10 best eco-chic and eco-beauty ebooks!

We're back with our weekly ten recommendations on green ebooks, and today we have a special list of eco-chic and green beauty ebooks!

The links of these ebooks are to Amazon.com and I apologize in advance to all the Nook, iPad, Kobo and Sony Reader owners. I hope you can easily find an ebook you'll like on other ebookstores. This is also the place to disclose that we're taking part in Amazon's affiliate program and therefore will receive a small percentage of every purchase made using these links.

We hope you don't mind! You can find all the lists published so far on our recommended green ebooks webpage (see examples at the bottom of this post).

Without further ado, here's this week's list of 10 recommended eco-chic and eco-beauty e-books for this week:

1. EcoBeauty: Scrubs, Rubs, Masks, Rinses, and Bath Bombs for You and Your Friends by Lauren Cox - Ten Speed Press (March 9, 2011)

2. Eco-Beautiful: The Ultimate Guide to Natural Beauty and Wellness by Lina Hanson - Rodale Books (May 12, 2009)

3. Eco Chic by Matilda Lee - Octopus (November 30, 2007)

4. The Cosmetic Chemicals Guide by Tamara Laschinsky - Amazon Kindle Services (Jan 6, 2011)

5. The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrances by Julie Gabriel - Health Communications (September 8, 2008)

6. The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green by Starre Vartan - St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (August 19, 2008)

7. Organic Body Care Recipes by Stephanie Tourles - Storey Publishing (June 1, 2007)

8. Green Chic by Christie Matheson - Sourcebooks, Inc. (March 1, 2008)

9. The Essential Green You (Green This!) by Deirdre Imus - Simon & Schuster (December 30, 2008)

10. Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano - HarperCollins e-books (July 8, 2008)

More recommended green ebooks lists:

Best green ebooks for Father's Day

Best ebooks for green entrepreneurs

Best green marketing ebooks

Best green business ebooks

See you next week!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Planting trees for your books!

Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: Will John Malone still be interested in B&N following their 4Q loss?

After a break of couple of weeks, we're back with our B&N bankruptcy index, following the release yesterday of B&N's fourth quarter report.

Jeffrey Trachtenberg summed B&N's report on the WSJ: "Barnes & Noble Inc., the target of a takeover bid by Liberty Media Corp., saw its digital strategy pay off in its fiscal fourth quarter with healthy gains on the e-book and e-reader front, but investments in that business took a toll on the bottom line."

Still no word about the future of B&N's brick and mortar stores as B&N seems to be putting everything it got on the Nook and e-book sales, a risky bet that might be too risky for a brick and mortar company. Bottom line: This week our B&N bankruptcy index stays in the 50-59 zone: Bankruptcy is a clear and present danger.

Just a short reminder - As Borders filed for bankruptcy couple of months ago, we started looking 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 (for consistency we look at results from Wed. 6/15 to Tue. 6/21):
6/15: $19.90
6/21: $18.94
Change: -4.82%

As you can see, B&N's stock lost 4.82% last week. Just for comparison, Amazon gained 4.44% last week and the S&P500 Index went up 2.38%.

B&N's stock did well in the last couple of weeks and only fell sharply (about 6%) yesterday following the release of the 4Q report. We'll have to see how the market will digest this report and react to the relatively negative comments from analysts following the report.

This wee's grade is staying the same: 5 (5)

2. What analysts say on B&N
"Although store revenue fell, revenue from other sectors rose. Online revenue rose 54 percent to $217.3 million and college bookstore revenue rose 4 percent to $211.2 million.The revenue results show the diverging trends in book retail -- physical store sales fell while online sales rose. But the two aren't as separate as they may appear, said Simba Information senior trade analyst Michael Norris. "The physical stores are the cyclists shielding the team leader from the wind," he said. "There's no way on this planet that bn.com would have grown as much as it did without the bookstores performing as Nook showrooms for the past year." (Yahoo! Finance)

