Welcome to the Green Books campaign!

Our Green Books campaign is online! Today over 100 bloggers are taking a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of more than 100 such books.

Organized by Eco-Libris, this campaign is aiming to promote “green” books by reviewing more than 100 books printed on recycled paper or FSC-certified paper.

All the links to the books and the blogs that participate in the campaign and the blogs reviewing them are available on the campaign's page at www.ecolibris.net/greenbookscampaign.asp

We invite you to join us in this unique green lit celebration, read reviews of books you find interesting, comment, tweet (please add the hashtag #greenbooks to your tweet/s) and share it with other book lovers!

We also want to take this opportunity and thank all the bloggers who participate in the campaign, as well as the publishers and authors who provided the great green books reviewed today. And last but not least, thank you to Susan Newman that designed the beautiful logo for the campaign.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Green Books campaign: No Impact Man

This review is part of the Green Books campaign. Today 100 bloggers are reviewing 100 great books printed in an environmentally friendly way. Our goal is to encourage publishers to get greener and readers to take the environment into consideration when purchasing books. This campaign is organized by Eco-Libris, a a green company working to green up the book industry by promoting the adoption of green practices, balancing out books by planting trees, and supporting green books. A full list of participating blogs and links to their reviews is available on Eco-Libris website.

The book we review on the Green Books campaign is:

No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process

Author: Colin Beavan

Beavan is a PhD electronic engineer (University of Liverpool). He spent the late 80s and early 90s as a consultant to philanthropic organizations such as social housing providers, drug treatment agencies and hospitals, helping them to promote themselves in order to secure increasingly scarce, Thatcher-era funding.

In 1992 Beavan returned to the United States and wrote for magazines until Hyperion published his first book Fingerprints: The Origins of Crime Detection and the Murder Case that Launched Forensic Science (a popular history of criminology) in 2001. In 2006, Viking published his second book, Operation Jedburgh: D-Day and America’s First Shadow (about the operation that formed the precedent for U.S. anti-Soviet operations in Afghanistan).

He is director of the No Impact Project, a visiting scholar at NYU, an advisor to the University’s Sustainability Task Force, and sits on the board of directors of New York City’s Transportation Alternatives and on the advisory council of Just Food.

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published on: September 2009

What this book is about? (from the publisher's website)
guilty liberal finally snaps, swears off plastic, goes organic, becomes a bicycle nut, turns off his power, and generally becomes a tree-hugging lunatic who tries to save the polar bears and the rest of the planet from environmental catastrophe while dragging his baby daughter and Prada-wearing, Four Seasons–loving wife along for the ride. And that’s just the beginning. Bill McKibben meets Bill Bryson in this seriously engaging look at one man’s decision to put his money where his mouth is and go off the grid for one year—while still living in New York City—to see if it’s possible to make no net impact on the environment. In other words, no trash, no toxins in the water, no elevators, no subway, no products in packaging, no air-conditioning, no television . . .

What would it be like to try to live a no-impact lifestyle? Is it possible? Could it catch on? Is living this way more satisfying or less satisfying? Harder or easier? Is it worthwhile or senseless? Are we all doomed or can our culture reduce the barriers to sustainable living so it becomes as easy as falling off a log? These are the questions at the heart of this whole mad endeavor, via which Colin Beavan hopes to explain to the rest of us how we can realistically live a more “eco-effective” and by turns more content life in an age of inconvenient truths.

What we think about it?

I thought that a good preparation for reading the book would be to watch again "The Story of Stuff". At the end of this excellent 20-minute animation of the consumerist society, Anne Leonard who narrates it is saying "let's create something new". Colin Beavan definitely tried to do that in his one year experiment, which he writes about in his book.

Both the story of Stuff and the No Impact Man project are actually a mirror of our society and what we see there is not a pretty picture. We see a rat race that is ruining the planet and the same time doesn't provide us the happiness and good life we expect to have out of it. Beavan is looking to change it , adopting the wood-harvesting philosophy of the Menominee tribe of "living happily, taking from the planet what it can sustainably offer and not taking what it can't."

He is not a hippie. No sir. He might be a rebel, but he is a rebel living in New York, which makes everything a bit more realistic for the average urban reader. It's true that some of Beavan's experiences describes in the book might be too extreme for some of us, and for him as well, as he explores his limits with electricity for example and finds out that life can be too difficult without using a washing machine. But at the same time, he teaches us a very important lesson on how we tend to blame everyone else in not doing enough to fight global warming, politicians, businesses and even family members and friends, but we rarely look inside and see how much we contribute to it with our daily life routine, the same one Beavan tries to drastically change.

This book is a fascinating journey, both personal and social, and you learn so much not only about the Beavan family, but also about yourself and the society you live in. What I liked about it even more is that he finds a perfect balance between providing us with facts, philosophical ideas and historic perspective and keeping the story interesting and funny and avoiding from making it just one of those "how-to" educational guides.

