How green is your New Year's resolution?

There's nothing like a fresh start. Fresh start is a hope for a better future leaving the hurdles of the past behind. And what date is better than January 1st for a fresh start?

Many people have their own New Year's resolutions promising themselves and the world to be better this year. And this year, for many better means greener - half Of U.S. adults, we learn from a new survery, will make a green New Year’s resolution.

Thanks to Environmental Leader I learned about a survey conducted by GfK Roper that checked how much Americans are thinking of going green this year. The results were published on a news release of Tiller, LLC, and here are some of the interesting findings there: 49% of all American adults say they will make a green New Year's resolution this year. It's more popular within young Americans (58% of Americans 18-24) in comparison with older ones (40% of Americans 65+).

Here are some of the green resolutions cited by responders and their popularity within the responders:
reducing household energy usage (75%)
recycling more (74%)
reducing the use of harmful household chemicals (66%).
reducing one's "carbon footprint" (43%)
Carrying fabric bags to the supermarket (42%)

Another interesting factor that was checked was guilt - according to the news release, 31% of the responders admitted to feeling guilty in recent years about not living a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Women (36%) are more likely than men (26%) to feel "green guilt."

Well, it's great to see that so many people are feeling committed to change their lifestyle. Let's just hope the willingness will really transform into action. Now more than ever it's time for action. Green action. If each and every one of us will take few steps this year to go green, 2008 might become the year of change.

We hope of course that going green this year will also include a step or even two towards sustainable reading. We look forward to seeing eco-conscious readers as well as publishers, writers, bookstores and others go green with Eco-Libris and in many other ways.

Let's make it together a year with less deforestation, less greenhouse gasses, less waste, less pollution and more trees and hope for a brighter and greener future.

Happy New Year,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Picture Courtesy of RIPPLE Africa

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

I know you probably read already gazillion summaries of 2007 and got another trillion best wishes for 2008, so I'll try to be short here :-)

2007 was a very good year for me - About 6 months ago I co-founded Eco-Libris with a great group of devoted people and started to do the first steps to make reading more sustainable. We've balanced out so far more than 7,500 books! These books are balanced out by more than 10,000 trees that are being planted by our planting partners in developing countries.

Eco-Libris worked very hard in the last couple of months - we have established collaborations with writers, publishers, bookstores, organizations and others involved in the book publishing industry, and it's only the beginning.

We're very excited about the upcoming year and hope to increase our activities and grow to become an agent of change that move the book publishing industry towards greener choices and practices. We have a goal of balancing out half a million books by the end of 2008 and we intend to meet it, with your help of course.. I hope that in general 2008 will be a greener year and will bring us more hope for a better and greener future.

I would like to wish all of you a happy, prosperous and GREEN year.

Enjoy 2008!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Picture Courtesy of Sustainable Harvest international

Alex Steffen presents inspired ideas for a sustainable future

Last week we had the last part of our holiday green gift guide for book lovers. I would like to thank all the people who contributed great recommendations to the guide. Thank you all! You can find the whole guide right here - http://www.ecolibris.net/holiday_guide.asp.

Today I want to share with you an interesting talk of Alex Steffen, cofounder and executive editor of WorldChanging.com and also one of the contributors to our guide.

I found it on Triple Pundit and it's from a 2005 TED conference in Oxford, UK. Steffen talks about the problems we're facing and presents some of the most inspiring solutions and ideas that will help us to face the current global challenges and reach the still unimaginable sustainable future we're looking for.

Here's the description given by TED to the talk: Worldchanging.com founder Alex Steffen offers a fast-paced round-up of radical (but possible) answers to our planet's greatest challenges, ranging from green cities and buildings, to digital collaboration tools, to ingenious tools for the developing world (flowers that detect landmines; straws that purify water as you drink; merry-go-rounds that pump water using the energy expended by children at play). As Western-style consumerism spreads to developing countries, we must re-imagine our world.

So, here it is. Enjoy!



Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Eco-Libris is now available in two more bookstores

At the beginning of the month we announced here that you can find Eco-Libris stickers in three independent bookstores in Northern California, all of them members of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA), which Eco-Libris is proud to work with.

Now I am happy to update you that Eco-Libris stickers are available in two more independent bookstores:

1. Borderlands Books - 866 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, http://www.borderlands-books.com. Borderland Books is specializing in and selling only Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror (both used and new ones). It is also a NCIBA member.

