners - publishers, bookstore owners, authors and others in the book industry and bring you their choices in a new series we launch today - My Summer Reading.

This series will run throughout the summer and we hope you'll enjoy the recommendations and use them to have an enjoyable summer with many great books!

Our first guest is the publisher Christian Valentiner of the Norwegian publishing house Flux.

We are a proud partner of Flux and already worked with them to plant trees for some great books they published, including the Norwegian translation of Ken Wilber's "The Integral Vision", "Deep Joy: Arne Næss on deep ecology" and "The 5th Step" by Dag Andersen. And we're going to have soon another great book added to this list so stay tuned.

So without further ado, here are Christian's choices for this summer:

Hi Christian, what are you reading now?
A Swedish book on dog training J We’ve just added a Mini-Schanuzer named Magic as Chief Trouble Officer at Flux.

Any recommendation on a good summer reading?
Tribes by Seth Godin, The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho

What you are planning to read this summer?
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco – and probably something altogether different will tempt me at my last-minute-bookstore-stop before the holidays.

What is your favorite place to read in the summer?
In bed, in the hammock, in the grass

Thanks Christian!

You can find more information about Flux and their great books at www.flux.no

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