Earth Day 2011 - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 5

We continue today with our Earth Day 2011 campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers in celebration of the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day.

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we publish here the 41 best replies we receive, one reply a day. All replies are gathered and presented on the campaign's page.

Reason no. 5:

We should plant trees for books because they sacrificed their lives so we could read. Let's repay our debt! - Eric Wilson, co-founder of 2ndgreenrevolution.com

Thank you Eric for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your book!

Eric, just like all the other readers whose replies we'll publish, is winning one of the great 41 prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including a $25 gift card for Strand Bookstore, audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, American Assassin by Vince Flynn and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, Spit That Out! by Paige Wolf, Menu Dating by Tristan Coopersmith and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

If you want to participate in the campaign, we still have some spots available so please send us your reply, either by adding a comment here or sending it to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: B&N stock falls below $10 this week and hits a new low

This week our B&N bankruptcy index is showing bankruptcy is becoming a clear and present danger for Barnes & Noble. Just a short reminder - As Borders filed for bankruptcy, we look at Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest book chain to see if they will follow Borders and also go into bankruptcy and if so, when exactly.

To do it more analytically we launched few weeks ago a new B&N Bankruptcy Index, which is based on 10 parameters, which receive a grade between 1-10 (1 - worst grade, 10 - best grade). Hence we receive a 0-100 point index scale, which we divide into several ranges as follows:

90-100: B&N is in an excellent shape. Couldn't be better!
80-89: B&N is doing great. Bankruptcy is no longer a real threat.
70-79: B&N could do better and has to be cautious of bankruptcy.
60-69: B&N doesn't look too good and bankruptcy is becoming a more realistic threat.
50-59: Bankruptcy is a clear and present danger.
49 and less: Red alert! Bankruptcy is just around the corner and is likely to happen within a short time frame.

We will check the B&N Bankruptcy Index every Thursday, updating each one of the parameters included in the index and will analyze the trend. You can follow the weekly changes in the index from the day it was launched on the Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index page on our website.

So here's our update for this week (in brackets is last week's grade):

1. Confidence of the stock market in B&N
This parameter will look at the performance of the B&N stock (symbol: BKS) in the last week. The performance of B&N's stock is an indication of the confidence the market has in the ability of B&N to maintain a viable business.

So let's look at last week's figures:

3/9: $11.81
3/16: $9.71
Change: -17.8%

As you can see, B&N's stock continued to fall down last week with a decrease of 17.8% in the stock's price. Just for comparison, the S&P500 Index fell during this period in 4.8% and Amazon fell in 2.6%. If you follow the stock or our index (or both) you know that this trend of double digit falling is going for 3 weeks. In total the stock went down in 47% in the past three weeks to its lowest point since the early 1990s, as Martin Peers reports on WSJ.com.

Nathan Bomey explains on AnnArbor.com why investors appear to be running away from B&N's stock:

Investors have reason to be concerned about Barnes & Noble's long-term future. The company faces the same long-term industry challenges that drove Borders into Chapter 11. To think that Barnes & Noble is in great shape simply because Borders is contracting is foolish. The Internet and electronic books are putting tremendous pressure on physical book stores, and Barnes & Noble is no exception.

Report that Borders could emerge from bankruptcy this fall were also considered to contribute to the fall of B&N stock.

This week's grade for this parameter is also going down to: 5 (6)

2. What analysts say on B&N
Martin Peers reminds us on WSJ.com some of B&N's strengths, although he doesn't forget to mention it doesn't seem to convince the investors right now:

Admittedly, Barnes & Noble has more chance of surviving. It has established a foothold in digital-media distribution by developing its own e-reading device, the Nook, to compete with Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad. Company executives say they have already captured 25% of the ebook market, more than the company claims to have in physical books...The next chapter of Barnes & Noble's story is only just beginning. But investors may want to stop reading here.

Nathan Bomey reminds us on AnnArbor.com the weaknesses of B&N:

But Barnes & Noble's main source of revenue is still physical books. The chain is still inferior to Amazon.com's convenience and pricing power, Walmart's girth and Apple's technology prowess.

Greg Sushinsky summarizes: Barnes & Noble needs to adapt a similar model around diversifying into digital publishing. It needs to build up its digital stake substantially, find alliances and develop ancillary businesses so it won't be dependent on its physical stores. This is easier said than done, but Barnes & Noble's survival will depend on making this happen.

