Vote for BookSwim on Forbes.com's startup competition!

Forbes.com is running the second round of the 2009 Boost Your Business competition. On the line: $50,000 in cash, and $50,000 in advertising on Forbes.com. 20 semi-finalists remain and among them are our partners and friends at BookSwim.

BookSwim rents books like Netflix rents movies, with the convenience of free home delivery and best-sellers guaranteed in stock. As you may remember we collaborate with them in their special offering of gift cards - a tree will be planted with Eco-Libris in honor of every gift purchased.

You can read more about BookSwim on Forbes.com, where you can find their 500-word write-up and watch their 30-second "elevator pitch" video. You can also read what they intend to do with the prize once they get it.

BookSwim is a great green business and we warmly recommend to vote for them!

The vote itself is very simple and can be made at http://boost09.perfectprize.com/voting/. Please don't forget to confirm the link that gets sent to your email otherwise your vote won't count. Make sure you uncheck any boxes so you don't get spam.

VOTING ENDS SEPT 30!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting sustainable reading!

More News from the Field : Help Sustainable Harvest International Win $10,000

We got today a newsletter of our planting partners and friends at SHI (Sustainable Harvest International.) Recently storms and hurricanes hit parts of Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua, where SHI operates. But as the newsletter reports planting trees helps prevent more severe damages:

Despite these recent hardships, we feel lucky. Sustainable Harvest Honduras Field Trainer, Juan Carlos Sandres tells us that SHI is not in the business of disaster relief, but disaster prevention - and it's working! In his own words, "After the experience of devastation in my country from Hurricane Mitch in 1998, Sustainable Harvest Honduras has been dedicated to sharing agro-forestry techniques with families that were impacted by the disaster. We have been able to improve many vulnerable areas through soil conservation, reforestation, crop diversification and disaster prevention training. We know that when there are natural disasters, the families we work with are more resilient and their parcels of land are much less susceptible to erosion and crop loss."

So here's your chance to assist SHI with their work in these communities to bounce back from the hurricane damages, and do even better in other places:

SHI has created two groups on a new social networking site and will be eligible to win $10,000 if we can get 100 people to join our online groups. It is free, easy and will not lead to any unwanted mailings. $10,000 could allow SHI to begin work in at least 3 new villages, reaching many more Central American families that are anxiously waiting for our help. Please take a moment to join today and encourage others to do the same.

Register at http://beta.razoo.com/ and join our groups at http://beta.razoo.com/groups/shi and http://beta.razoo.com/groups/sw. Then make sure to tell everyone you know how to join each of these groups!

And don't forget to mention that you are joining because you heard about it right here :)

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