Last minute shopper? Check out our special green offer for the holiday!

CSMonitor.com reported that a survey released this week by the National Retail Federation (NRF) shows that the average US shopper had completed just 46.7 percent of their holiday shopping by the second week of December, the lowest since 2004.

If you're also one of those who wait for the last minute to buy their gifts for the holiday, and especially if it's snowy outside and you don't really feel like going anywhere, you're invited to check out the special green and affordable gift we're offering for the holiday!

Yes, Eco-Libris has a special offer for an holiday gift for you: Plant trees to balance out the books your loved ones read. We will send them a beautiful holiday card and Eco-Libris stickers to display on their books’ sleeves. Just change the shipping address on the PayPal payment page to the address of the gift receiver (or send us a separate email to info@ecolibris.net with the details) and we will take care of the rest!

If you're buying books as gifts, you can also add the stickers and the card, making it a great green gift (And if you're looking for an idea for a "green" book that can be a great holiday gift, you can find plenty of ideas on our green books campaign, as well as on our green book gifts for the holidays series).

The holiday greeting cards we send are made by Doodle Greetings (see picture). Not only these cards come with a beautiful design, but they are also eco-friendly - printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and are made chlorine-free and acid free. Sounds like a good fit with Eco-Libris stickers, which are also made of recycled paper!

This is also very affordable gift offer, starting from $6.50 for 5 trees/stickers and a holiday card!

Interested? go to our holidays page and check it out at http://www.ecolibris.net/Holidays.asp

Happy and Green Holiday!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting green reading!

Reminder: You can still win a copy of "The Looking Book"

We're giving away our review copy of The Looking Book by P.K. Hallinan, the green book we recommend as a holiday gift for parents.

How you can win? Please add a comment on the original review post and share with us your experience on what's the best way to get children to play outside. Submissions are accepted until tomorrow, December 18, 12PM EST. The winner will be announced the following day.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Do you like to listen to books? Check out an interview with the editor and publisher of Audiofile magazine

eBbooks are getting much more attention than audiobooks, but did you know that audiobooks are already generating annual sales of around billion dollars? The Audio Publishers Association (APA) also reported that the audiobook industry experienced only a slight drop in sales in 2008, comparable to those of the trade book industry.

We have a special interest in audiobooks as we believe they represent one of the options to read books sustainably, especially when you download them - an option that represents right now about 21% of all sales (the rest are CDs).

Therefore, I would like to recommend on an interesting interview with on mediabistro's Morning Media Menu with Robin F. Whitten, the editor and publisher of Audiofile magazine - a magazine dedicated to audiobooks.

Whitten shared in this interview her thoughts about the digital future of the audiobook and also gave some ideas for holiday gift ideas for the audiobook lovers. You're also welcome to check the website of this interesting magazine at www.audiofilemagazine.com.

You can listen to the interview right here- http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mediabistro/2009/12/17/audiobooks-for-the-holidays

And it's also an opportunity to remind you the new audiobook of Al Gore - "OUR CHOICE: A Plan To Solve the Climate Crisis", which is narrated by Sex & the City's Cynthia Nixon, Mad Men's John Slattery, and Al Gore (published by Simon & Schuster Audio). Definitely a great holiday gift for audiobook lovers!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Green book review for the holidays - part 3: The book you should bring to small business owners

Today we have our third part on our holidays series, where we review green books that will make great presents this holiday season!

Each book will be dedicated to another group and we today we have a group that is the backbone of the American economy - small business owners (and employees!). And the green book we're recommending to give to the small biz owners is:

Greening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers - and Save the Planet

Author: Jennifer Kaplan

Jennifer Kaplan founded Greenhance, a business consultancy dedicated to provide marketing and communication strategies to small business going green. She has more than 20 years of marketing experience with companies such as Discovery Channel, Lifetime Television, Conde Nast Publications and Simon & Schuster Publishing. An Adjunct Faculty in Marketing at Marymount University, Jennifer has conducted in-depth research into consumer attitudes about how small businesses can most effectively go green. She is an alumnae of Barnard College and the New York University Stern School of Business.