"The bookseller, which suspended its dividend this year to conserve cash, has been using its profits to invest in e-books and its Nook digital reading devices as sales of paper books falter. That helped attract interest from John Malone’s Liberty Media, which offered $17 a share for the bookseller last month. “They’re spending a huge amount of money developing a reader that people are afraid is going to go the way of the VHS tape or the CD,” Bill Kavaler, an analyst at Oscar Gruss & Son Inc. in New York, said in an interview. Kavaler recommends investors sell the shares." (Bloomberg)

"The company has had to ramp up spending on marketing on product development to stay competitive with Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), whose Kindle is the top selling e-reader, according to Michael Souers, an analyst for Standard & Poor’s in New York. The Nook is “the only driver of long-term growth and they have to establish that niche,” said Souers, who recommends holding Barnes & Noble shares." (Bloomberg)

The market sentiment looks negative after the release of the fourth quarter report - analysts don't like the fact that B&N put all its eggs in the competitive e-book basket. Therefore our grade goes down by half a point: 5 (5.5)

3. New strategy to regain sales in the brick and mortar stores
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 is also one the reasons their stores keep losing money - Sales at Barnes & Noble stores open at least one year fell by 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter, ended April 30.

Right now all they have is selling more toys and games - CEO Lynch predicted toys and games will become "a very sizeable business for us within a reasonably short time horizon." This doesn't seem to be a very viable strategy to me, as

For all of those at B&N and outside the company who think the brick and mortar stores don't matter so much, especially now when Liberty’s chairman, John Malone has indicated that his primary interest in Barnes & Noble is its Nook e-reader, I'd like to quote again here Michael Norris, an analyst of Simba Information, who said following yesterday's report:

"The physical stores are the cyclists shielding the team leader from the wind," he said. "There's no way on this planet that bn.com would have grown as much as it did without the bookstores performing as Nook showrooms for the past year." (Yahoo! Finance)

This week's grade stays the same: 3.5 (3.5)

4. What B&N is saying about itself
Barnes & Noble said yesterday it is reviewing Liberty Media’s offer, the first bid disclosed publicly since the company put itself up for sale in August. B&N said that while the offer is being considered, earnings projections for fiscal 2012 won’t be announced.

This week's grade stays the same: 6 (6)

5. Steps B&N is taking
No new steps were reported on the report. Apparently B&N won't do anything significant until it will be sold to John Malone if the bid will proceed as planned, even after the release of the 4Q results.

This week's grade stays the same: 6 (6)

6. Competitors
According to Yahoo! Finance, B&N said yesterday results were hurt by Borders' liquidation sales at 200 of its stores. Longer term, however, Barnes & Noble expects to benefit from the store closings. CFO Joseph Lombardi said in areas where a Borders store has closed, nearby Barnes & Nobles are recording revenue increases in stores open at least one year.

Also, it is reported there that "analysts have speculated over the possibility of some combination of Borders and Barnes & Noble as the industry consolidates. But Lombardi dispelled that idea. He said in a statement that over the past 5 years, before Borders filed for bankruptcy court protection, Barnes & Noble considered buying it "many times" but always came to the conclusion it wasn't interested. "We are still not interested," he said."

This week's grade stays the same: 5 (5)

7. Financial strength
Barnes & Noble released its fourth quarter report yesterday, and as the NYT wrote, it wasn’t pretty. "The company lost $59 million in the quarter, or $1.04 a share. Analysts on average had expected a smaller loss of 91 cents a share. Despite a rise in revenue, thanks to higher online and digital sales, Barnes & Noble was hurt by the liquidation of more than 200 Borders stores as part of that retailer’s bankruptcy. Sales at Barnes & Noble stores open at least one year fell by 2.9 percent in the quarter."

If you compare the results to last year's results, it doesn't look any better - B&N's net loss was $59.4 million, or $1.04 per share, for the three months ended April 30, 2011. A year ago B&N reported a net loss of $32 million, or 58 cents per share for the three months ended April 30, 2010.

