Are you hungry for solutions that will relieve you from the guilt and challenge of living a stylish yet environmentally conscious life? Then The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget by cable TV personality Josh Dorfman (aka, The Lazy Environmentalist) by Stewart Tabori & Chang is a must-read. Realizing that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, Dorfman has written a terrific book with the overarching goal of helping us all make a positive impact on our world without having to compromise too much.

And contrary to what many people think, Dorfman explains how it can be affordable and easy to lead a greener life.  In fact, The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget provides readers with solutions that don’t require much effort or financial commitment, but yield significant green payback. He covers everything from ways to reduce/reuse/recycle and conserve energy and water, to less obvious practices like greening your transport, eco-remodeling and finding non-toxic cleaning supplies. The resources include everything from denim repair to ways to borrow stuff from your neighbors to which stores have the best deals on affordable eco-furnishings, sustainable beauty products and budget-friendly organic cotton baby goods.

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Life, Money and Illuision: Living on Earth as if we want to stay (New Society, 2009) by Mike Nickerson is a driving tome that reconciles how our economy operates in relationship to the ecological and social systems on which we all depend.

In this second revised edition of Life, Money and Illusion, Nickerson explains that “Life” refers to the biological processes by which living things maintain themselves over time. “Money” represents our economic ideology that claims that as long as the volume of money changing hands increases, all will be well. “Illusion” refers to the fact that these two perspectives are directly opposed in terms of how they would solve current problems.

As one might imagine, a book of this stature and ambition — if providing meaningful analysis and argumentation (which it does superbly) — is not a cursory or a casual read. Running 448 pages, Life, Money and Illusion is meticulously fashioned in easy-to-understand language that makes Nickerson’s arguments and ideas both compelling and provocative. It draws from numerous fields, including ecology, psychology, philosophy, mathematics, and, of course, economics.

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Practically Green: Your Guide to Ecofriendly Decision-Making by Micaela Preston is exactly what it says, a practical guide to going green.

This is one of the best green books I have read, probably because it isn’t all preachy and because I am a big DIY girl I just love the 30+ DIY projects included in this book.

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If you have ever checked out BOBO wraps but were too intimidated to buy one because of the complex wrapping then this book is for you- filled with step by step detailed instructions to help you wrap these beautiful scarves.

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In the book you’ll find a bunch of cute eco-craft projects for adults and kids. You’ll find detailed directions for fun projects like sock monkeys, very awesome paper dolls, garden butterflies, paper flowers, rock animals, ghosts on a string, photo ball ornaments, and keepsake boxes…just to name a few of my favorites.

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Edited by John C. Derbach and featuring articles from a powerhouse team of forty environmental law and policy experts, scientists, public health experts, and leaders from business and government, Agenda for a Sustainable America examines trends in 28 areas of American life and evaluates recent U.S. performance from a sustainability perspective. Beyond providing a report card across the metrics of sustainability in the U.S., the book also provides a valuable roadmap for sustainability for the next 5 to 10 years.

In Agenda for a Sustainable America, Derbach and company suggest that the U.S. has, in fact, made significant progress in at least six areas: local governance, brownfields redevelopment, business and industry, higher education, K-12 education, and religious organization. But the authors also suggest we have a long way to go:

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The Gort Cloud:
The Invisible Force Powering Today’s Most Visible Green Brands
by Richard Seireeni with Scott Fields
240 pp. Chelsea Green

It is like what Van Jones called the “invisible network of networks.” Everyone who is in it (and some who stand outside it) know it is there, but they just aren’t sure how to define it, or what shape it takes.

In a new book called The Gort Cloud, branding expert Richard Seireeni takes a stab at capturing the moving target of social networks, sustainability, and green business and captures it with the perfect metaphor — a cloud. But Seireeni doesn’t use any old cloud for his metaphor, the book gets its name from an amorphous field of stellar debris called the Oort Cloud. Seireeni writes:

“I began to think of this particular green network as something tangible with a mission and with a collective membership of like-mined people. It wasn’t a single community. It wasn’t a movement, It defied easy definition.”

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/03/31/are-you-in-the-gort-cloud-a-book-review/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/03/09/book-review-true-green-home-by-kim-mckay-and-jenny-bonnin/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/03/09/book-review-true-green-home-by-kim-mckay-and-jenny-bonnin/#comments Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:18:25 +0000 Justin Van Kleeck http://sustainablog.org/2009/03/09/book-review-true-green-home-by-kim-mckay-and-jenny-bonnin/ Living a low-impact, eco-friendly life often boils down to simplicity and sheer common sense. Just follow the old proverb “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” and you will be a long way towards minimizing your impact on the environment.

But sometimes consuming less and acting with a green heart still leaves much in the “gray area” of wastefulness and pollution. To help make your life at home as green as can be, Kim McKay and Jenny Bonnin compile 100 great eco-tips in True Green Home. Part of the National Geographic True Green series, True Green Home serves as an accessible introduction to the countless areas of your home that can be either eco-friends or eco-foes.

It is also a great “cheat sheet,” as the authors call it, by combining comprehensiveness with brevity and generality.1 That is, you get a lot of quick glimpses into where your home (or apartment) might be wasting resources and some basic steps you can take to reduce your environmental footprint. (Nearly every page has more space devoted to a photo than words.)

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/03/09/book-review-true-green-home-by-kim-mckay-and-jenny-bonnin/feed/ http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/03/07/book-review-animal-vegetable-miracle-by-barbara-kingsolver/ http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/03/07/book-review-animal-vegetable-miracle-by-barbara-kingsolver/#comments Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:02:03 +0000 John Chappell http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/03/07/book-review-animal-vegetable-miracle-by-barbara-kingsolver/

Noted fiction author Barbara Kingsolver takes a non-fiction tact in her most recent book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and documents her family move to a farm in rural Appalachia and attempt to grow all their own food for an entire year.  The book touches on issues ranging from food sustainability, food networks, and how the food choices of just one family can impact the local food system.