And Geof Gannon explains on Seeking Alpha why he'll never buy B&N's stock again:

So – for me personally – I don’t care what the price of the stock is. That’s not the signal to buy. The only signal to buy would be a complete change in strategy or management. And by management, I mean Riggio, so there’s no way that’s happening.

Whether other folks should buy or sell Barnes & Noble stock – I can’t say. I can only tell you that I would never be comfortable holding the stock with the current management and current strategy they are pursuing. It’s suicidal. Right now, they’re intent on death by Nook. And I’d rather not join them.

No other comments or analysis were found. Due to the relatively negative sentiment this week, this week's grade is going down by half a point: 6.5 (7)

3. New strategy to regain sales in the brick and mortar stores

Martin Peers explained on WJS.com why it's important that Barnes & Noble will act sooner than later:

Even so, there are plenty of uncertainties. What will happen to Barnes & Noble's bottom line as the book market shifts to digital? Its gross margin will likely decline. The company has said it makes 20%-plus on ebooks, against 30% for physical books sold in stores and 27% gross margins for those sold online. Of course, it will more than make up for that with operating savings: The costs of running its brick-and-mortar stores are much higher than expenses on the ebook side.

Still, Barnes & Noble will only get the full benefit of those operating savings if it closes stores entirely as foot traffic drops. So far, Barnes & Noble has held off on aggressive store closures, hoping to pick up business as rivals close. It is devoting shelf space to toys and games, although there are competitors in those areas. The worry is the company will be too slow to close outlets.

Bottom line: Just like Borders, B&N still doesn't have yet a clear and comprehensive strategy that will transform their brick and mortar stores from a liability back to an asset. This week's grade stays the same: 4 (4)

4. What B&N is saying about itself
Silence this week.. This week's grade for this parameter stays the same: 6 (6)

5. Steps B&N is taking
Nothing much here this week. This week's grade stays the same: 6 (6)

6. Competitors
This parameter will mainly look into Borders and how its problems affect B&N.

This week Jeffrey Trachtenberg and Mike Spector reported on WSJ.com that "Borders Group Inc. hopes to exit bankruptcy-court protection by summer's end after getting a head-start on its restructuring by targeting 200 superstores for closure, Borders President Mike Edwards said in his first interview since the bookstore chain filed for Chapter 11 protection.

Borders is exploring closing as many as 75 additional stores and hopes to present a formal business plan to publishers and other creditors in early April. The ultimate goal: exit bankruptcy in August or September, ready to ramp up business for the key holiday selling season, Mr. Edwards said."

Nathan Bomey reminds us on AnnArbor.com thought these are not good news for B&N:

To make matters worse for Barnes & Noble, liquidation sales at the 200 superstores Borders is closing are performing very well, Borders executives have said. And analysts say that Borders liquidation sales — such as the one taking place at the Arborland Center store on Washtenaw Avenue — are undercutting Barnes & Noble's early-year sales.

I don't think stronger Borders is necessarily bad news for B&N, but since the market since it is , this week's grade is going down in half point to: 5 (5.5)

7. Financial strength
Two weeks ago Barnes & Noble published the results for the third quarter. This week we had no updates. This week's grade stays the same: 7 (7)

8. Strength of the digital business
No updates and this week's grade stays the same: 8 (8)

9. Sense of urgency
It looks like B&N still think they have time and are not worried at all, or at least not worried enough to begin doing something (again, we don't believe more toys and extra room for the Nook is a winning strategy) with their brick and mortar stores. If we can learn something from the Borders' case, it's how fast things go bad when your reach a certain tipping point of financial distress or distrust of your stakeholders (consumers or publishers for example). This week's grade stays the same: 5.5 (5.5)

10. General feeling
This parameter will be an indication of our impression of all the materials read and analyzed for this index. Our feeling this week is that things are are looking not too good for B&N with the falling stock, no buyer at sight and no strategy for the brick and mortar stores. This week's grade is going down in half point to: 5.5 (6)

This week's Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: 58.5 points (61)


As you can see, this week's index is set at 58.5 points, which means we moved into the scale of 50-59: Bankruptcy is a clear and present danger. It's still not the red zone but it means that bankruptcy is getting closer and is becoming a real threat to B&N. See you next Thursday.

To view the weekly changes in the index visit Barnes and Noble Bankruptcy Index on our website.