Publisher: Prentice Hall Press

Published on: November 2009

What this book is about? (from the publisher's website)
The ultimate resource for small business owners who want to go green without going broke.

Greening Your Small Business is the definitive resource for those who want their small businesses to be cutting- edge, competitive, profitable, and eco-conscious. Filled with stories from small business owners of all stripes, Greening Your Small Business addresses every aspect of going green, from basics such as recycling, reducing waste, energy efficiency, and reducing the IT footprint, to more in-depth concerns such as green marketing and communications, green business travel, and green employee benefits.

For companies too small to hire consultants to draft and implement green policies and practices, this guide is designed for easy use, featuring:

• Simple ways to make the workplace greener
• Two plans of action for going green (divided into two levels)
• Definitions for green terminology and jargon

Why it's a great holiday gift for eco-shoppers?
If you know a small business owner or employee, you know small businesses are struggling in the current economy. Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet to get out of the recession, but there are some ways to increase the chances to survive in the short term and prosper in the long term, and one of them is the green way. How you do it? Jennifer Kaplan's book is one of the best places to start with.

Going green has many definitions, but for small businesses it can definitely mean saving money and increasing profits by making your business more eco-friendly. The book is systematically covering all the relevant aspects for a small biz - marketing, transportation, energy, HR, office supplies, etc. In each of these subjects, the small biz owners will find information that will help them to identify their problems and practical advice on how to solve them.

This is in a way a "how-to" guide, but it's different and better of many other green guides that are out there. Firstly, it's very practical - when it talks about an issue, such as direct mailing or waste reduction, it provides effective recommendations and tips for successful implementation. Second, it offers simple ways to make the workplace greener, which is especially important for those who are afraid that going green is equivalent to starting a small revolution. Third, it provides great case studies that help to make everything more relevant and realistic by providing examples of small companies that are really taking the steps the book is talking about.

Now, going green is not a guarantee for business prosperity, but it's a part that is becoming more and more essential, especially when it comes to small businesses. Now, given the fact that it's not really that complicated to implement these win-win ideas, I think each and every one of the 26.4 million small businesses in the U.S. should take it into consideration. So if you know anyone who owns or works in one of these businesses, this is definitely the book for them.

Price: $14.36

Disclosure: We received a copy of this book from the publisher.

More on our holidays series:

Green book for parents - The Looking Book
Green book for eco-shoppers - ECOHOLIC

And don't forget that if you're buying a green book, you can even make your gift greener by adding our holidays special offer to it - trees/stickers and a beautiful holidays gift card made of recycled paper. For further information, please go to www.ecolibris.net/holidays.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

The End of Blueprints - guest post by Houston Neal

Today we have a guest post of Houston Neal, who writes for Construction Software Advice, a website that reviews software for the construction industry, about saving paper and trees when it comes to blueprints.

The End of Blueprints

We’re big advocates of “going paperless.” Our desks are free of folders, pens, printers and sticky notes. There’s not a single TPS report to be found. We’re also big advocates of software. So, when a visitor to our website shared their concern about the paper waste from printing blueprints, we were intrigued. Can estimating and takeoff software end the destruction of forests (or at least save a few thousand trees)?

A quick Google search didn’t uncover the data we were looking for. So we decided to don the detective caps ourselves. After talking with a local repographics service, and making a few calculations, we discovered some startling statistics: 42,000 trees are killed each year to print blueprints. Laid end to end, this is the distance from New York City to Washington DC!

37 Million Blueprints Are Printed Every Year
Before construction begins on a job site, blueprints will be printed and re-printed numerous times over by architects, project managers, building owners, engineers and contractors. Our local repographics shop gets an average of 35 print requests a day from this crowd. Before the economy took a dip, this number was closer to 80.

For a single request, the shop may be asked to print one blueprint, or up to 300, depending on the size of the project. So on the low end, this shop prints off 12,600 (35/day) blueprints a year.