This is not a good news from a financial strength perspective and therefore our grade goes does by half a point: 6 (6.5)

8. Strength of the digital business
Although store revenue fell in the fourth quarter, online revenue rose 54 percent to $217.3 million. CEO William Lynch said B&N estimates e-books added 1%-2% to its U.S. market share, bring its total to 26%-27%.

Barnes & Noble also said in its report that its Nook sales continued to improve. The company introduced a new $139 Nook last month in an effort to boost its share of the growing e-book market and also offers a NookColor for $249.

This week's grade goes up by half a point: 8.5 (8)

9. Sense of urgency
It looks like B&N still think they have time and are not worried at all, especially after they received a proposal from Liberty Media to acquire the company. They might be right because after John Malone will buy the company he's the one who will need to handle these problems. Yet, the purchase hasn't been completed yet and even if Malone will purchase the company, I'm sure it is the best interest of B&N to ensure the company reaches its next phase of operations in the best condition possible.

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 that things are still not looking too good for B&N even with the offer they have from Malone - their current strategy of putting all their bets on the digital front is very risky given the fact B&N is still mainly a brick and mortar company. Yesterday's report presents this risk and its results very clearly.

This week's grade for this parameter stays the same: 5 (5)

This week's Barnes & Noble Bankruptcy Index: 55.5 points (56)

As you can see, this week's index is set at 55.5 points, which means B&N is getting deeper into the 50-59 zone: 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!

Is Nick Sherry right about the death of bookstores within five years?

Nick Sherry, the Australian minister for small businesses started an uproar after predicting that "in five years, other than a few speciality bookshops in capital cities, you will not see a bookstore. They will cease to exist because of what's happening with internet-based, web-based distribution."

His comments, as the Guardian reported, followed the collapse of Australia's largest bookseller, Angus & Robertson, and Australian high street chain Borders earlier this year. Still, Sherry got many book lovers and bookstore owners angry, but is there a chance he might be right, and as much as we hate to hear it, this is the future we're heading to?

I write here extensively about the challenges of brick and mortar bookstores and about the fact that both large retailers (B&N, Borders) and indies haven't found yet the right strategy to bring customers back to the stores. So you might guess I wasn't surprised to hear Sherry's remark. Still I was curious to see what arguments were made against his prediction as I thought they might be a good indicator whether he has a point or not.

So let's look at some of the arguments made against Sherry's prediction:

1. Joel Becker, chief executive of the Australian Booksellers Association, said he was "gobsmacked" at the "extraordinarily unhelpful" remarks, and had written to the minister asking him to explain himself. "It's an industry that's obviously going through changes, and we're responding to those changes by working out ways for even the smallest bookstores to go online and sell ebooks; we've been doing it so far without any support from the government," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

2. Jon Page, president of the ABA and a bookseller at Sydney's Pages and Pages, insisted on Twitter that "we are not a dead or dying industry". There is "still a place for an independent that services their local community", said Page, telling the SMH that Sherry had shown "a distinct lack of understanding about the Australian book industry".

3. Daniel Jordan, managing director of Collins Booksellers, also dismissed the comment, stating: “To assume that bricks-and-mortar retailing won’t exist in five years is just plain wrong.”

4. Shadow Small Business Minister Bruce Billson also slammed Sherry’s comment, describing the minister as a “prophet of doom”. “Senator Sherry’s defeatist and demoralising commentary adds insult to the injury of his lack of support for retailing as small business adapts and innovates to respond to market trends and difficult trading conditions,” Billson said in a statement.

5. Page has had the same response in his Mosman store, and says it started in February when RedGroup Retail, the parent company of Borders and Angus and Robertson, called in administrators. ''Ever since the collapse of the RedGroup, customers have been coming into my bookshop asking if I am going to close, too,'' he told me yesterday. ''The minister's comments have been very damaging because they have reinforced in some customers' minds the idea that bookshops are on the way out.''

My impression from all these arguments and comments is that they don't really challenge Sherry's assumptions. They don't show in any way how the future of bookstores can be different from the one Sherry predicts and how bookstores can fight back online stores and be relevant to e-book consumers. His prediction might be unpleasant and even wrong in terms of timeframe, but it still important to be aware of this possibility, especially given the fact that we see so many bookstores closing and as we see from Borders' case, even the large retailers are not immune.

Bottom line: Let's not shoot the messenger. It won't help the future of bookstores even a bit.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Planting trees for your books!

10 best green ebooks for Father's Day!

We're back again with our weekly ten recommendations on green ebooks, and today we have a special list of book recommendations for Father's Day, which is celebrated today in the U.S.

Yes, if you haven't bought your father anything yet and he has an e-reader and would enjoy a good book on a green topic, a green ebook can be a great option! The list is including ebooks on a varied list of green topics, which we think will suit different types of dads. We hope your dad is one of them and that you will find this list helpful!

The links of these ebooks are to Amazon.com and I apologize in advance to all the Nook, iPad, Kobo and Sony Reader owners. I hope you can easily find an ebook you'll like on other ebookstores. This is also the place to disclose that we're taking part in Amazon's affiliate program and therefore will receive a small percentage of every purchase made using these links. We hope you don't mind! You can find all the lists published so far on our recommended green ebooks webpage (see examples at the bottom of this post).

Without further ado, here's this week's list of 10 recommended green e-books for Father's Day:

1. No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes Abo by Colin Beavan - Farrar, Straus and Giroux (April 1, 2010)

2. Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America by Nick Rosen - Penguin (July 27, 2010)

3. Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben - Times Books (April 13, 2010)

4. The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir (P.S.) by Josh Kilmer-Purcell - Harper Collins, Inc. (June 1, 2010)

5. Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life by Ed Begley Jr. - Crown (March 25, 2008)

6. Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose--Doing Business by Respecting the Earth by Robin White and Ray Anderson - St. Martin's Press (April 1, 2010)

7. The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City (Process Self-reliance Series) by Kelly Coyne - Process (June 1, 2008)

8. Sustainable Value by Chris Laszlo - Greenleaf Publishing (March 7, 2011)

9. Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman - Picador (April 1, 2010)

10. Boiling Point by Karen Dionne - Jove (December 28, 2010)

More recommended green ebooks lists:

Best ebooks for green entrepreneurs

Best green marketing ebooks

Best green business ebooks

See you next week!

Happy Father's Day,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Planting trees for your books!

The book "DRIVEN! Remembrance, Reflection, & Revelation" has joined the 100 trees project!

We're happy to update you that the book "DRIVEN! Remembrance, Reflection, & Revelation", John Elliott Churchville’s autobiographical account of key aspects of his life, his reflection on these, and his revelation of a future where social justice is global normative behavior, has just joined the "100 Trees Project"!

This joint program was launched by Infinity Publishing, a leading self-publishing company together with Eco-Libris to promote environmental sustainability among its authors. Through the program, authors that publish with Infinity are able to plant 100 trees for the title they publish. These authors also have the option to add a special "100 trees planted for this book" logo to their book's design, as a way to showcase their commitment to environmental sustainability.

What's this book is about?
Driven! is John Elliott Churchville’s autobiographical account of key aspects of his life. He begins with an abbreviated memoir that highlights critical moments from his past, and examines the overarching themes that have been central to his personal development. He then reflects on important elements of those moments as they have impacted his present world-view. Finally, he shares the biblical Revelation, as well as his own, for the future. His thoughts are not of doom and gloom. Rather, they forecast a world where oppression is a faded memory and social justice is the international behavior understood and practiced by everyone.