You can find more resources on the future of bookstores on our website at www.ecolibris.net/bookstores_future.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Working to green the book industry!

Earth Day 2011 - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason no. 4

We continue with our Earth Day Campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers to celebrate the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day.

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we will publish the 41 best answers we receive on the blog, one reply a day. All replies will be gathered and presented on the campaign's page.

Reason no. 4:

I want to plant a tree for my book so that my children will always have a nice quiet spot to read as they grow older! They'll also be able to see how their favorite books were once trees as well! - Cassie

Thank you Cassie for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your book!

Cassie, just like all the other readers whose replies we'll publish, is winning one of the great 41 prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including a $25 gift card for Strand Bookstore, audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, American Assassin by Vince Flynn and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, books from the Little Green Books series, Menu Dating by Tristan Coopersmith and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

If you want to participate in the campaign, we still have some spots available so please send us your reply, either by adding a comment here or sending it to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

A novel about the urban farming and sustainability movement looks for funding on Kickstarter

Nick Esposito, an urban agriculturalist and writer from West Philadelphia who is also the founder of PhillyRooted, have spent the last six months working on a novel about the urban farming and sustainability movement. He will be releasing the novel on April 29th and have set up a Kickstarter page to help raise the funds for printing it.

His goal is to raise $2,500 until April 8 and so far he raised $1,065. If you'd like to support the project or learn more about it, please visit Nick's Kickstarter page. Remember that the goal should be met by April 8, or otherwise the project won't get funded (which, in this situation, all the people who did contributed money to the project will receive it back).

Here's the video clip on his upcoming book:

Here's some more information on the project from the Kickstarter page:

For the past six years of my life, I've been cultivating my experiences, my ideals and my energy into writing my novel, Seeds of Discent. As you read this, you may point out the typo on the word, Discent. Well, it's not a typo. It's all explained at the end of the book. But in order to find this out, I'll need to get the book published. So for now, a little background on how this idea came about. When I first graduated college, I went out in the world to become a writer. But somewhere along the way, I just couldn't deny my natural passion for social justice and activism. So these ideals took me on a long journey into the world of urban farming. In a sense, this book tells the story of that journey. But this is not an autobiography. I hope that the characters of this book and their story captures this vibrant movement in a more encompassing way. I feel that the sustainability movement will be for our generation what the civil rights movement or the enlightenment movement was to past generations. And I hope this book will be a part of helping bring this movement into the mainstream.

I feel that the crux of any movement is in the artistic interpretation of it. So for the past six months I have finally taken the chance to sit down and compile this story. I am in the final revision process with my amazing editor and designer and we are ready to send it off to the printer at the end of April. Because yes, I am self publishing. Five years ago, people would pity a writer for taking this route. But today, with the help of social media and some really talented friends, I couldn't think of a better way. I've been fortunate enough to create a team of my great friends at Carpe Diem Construction Design Company to put together a book that will not only be professionally executed, but also immensely unique in its creativity and scope. I also have a lot of help with publicity from the Philadelphia artist, agriculture and media communities to promote this work.

The money I hope to raise will cover all of my printing costs for my first run of the book, and also to compensate my very talented friends who could probably have made much more money on other projects, but who are willing to work with me because they believe in this project. These funds will be the first investment into other runs that I hope will result in larger distribution and ultimately the broader success of this book.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Earth Day Campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason #3

We continue with our Earth Day Campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers to celebrate the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day.

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we will publish the 41 best answers we receive on the blog, one reply a day. All replies will be gathered and presented on the campaign's page.

Reason no. 3:

Planting a tree for my book is a good idea because this way my book can "give back" to Mother Nature by starting life again! - Shannon

Thank you Shannon for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your book!

Shannon, just like all the other readers whose replies we'll publish, is winning one of the great 41 prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including a $25 gift card for Strand Bookstore, audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, American Assassin by Vince Flynn and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, books from the Little Green Books series, Menu Dating by Tristan Coopersmith and The Healthy Home by Dave Wentz and Dr. Myron Wentz. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

If you want to participate in the campaign, we still have some spots available so please send us your reply, either by adding a comment here or sending it to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Apple reduced the iPad 2 carbon footprint by 20 percent

Last week the environmental report of the iPad 2, where we learned that its carbon footprint is 105 kg CO2e, a reduction of 19.2% comparing to the footprint of the first model.