2. Mary Jane Books - 215 Western Ave. Albany, NY 12203, http://www.maryjanebooks.com. Mary Jane Books is located on the corner of Western and Quail in beautiful Albany, NY and is independently owned and operated by SUNY graduates.

In these bookstores you can buy a book and balance it right there on spot. You will receive a sticker of Eco-Libris that you can proudly display on the new book, and of course a new tree will be planted to balance out the paper used for printing your new book.

If you're a bookstore owner and you want to get more details on how you can join the list of bookstores that provide their customers with the opportunity to balance out the books they bought on spot, please email us at: bd [AT] ecolibris [dot] net

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

The BookCrossing adventures of Michelle Slatalla

Michelle Slatalla is one of my favorite writers at the New York Times and it's always a delight to read her column Cyberfamilias every other Thursday (Fashion & Style section).

Last week I was in Chicago, so I missed her column, but I looked for it today on the NYT website and was very happy to find another great Cyberfamilias story, this time on her BookCrossing adventures.

I wrote few months ago about BookCrossing and recommended this great free book club. Michelle Slatalla also got into it and tries to see how it actually works - who will take the books she releases to the wild and where she can hunt some books.

One thing I learned from the article was that I can find on YouTube some videos documenting book releasing into the wild around the world. Here's one example to what you can see there:




So check out 'Love That Book? Then Set It Free' and don't forget to experiment some book swapping of your own.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

What's your favorite 2007 green search?

2007 is almost gone and everywhere you look there's another summary of the year. An interesting one comes from Yahoo! (and thank you to Environmental Leader for the link) - list of the top ten green search terms.

Yahoo! writes on their summary that "2007 may go down as the year people stopped talking about the climate crisis and actually did something about it." I am not sure I totally agree with it, as I believe we saw this year a lot of green buzz and not enough green action. In any case, there was definitely a huge increase in the awareness to green issues and therefore it's interesting to see what people are most interested at. So, here's Yahoo! list:

1. Recycling

2. Global Warming

3. Freecycle

4. Earth

5. Pollution

6. Al Gore

7. Environmental Protection Agency

8. Live Earth

9. Hybrid Cars

10. Solar Energy

Well, it's definitely an interesting list, showing that there is a thirst for information on personal actions (hybrid cars, recycling, solar energy) as well as on general topics (global warming, pollution, earth). I'm just wondering if the huge interest in Freecycle is due to its green elements (decreasing consumption of new stuff), or just because it's a cool and beneficial service, or maybe it's both..

For statistics fans, Yahoo! reports that "in terms of sheer search volume, residents of the Big Apple proved the most interested in global warming, edging out the environmentally conscious San Francisco Bay Area. When it came to hybrid cars, Los Angeles posted the most searches. Whether that's out of concern for the planet or frustration over gas prices and gridlock, we can't really say. "

I hope 2008 will be a year with the same green buzz and enthusiasm, but also with much more green action.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: a great green gift for the holidays!

Want to turn your parents green?

If the answer is Yes, here's the book you need: 'How to Turn Your Parents Green', written by James Russell and illustrated by Øivind Hovland.

I read about this book today at Treehugger.com and liked it immediately. The premise for the book, as the publisher, Tangent Books, explains on its website, is that grown-ups (the Groans) are responsible for causing global warming, but it’s you (the kids) who will have to deal with the consequences.

The kids are given a mission to educate their parents about recycling, saving energy and other green issues, and listen to this - if the parents don’t comply, they are fined and when they realise the error of their ways, they sign up to the Glorious Green Charter.

How To Turn Your Parents Green sounds like a great combination of fun and education for kids, showing them how they can make a difference in the fight against Ghastly Global Warming by being an Eco-Warrior rather than an Eco-Worrier. The book also contains 10 outstanding illustrations by Bristol-based artist Øivind Hovland.

The author, James Russel, employs a style reminiscent of the Horrible Histories books and Roald Dahl short stories. Here’s an example from Tangent Books' website of James’ style:

Meet the Groans. They may grumble about the traffic and gripe about heating bills, but grown-ups have got us into this mess and they are too busy goggling at the TV and booking exotic holidays to sort it out.

Only you can make those Groans behave because only you can make their lives a misery if they don’t. We’ll help you draw up a Glorious Green Charter for them to sign, and show you how to punish them – oh yes – if they refuse to change their Grumbelicious ways.

So don’t be an Eco-Worrier, be an Eco-Warrior. And turn your parents Green.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: great green gift for the holidays!