For me this book was a perfect choice for our green books campaign not only because it is printed responsibly on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and cardboard and processed without chlorine, but also because Colin Beavan believes we can make a difference, and this is what this campaign is all about.

Bottom line: Written with wit wisdom and two feet on the ground, this book is far from being an urban green fantasy and has and is greatly recommended!

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

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!

We're giving away our review copy of the book, courtesy of the publisher, and of course a tree will be planted for the copy!

How you can win? Please add a comment below and share with us what's the most extreme sacrifice you did to green up your lifestyle. Submissions are accepted until Tuesday, November 17, 12PM EST. The winner will be announced the following day.

If you're looking for other interesting green-themed books, you are invited to check out our green books page on Eco-Libris website's green resources section.
Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Is REDD going bad? Is it going to enable conversion of natural forests into industrial plantations?

Last month we had a 3-part series on the potential and risks of forest-based carbon credits following the growing discussion about the Deforestation and Degradation in developing countries (REDD) mechanism. Now it looks like the risks part should to be updated.

Bloomberg reported about a proposal that was made during the climate talks in Bangkok last month didn’t include wording to protect natural forests from being used to cultivate managed woodlands. In other words, carbon credits will be given also to those who wish to convert large-scale natural forests into industrial plantations.

According to Mongabay.com, the provision, which included safeguards against the conversion of natural forests to forest plantations, was removed the negotiating text during the final session at climate talks in Bangkok. The European Union, backed by Democratic Republic of the Congo and other Congo Basin countries, blocked reinstatement of the conversion safeguard, despite strong requests to do so from Brazil, India, Mexico, Switzerland, Norway, and more than a dozen other countries.

Environmentalists say that without the provision, forestry companies could receive REDD payments for logging tropical forests and replacing them with single-species plantations, which are biologically impoverished and store less carbon relative to natural forests.

Some observers described this move as a tactic one and were quite sure this provision, which included "the words “against the conversion of natural forests to forest plantations,” will be added eventually to whatever proposal will hopefully will be approved in Copenhagen next month.

In the meantime, the talks which ended Barcelona didn't provide any encouraging signs about it as REDD-Monitor reports today. It quotes Roman Czebiniak, political advisor on climate change and forests for Greenpeace International, who told SolveClimate that “Right now, we have a pretty worthless safeguard and no rules to implement it, at a time when we need strong safeguards and strong rules are needed.”

Zebiniak remains optimistic that safeguards and monitoring could still be inserted into a REDD agreement, even after Copenhagen, and we also keep our fingers crossed that this mechanism, which as we reported last month has a promising potential, won't becme worthless because of political agendas and lack of will to make sure it will benefit the environment and not just couple of big forestry companies.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

We have a winner on the "Green Earth Guide: Traveling Naturally in France" giveaway

We had a giveaway following our review of "Green Earth Guide: Traveling Naturally in France" by Dorian Yates, and we have a winner!

We asked you to share with us a green experience you had in one of your last trips to another country. The winner, Penny, wrote us the following:

I was in southern Spain in May. My favourite week was spent in Granada where I rented a small apartment and did my own shopping and meal preparation. I found a small deli that had a range of local, organic foods and local wine. They were great.

I also use public transit wherever I travel - from Spain to France to Nicaragua. I'll admit it was more of an adventure in Nicaragua where bus drivers were hustling for business on the sidewalk near the bus station.

Congrats Penny! You will receive a copy of this great book and a tree will also be planted on your behalf (we just need your mailing address so we can send you the book).

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

4 days left to the Green Books campaign: update on some cool prizes for the participating blogs!

4 days left to our Green Books campaign and we're getting very excited as the clock is ticking towards next Tuesday, November 10.

What will happen then? well, exactly on 1pm EST over 100 bloggers will take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of more than 100 such books! You can see the full list of participating books on the Green Books campaign's page.

We have great blogs participating in the campaign (list of the blogs is available on the campaign's page as well). As a small token of appreciation to their work on the campaign we will give couple of great prizes to the bloggers who will have the greatest number of comments and tweets on their "green" book review.

The first prize is very very cool - a signed copy of Al Gore's new Audiobook "OUR CHOICE: A Plan To Solve the Climate Crisis", courtesy of our friends at Simon & Schuster Audio. They are also contributing four more copies as prizes.

One more prize is coming from our friends at BookSwim, the Netflix for books, who are giving a great prize - a 3-month membership at BookSwim!

We'll be here with couple of more updates until Tuesday, and of course on Tuesday you'll be able to find here a full list of links to all the "green" books reviews.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Green printing tip no. 22: What does I-Tone mean?

We have another tip for you 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.

Today Greg is continuing a 4-part series that will focus on paper and paper companies.