This is the first out of two posts where we'll analyze the differences between the iPad and iPad 2 from a green point of view. Today we'll focus on the carbon footprint.

So, here's the carbon footprint of the iPad 2:



And here's the carbon footprint of the iPad:


Now let's look at figures instead of percentages as part of the total footprint:

	iPad	iPad 2	Change
Production	75.4	63	-16.4%
Transport	14.3	10.5	-26.6%
Customer use	39	30.45	-21.9%
Recycling	1.3	1.05	-19.2%
Carbon footprint:	130	105	-19.2%

As you can see, we have a reduction in the footprint of each one of the 4 components in the life cycle of the device. The greatest reduction is in transport, followed by customer use, recycling and production.

What's the reason for these changes and does this 20% reduction in the carbon footprint means that the iPad 2 is green? We'll try to answer in these questions on Thursday, on the second part of this analysis.

Comparing the iPad 2 it to paper books:

For this comparison, I'll use the figure of 7.46 kg of CO2 to represent the lifecycle carbon emissions of an average book. This is also the figure I used for the comparison made for the first model of the iPad.

This figure was presented on the Cleantech report (The Environmental Impact of Amazon's Kindle) and according to the report based on three independent studies that used life cycle analysis calculators to assess the impact of raw materials (I know it's much higher from the figure of 4.01 kg presented on the 2008 Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts: Findings from the U.S. Book Industry report, but I believe it helps to make the comparison more balanced).

So, comparing between the two gives us the following breakeven point: iPad 2 = 14.1 paper books.

It means that if you put aside all the other uses of the iPad, then from a carbon footprint point of view, it becomes a more environmental friendly alternative option for book reading once you finished reading your 14th book on your iPad (or 15th book if you want to be more accurate).

If you make the comparison based on the 4.01 kg CO2 per book (provided by the Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts: Findings from the U.S. Book Industry report), the breakeven point is 26.2 books (comparing to 32.4 books for the first iPad).

This is of course a conservative estimate since the iPad, as a tablet computer, has many other users and actually reading ebooks is not the most popular use of these devices. If you take other uses in consideration, the breakeven point may be lower.

Last but not least, although I criticized Apple many times here and in other places, I think they deserve kudos for publishing this report and making it available just within a week of the release of the iPad 2. Right now they're the only ones doing it - Amazon or B&N don't disclose any sort of environmental reports on the Kindle or the Nook, so thank you Apple and I truly wish Amazon and others will try to imitate you not just in technological innovation but also in the level of transparency you're presenting.

More resources on how green is the iPad can be found on our website at www.ecolibris.net/ipad.asp

More resources on the ebooks vs. physical books environmental debate can be found on our website at www.ecolibris.net/ebooks.asp.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Earth Day Campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book: Reason #2

Yesterday we started our Earth Day Campaign - 41 Reasons to Plant a Tree for Your Book, where we share with you 41 reasons provided by readers to celebrate the upcoming 41st anniversary of Earth Day.

With more than 180,000 trees planted so far on behalf of readers, authors and publishers working with Eco-Libris, it's no surprise that we think planting trees to green up books is a great idea.. But we also want to hear what readers think about it and why they believe planting trees for their books is a good idea.

So for 41 days until Earth Day, we will publish the 41 best answers we receive on the blog, one reply a day. All replies will be gathered and presented on the campaign's page.

Reason no. 2:

Planting a tree for you book represents the circle that life is supposed to be. We give and take and that balance is what keeps everything working the way it is supposed to. It is when one end of the teeter-totter weighs heavier than the other that system doesn't work. Or when one side rows and the other doesn't, we go in circles instead of moving ahead. - Jen Forbus

Thank you Jen for sharing with us your thoughts on planting trees for your book!

Jen, just like all the other readers whose replies we'll publish, is winning one of the great 41 prizes we give away on this campaign, courtesy of our partners. Winners can choose their prize from a great list of gifts including a $25 gift card for Strand Bookstore, audiobooks from Simon & Schuster Audio (such as The Half Life by Jennifer Weiner, American Assassin by Vince Flynn and Essence of Happiness by the Dalai Lama) and great books, like Planet Home by Jeffrey Hollender, books from the Little Green Books series, Menu Dating by Tristan Coopersmith and The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard. You can see the full list of the prizes on the campaign's page.

If you want to participate in the campaign, we still have some spots available so please send us your reply, either by adding a comment here or sending it to info@ecolibris.net. We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!