Reprography – the practice of copying and reproducing documents and graphic material – is a 3,000-company industry in the United States. Our local shop is considered a smaller shop, so assuming every reprographics company prints 12,600 blueprints a year would be a conservative estimate. Still, at this rate, this means the entire industry prints 37,800,000 blueprints every year.

Using the standard architectural size of a blueprint (24″x36″) as our unit of measure, along with information we gathered from Conservatree.com, we determined it would take 42,000 trees measuing 40 feet high and 6 – 8 inches in diameter to produce this much paper. Aside from the deforestation, there is additional pollution from the paper factory, vehicles to transport the paper, ink cartridges used at the printing shops and more.

Digital Plans Require Zero Paper
Blueprinting is an outdated practice; it is a 167-year old technology. Today, the same blueprint-based activities can be achieved using onscreen takeoff software. Contractors can view plans, measure lengths and volumes, and markup plans on a computer screen. Plans are electronic – either PDF or CAD files – and can be emailed around without printing a single sheet.

When integrated with construction cost estimating software (http://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/cost-estimating-software-comparison/), contractors can take a measurement, then calculate material quantities and volumes. For example, simply trace an interior wall with your mouse or digital pen, then the estimating software will tell you how many 2×4s, sheets of drywall, screws and insulation is needed to build the wall. The software also provides accurate material and labor pricing for your region.

In turn, this allows contractors to determine the cost of a job, then bid on the project. It reduces miscalculations and helps contractors avoid over or under bidding a job. This is the key to job profitability.

Incentives for Construction Software Adoption
For an industry that follows the mantra “if it aint broke, don’t fix it,” it will be tough to change construction companies blueprint habits. Going paperless for the sake of saving our planet is not going to drive change; it has to make dollars and sense.

So what will be the impetus for change? For starters, we think federal incentives could help. Just as the government is handing out incentives for doctors that switch from paper charts to electronic medical records, there could be an incentive for construction companies to migrate from blueprints to software.

Secondly, we think the US Green Building Council should create a LEED credit for builders using software instead of blueprints. This credit would be appropriate for the existing “Innovation in Design” category. It could be awarded to companies that use software in place of blueprints to carry out pre-construction activities.

This article originally published at: The End of Blueprints.

Green book review for the holidays - part 2: The book you should bring to eco-shoppers

Today we have our second part on our holidays series, where we review green books that will make great presents this holiday season!

Each book will be dedicated to another group and we today we have a group that is constantly growing - eco-friendly shoppers. And the green book we're recommending to give to eco-shoppers is:

Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products, and Serivces

Author: Adria Vasil
Adria Vasil has been writing the ECOHOLIC column for NOW Magazine since the spring of 2004 and has covered environmental and social justice issues for NOW's news section for eight years. Vasil has a degree in political science and cultural anthropology from the University of Toronto and a degree in magazine journalism from Ryerson. An advocate for the earth, women's issues and human rights since her teens, Vasil has appeared on CTV, MTV Canada, TVO, MuchMusic, Book TV and CBC's Newsworld as well as countless print and radio publications to promote green living.

Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.

Published on: July 2009 (paperback)

What this book is about?
Ecoholic is an eye-opening guide to decoding the green from the greenwashed in the maze of products lining our shelves. Unlike other eco guidebooks, Ecoholic names names and gives you the dirt on what not to buy and why, as well as the dish on the most sustainable food, the greenest clothes, beauty products, home supplies, banking choices, sports gear, kids stuff and much much more. And yes, it will even take the toxins out of your love life. Ecoholic is a witty and indispensable guide to the small eco choices that make the biggest difference. No wonder reviewers have called this "sassy eco-bible" your " sacred text when it comes to making any life decisions."

Why it's a great holiday gift for eco-shoppers?
There are many green guides out there. Some of them are good, some of them aren't so good, but none of the guides I'm familiar with is as thorough and frank as Ecoholic. Adria Vasil's guide is proud in naming names and giving you the dirt on what not to buy and why, and this is a rare quality that makes it a very valuable companion to any green journey, whether you want to buy an eco-friendly laundry detergent or cookware.