What does I-Tone mean?

Tip #22

This is the second part of a 4-part series I run on paper. Last week I featured two of the major mills and the variety of "green" options they offer. Today, I will talk about I-Tone.

So what is I-Tone? The I-Tone finish is a clear finish, added to the paper, that allows for better print results. I-Tone papers guarantee exceptionally consistent HP electronic transfer and adhesion resulting in better performance, higher productivity, and ultimately
lower prices.

I-Tone papers are manufactured with Wind Power, and the grades I promote are the 100% post-consumer or recycled I-Tone selections.

Mohawk, which I mentioned last week, was named an HP INDIGO PREFERRED PARTNER by Hewlett Packard, for the I-Tone surface treatment that offers optimized performance in 4 color printing, and for the way heavy solids look, when printed on the I-Tone selection papers.

As I mentioned last week, this new technology comes in Options PC 100. Options PC 100 is 100% post-consumer waste recycled, and 100% processed chlorine free. Like most Mohawk papers, Options is manufactured using Wind energy, and is an FSC certified paper.

Mohawk has an I-Tone Selections swatch book. I use it to remind me which grades from Mohawk can be printed on our Indigo presses. Here are the names of those papers, found in their swatch book:

Mohawk Options, Mohawk Superfine, Strathmore Script Pinstripe, Beckett Expressions, Beckett Cambric, Mohawk Via Linen, Mohawk Via Felt and Mohawk Via Satin.

This is a good cross section of their papers. They have smooth, vellum, and textured papers, and we have state of the art printing , when using their I-Tone lines.

These papers are moderately priced, but the true savings is in the printing. We have no minimums, when printing digitally. We can print a 4 color brochure for under $500, that would cost over $1000 on a conventional 4-6 color press.

The key with the I-Tone finish is you can't tell the difference between digital and offset. My own Landfill Brochure has fooled the best print critics. We chose Options PC 100 and our 28 page brochure looks like we printed on a huge 6 color press. No glare or unwanted shine, that you see in most digital printing.

If you have any further questions about today's tip or you would like a swatch book, please email me at greg@ecofriendlyprinter.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 #21 - What new developments have surfaced in Green papers?

Green Printing Tip #20 - How to create a green packaging job?

Green Printing Tip #19 - How can graphic designers make a difference and green up your printing jobs?

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!

6 days left to the Green Books campaign: who are the publishers that take part in it?

The countdown continues with 6 days left to our green books campaign: 1 Day, 100 bloggers, 100 green books, 100 reviews.

If you didn't hear about it yet, here's a reminder: On Tuesday, November 10, 2009, at 1:00 PM Eastern Time over 100 bloggers will take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of more than 100 such books. Organized by Eco-Libris, this campaign is aiming to promote “green” books by reviewing more than 100 books printed on recycled paper or FSC-certified paper. A full list of the books that will be reviewed on the campaign and the blogs reviewing them is available on the campaign's web page.

Today we want to highlight all the publishers who are participating in the campaign - 39 publishers from the U.S., Canada and the U.K. are taking part in this campaign, providing participating bloggers with their latest books printed on recycled paper and FSC certified paper for review.

We believe it's time to show our appreciation to these publishers who do take a stand and make efforts to print books responsibly. We hope that the campaign will bring more exposure to these efforts as well as further recognition and appreciation of readers for the publishers' commitment to the environment and to green publishing. We also hope it will encourage other publishers to follow suit.

Here is the list of participating publishers and links to their websites. In brackets is the number of their books to be reviewed in the campaign.

Bella Flowers Books (1)

Betterway Home (1)

Bloomsbury Children's Books (6)

Book Publishing Co. (5)

Chelsea Green (4)

Chronicle Books (2)

CommonAct Press (1)

Cormorant Books (2)

D&M Publishers (13)

DS Publications (1)

Emergency Press (1)

Free Spirit Publishing (3)

Fulcrum Publishing (3)

Goose Lane Editions (4)

Green Sugar Press (1)

HarperOne (3)

HeyDay Books (2)

Holiday House (1)

Inkwater Press (1)

Insomniac Press (1)

Island Press (5)

Lantern Books (3)

Lollypop Publishing (3)

Loving Healing Press (3)

Modern History Press (2)

New Village Press (2)

NeWest Press (7)

Nomad Press (4)

North Atlantic Books (6)

Prentice Hall Press (1)

Ronsdale Press (7)

Rough Guides (1)

Simon and Schuster Children's Books (5)

Sterling Publishing (2)

Stewart, Tabori & Chang (1)

The Green Year (1)

University of Alberta Press (2)

Wiley (1)

W.W. Norton & Co. (1)

I would also like to take this opportunity and thank Susan Newman who designed the campaign's new beautiful logo you see at the top of this post. Thanks!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!