About the author: John Elliott Churchville, Ph.D., is Senior Pastor at Liberation Fellowship Church of Jesus, Chairman/CEO of Liberation Fellowship Community Development Corporation, President of the Greater Germantown Business Association, a principal in the Churchville Triad Group, LLC (a leadership training consulting firm), and a practicing attorney admitted to the Pennsylvania and federal bars. He is an environmental justice advocate, HIV prevention and treatment activist, and sustainable community development thought leader.

In addition, Dr. Churchville is leading an effort to convert an abandoned nationally certified historic building into a multi-use, LEED-certified community facility using best practices in historic preservation and energy-efficient design.

DRIVEN! Remembrance, Reflection, & Revelation is available for sale on Infinity's website.

Other books on the "100 Trees Project":

The Last Original Idea: A Cynic's View to Internet Marketing by Alan K'necht and Geri Rockstein

Buffalo on the Ridge by Deanna Meyer

What Love Is...A-Z by by Elle Febbo

Raven Wings and 13 More Twisted Tales

Ishift- Innovation Shift

Good Management is Not Firefighting

Play on Words

This is Your Brain on God

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Planting trees for your books!

My article on Triple Pundit on the elimination of the automatic delivery of white pages in California

I'd like to update you on a new article I published today on Triple Pundit entitled "California Stops Automatic Delivery of White Pages. Will Yellow Pages be Next?":

Here's the first paragraph of the article:

Last Thursday California joined a unique book club, which already includes 16 other states. This book club doesn’t celebrate the release of new books, but actually promotes the disappearance of one. This is still a celebration because we’re talking about a book that is redundant and wasteful, and yet about 6 million Californians receive a new copy of it every year without being asked if they want or need it. If you haven’t guessed yet, we’re talking about the White Pages.

To read the full article go to http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/06/california-stops-automatic-delivery-white-pages-will-yellow-pages-be-next/

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant trees for your books!

Another victory for Greenpeace - Mattel instructs its suppliers to stop sourcing pulp from APP!

Environmental Leader reported earlier today that "Mattel has pledged to create a sustainable procurement policy and directed suppliers to put a freeze on purchases from Asia Pulp & Paper, following Greenpeace protests over the origin of its packaging."

Mattel wrote on its Facebook page: "We know deforestation is an important issue. It is to us as well. Today we announced the development of a Sustainable Procurement Policy for all of Mattel’s product lines. This policy will require packaging suppliers to commit to sustainable forestry management practices."

Mattel also referred on this page directly to APP:

"Today Mattel launched an investigation into deforestation allegations. While Mattel does not contract directly with Sinar Mas/APP, we have directed our packaging suppliers to stop sourcing pulp from them as we investigate the allegations."

This announcement added Mattel to a growing list of companies that stopped making business with APP, either directly or indirectly following Greenpeace campaigns against APP in the past. These companies include Carrefour , Tesco, Kraft, Nestlé and Unilever. When I asked Ian Lifshitz, Sustainability & Public Outreach Manager at APP, about it in an interview we conducted with him last year, he replied:

APP is a brand umbrella for paper products manufactured by several pulp and paper companies in Indonesia and China. APP operates independently from PT. SMART Tbk's palm oil with different entities, management and shareholders.

Despite the circulating rumours started by the GP report, overall volume of APP products to customers has not been impacted upon. Most our associates know that these rumours are unfounded.

Greenpeace by the way doesn't see in Mattel's announcement the end of story - they wrote on their blog that "Mattel’s latest statement, released on Friday in the US, suggests that the company now recognises it has a deforestation problem. However, it isn’t out of the woods yet and the company must provide more details and clear timelines to show that they are serious about dealing with these issues."

APP's response? According to Environmental Leader, APP responded to the Greenpeace allegations, saying in part, “Greenpeace’s allegation that it found mixed tropical hardwood fibers in some products that we might have produced is meaningless. Indonesia’s pulpwood land concessions, legally provided by the Government of Indonesia, include some degraded forests, which are required by law to be developed into plantations…"

We'll keep you posted with any further developments in this story.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Planting trees for your books!