There are many people who already take steps to to green up their lifestyle, but are still full with questions and not only about the basics, such what is biodegradable or natural toothpaste mean, but also about the differences between brands and which one is actually better. Ecoholic is the place where they can find these answers.

The book is well organized, divided to subjects (what not to wear, food for thought, outer space and so on), has a very good glossary at the end and even an index to help readers easily find what they're looking for.

Finally, Adria Vasil's writing is nothing but dull. This maze of green information is not easy to master, but she meets this challenge and makes it what looks as almost impossible - accessible, thorough and fun read.

And it doesn't matter if your friend or family member is a beginner or a more advanced eco-shopper - in both cases they'll find this book valuable and an interesting read.

Price: $12.21

Disclosure: We received a copy of this book from the publicist.

More on our holidays series:

Green book for parents - The Looking Book

And don't forget that if you're buying a green book, you can even make your gift greener by adding our holidays special offer to it - trees/stickers and a beautiful holidays gift card made of recycled paper. For further information, please go to www.ecolibris.net/holidays.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Green printing tip no. 26: What can we do to reduce the carbon footprint of direct mailing campaigns?

We're back with another tip on our weekly series of green printing tips, where we bring you information on green printing in collaboration with Greg Barber, an experienced eco-friendly printer.

Direct mailing is considered by many a very not sustainable marketing channel, as it can be very wasteful and have a significant carbon footprint, while at the same time it generates many times poor results. Today, in a tip dedicated to the Hopenhagen campaign, Greg is offering another option that combines greater effectiveness and a reduced carbon footprint.

What can we do to reduce the carbon footprint of direct mailing campaigns?

Tip #26

I attended a sustainable meeting at NYU last week and came away with a few good Green tips on direct marketing - how to make it effective and minimize its footprint at the same time.

There is no secret here and it's actually quite simple - if you look at your clients and really decide to target what it is they really want, you can create a direct mail program that will give you better
results, be environmental, and save trees, paper, energy, water and money.

First step: Make your list of names targeted to these best clients, or the ones that can do you the most. Look at their history of their buying. What did they buy, and when did they buy, and how much did they spend? Make a new print campaign that targets those wants and desires.

It's all about personalizing your marketing. Personalize by name, products, time frame, and do a mailing that might be 20% of your present mailing list, but targeted to their past history of buying.

Second step: Even though you already eliminate waste by sending this printing only to past customers, don't forget to use 100% recycled paper that is 100% processed chlorine free for the materials you're sending.

Third step: You can also an email to this targeted audience on a second run, that will not only help you to minimize your campaign's footprint, but can also be an helpful tool to estimate the effectiveness of your campaign and even further personalize your database for future campaigns.

Personalized marketing brings in 5 times better results. One telecommunications company I saw the results of, did a 49 per cent return by doing their homework. They knew the people they mailed to were ready for an upgrade. They showed a picture of what the present phone was, of each recipient, and then showed 3 new models that might interest that client. They also showed the nearest store to each person they mailed to.

The national average for sucessful responses is under 1%, and the company I am referring to, had a 49% response rate. They mailed to a fraction of their names, but did so well that the fullfillment department asked that the program be stopped until they caught up.

So, this firm not only made good business and prsented impressive ROI (return on investment) but saved trees, paper, water, and the carbon footprint was reduced for the people they sent to, by telling them where the nearest store was.

For additional information, please call Greg Barber at (973) 224-1132, or email greg@gregbarberco.com.

Also, if you have any questions you would like us to address in future tips please email us to info@ecolibris.net .

Latest tips:

Green Printing Tip #25 - Can you Green your print advertising?

Green Printing Tip #24 - Can we be Greener in our use of Inter Office Envelopes, Presentation Folders, and Outgoing Envelopes?

Green Printing Tip #23 - Are there inexpensive Green papers for brochures?

You can find links to all the tips we published so far on our green printing tips page, which is part of our green printing tools & resources.

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

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing!