Published on March 11th, 2008
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Editor’s note: Textbook reuse is standard practice for American college students, but apparently not for Chinese elementary schools. That’s about to change, according to blogger Raz Godelnik at Eco-Libris. This post was originally published on Saturday, March 8, 2008.
Good news from China: the China Daily reported yesterday that the Chinese Ministry of Education will allow the reuse of textbooks in primary and middle schools in some rural areas starting this new semester.
The newspaper reports that
…the central government will set up a fund for the purchase of these textbooks, which will be issued to students free of charge. Students will be required to keep the books in good order for their reuse by others.
This initiative is a win-win deal: parents will spend less on textbooks, and the environment will benefit as well - less trees will be cut, less energy will be used, and pollutant produced in paper-making will be reduced.
If this initiative will be implemented in all of China, it can have an enormous impact because of China’s huge population. Check out these figures: it is estimated that $4.2 billion is spent on the purchase of textbooks during the nine-year period of compulsory education nationwide, and that about 450,000 tons of paper is used annually in the printing of these books, which requires the consumption of about 9 million trees! Read the rest of this entry »
Published on March 4th, 2008
Editor’s note: This week, Eco-Libris blogger Raz Goldenik talks with author Diane MacEachern about her new book Big Green Purse. This post was originally published on February 22, 2008.
Can women make the world a greener and a better place with their purses? Diane MacEachern believes they do and she wrote a great book Big Green Purse: Use Your Spending Power To Create a Cleaner, Greener World, which is a call-to-action for women to use their power as buyers (women spend 85 percent of every dollar in the marketplace) to make a difference.
MacEachern’s message is simple but revolutionary: if women harness the “power of their purse” and intentionally shift their spending money to commodities that have the greatest environmental benefit, they can create a cleaner, greener world.
We covered the book few weeks ago, and since I was fascinated with the simple but yet powerful message of the book, I wanted to learn a little bit more about it from the author itself and interviewed Diane MacEachern. I know that not all of you see green consumerism as the best way to fight global warming and achieve sustainability, but Diane makes a very good case here in explaining how realistic and powerful option it is. you are welcome to read and judge for yourself. The book was published last Thursday, February 28.
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Published on March 3rd, 2008
Unless you live a Compact-like lifestyle, you are going to be shopping on a somewhat regular basis. Whether it be home improvements, gifts, furnishings, crafts, gardening, fashions, babies, sports, pets or anything else you have going on, there is a green option to be found.
But where do you buy from? I’m all for promoting local businesses and buying from small stores right in your own town. Unfortunately, depending on where you live, you may have little to no options in that category. The easiest thing to do is log on to the internet (and you already have since you are reading this) and partake in the massive variety it has to offer.
After the runaway success with their first thepurplebook: the definitive guide to exceptional online shopping in 2000, authors Hillary Mendelsohn and Ian Anderson have released a number of specialized editions. Hitting book shelves in January 2008, thepurplebook Green: an eco-friendly online shopping guide is the latest of their incarnations.
Whether you’re new to the eco-lifestyle or so sustainably settled that you have a composting toilet and solar panels, thepurplebook Green Edition has something to offer everyone. Though the book is about shopping, it continually reminds readers to reuse what they already have. “The greenest thing you can do is to extend the lifespan of the products you already own,” says Hillary in the book’s introduction. “When it comes to shopping, it’s usually a matter of buying eco-friendly versions of the same products you already use.”
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Published on February 26th, 2008
Editor’s note: This week, Eco-Libris blogger Raz Goldenik takes a look at a new (and potentially greener) method for selling books: by the chapter. This post was originally published on Saturday, February 23, 2008.
I read few days ago in Springwise (a great source to new interesting ideas) about a new initiative of Random House: Selling books by the chapter.
Random House explains the logic behind the new initiative: “Sometimes what you want is a slice instead of the whole pie. That’s why we’re offering a new reading experience– the ability to purchase individual chapters. Imagine that! Downloading and reading exactly the part of a book that meets your needs”.
The first book to be offered by them is Made to Stick written by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. This book actually looks like a very interesting book. Here’s the book description on its website:
Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that “stick” and explain sure-fire methods for making ideas stickier, such as violating schemas, using the Velcro Theory of Memory, and creating “curiosity gaps.”
The process is very simple — on the book’s website you can find a short description of each one of the six chapters of the book and its epilogue. You can choose the chapter that’s right for you and download it as an Adobe Digital Editions file for $2.99. The introduction and index are available for free with the purchase of any chapter. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on February 19th, 2008
Editor’s note: Last week, our friends at Eco-Libris announced this partnership with Kedzie Press. Congratulations to them… this is a great step forward for Eco-Libris, Kedzie, and the environment. This post, written by Raz Godelnik, was originally published on Tuesday, February 12, 2008.
We’re very happy to update you with a new partnership - Kedzie Press, an independent publishing house based in Seattle, Washington is collaborating with Eco-Libris in a new initiative called Million Tree-A-Thon.
The goal: planting one million trees for one million books to be sold by Kedzie Press until the end of 2009.
Kedzie Press is already a green publisher — it publishes books with socially conscious and or environmentally-friendly messages, as well as the occasional work of fiction. It strives to help its readers lead better lives and all of our titles are printed on 100% recycled, 100% post-consumer waste paper (FSC certified), and processed chlorine free. It means that by pledging to plant one tree for every book sold, Kedzie Press actually maximizes the positive impact it already has on the environment.
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Published on February 12th, 2008
Editor’s note: Today, we’re starting a content partnership with Eco-Libris, a company that offers you the ability to “offset your reading” by planting trees for the books you buy and read. The Eco-Libris blog covers a wide range of topics related to books, publishing, and paper production, and is well worth a spot in your RSS feeds. While the book featured here is a little more radical than most of our content, we thought it might start some interesting discussion… so chime in! Today’s post from the E-L blog was written by Raz Godelnik, and published on Monday, February 11, 2007.
Today on our green books series, we’re talking radical. “Something has gone terribly wrong in the relations between humanity and nature.” Joel Kovel believes he knows what’s the reason for that. Hint? it starts with a Capital C.
Our book for today is:
The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World?
, Second Edition.
Author: Joel Kovel
Joel Kovel is Distinguished Professor of Social Studies at Bard College. He has written ten books, including the first edition of The Enemy of Nature which appeared in 2002, and Overcoming Zionism (2007). He has edited the journal of radical ecology, Capitalism Nature Socialism, since 2003 and has been active in Green politics, running for the US Senate in 1998, and seeking the party’s presidential nomination in 2000.
Publisher: Zed Books
Published in: December 2007 (second edition)
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