Kingsolver attempts to document the attempt to eat completely local food for an entire year, and does it in a collaborative effort with her family.  One of the unique features of the book is the inclusion of her spouse and children in the writing process.  In each chapter, her husband Steven Hopp adds poignant commentary about social and environmental issues in short diary entries, and her teenage daughter Camille integrates personal anecdotes, canning ideas and seasonal produce recipes.  Having each family member (with the exception of her grade school daughter) contribute to the writing process gives the book a more intimate, personal feel and it demonstrates the cohesiveness of their family as they strive toward their common goal.

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]]> http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2009/03/07/book-review-animal-vegetable-miracle-by-barbara-kingsolver/feed/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/02/24/a-review-of-the-eco-positive-childrens-book-the-legend-of-honey-hollow/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/02/24/a-review-of-the-eco-positive-childrens-book-the-legend-of-honey-hollow/#comments Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:52:35 +0000 Wenona Napolitano http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/02/24/a-review-of-the-eco-positive-childrens-book-the-legend-of-honey-hollow/ The Legend of Honey Hollow by Jeanne McNaney is a great children’s book that introduces kids to the problems related to the destruction of animal habitat and global warming.

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]]> http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/02/24/a-review-of-the-eco-positive-childrens-book-the-legend-of-honey-hollow/feed/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/02/17/how-design-can-make-your-green-business-matter-even-more/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/02/17/how-design-can-make-your-green-business-matter-even-more/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:59:00 +0000 Leah Edwards http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/02/17/how-design-can-make-your-green-business-matter-even-more/ I couldn’t help but be curious about a book called “Do You Matter?” It is a great question for an entrepreneur to ask. And the book’s subtitle “How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company” is compelling. Doesn’t sustainability make our companies matter? Doesn’t our value of the environment make us matter? Is design really THE thing?

The authors, Robert Brunner (once a product designer for Apple and now a principal in the design firm Pentagram) and Stewart Emery (author of “Success Built to Last” and a leader in the Human Potential Movement) did not just rely on their own experience, but also relate numerous case studies about what other companies have done right in developing design-driven (and customer needs focused) organizations.

As you can see on the authors’ site, they are not just talking about package design and logos. The briefest synopsis of the book is, “We’re talking about design as a total concept—not just about how a product looks, but how the product operates, how it sounds, and how it feels. Also included in this idea of design is the quality of your purchase experience, of what happens when you actually open up the box, how you start to feel, and what all this communicates to you. And of course, there is the chain of events through which you became aware of the product. This is part of the design connection too—what all those touch points mean to you as a customer.”

One point I particularly liked is, “If you have your own brand-driven approach to design, others can’t really take this from you. People can try to copy it, but they they become merely derivative. If you do a good job at it, you have something that becomes a very strong and defensible strategy… when a customer purchases your product or pays for your service, they feel they have joined something.”

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]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2009/02/17/how-design-can-make-your-green-business-matter-even-more/feed/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/02/11/book-review-the-green-year-small-tips-that-make-a-big-difference/ http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/02/11/book-review-the-green-year-small-tips-that-make-a-big-difference/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:36:53 +0000 Katy Farber http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/02/11/book-review-the-green-year-small-tips-that-make-a-big-difference/
The Green Year, 365 small things you can do to make a big difference, by Jodi Helmer, is a perfect book for anyone who wants to green up their life but not does not want (or simply does not have time) to read reams and reams of information to do so. It seems to be written for us type A people (I guess I am selectively type A), who like lists and short tips.

Each day in a calendar year, the author shares doable, reasonable ideas for making better choices for the environment, and the health of your family. The tips are one sentence (love that!) and there is a paragraph or two explanation about why the issue or idea is important for the health of our planet. Under each tip you can list an alternative that worked better for your life and particular situation.

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]]> http://ecochildsplay.com/2009/02/11/book-review-the-green-year-small-tips-that-make-a-big-difference/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/07/book-review-andrew-nikiforuk%e2%80%99s-tar-sands-dirty-oil-and-the-future-of-a-continent/ http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/07/book-review-andrew-nikiforuk%e2%80%99s-tar-sands-dirty-oil-and-the-future-of-a-continent/#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:00:29 +0000 Justin Van Kleeck http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/07/book-review-andrew-nikiforuk%e2%80%99s-tar-sands-dirty-oil-and-the-future-of-a-continent/ Northern Alberta’s vast stores of bitumen–a.k.a. “tar sands” or “oil sands” or “dirty oil”–may well be one of the worst environmental tragedies you never heard of. At least that is what Andrew Nikiforuk, a prize-winning Canadian journalist, wants you to believe.

In his recent book Tar Sands: Diry Oil and the Future of a Continent, Nikiforuk lands a knockout blow on the kissers of the oil industry, oil-friendly bureaucrats, and petrol-guzzling North Americans. It is obvious that this Canadian is sick and tired of watching his own beloved habitat mutate from a pristine Northern ecosystem to a veritable toxic wasteland.

That said, Nikiforuk is clearly perturbed (another “p” word springs to mind…but this is a family-friendly blog). His book combines intensive research with a lively, caustic writing style…sort of enlightened invective. This makes for an astonishingly entertaining read that raises your hackles while raising your awareness about a seriously dangerous issue.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2009/01/07/book-review-andrew-nikiforuk%e2%80%99s-tar-sands-dirty-oil-and-the-future-of-a-continent/feed/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/12/24/book-review-american-earth-environmental-writing-since-thoreau/ http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/12/24/book-review-american-earth-environmental-writing-since-thoreau/#comments Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:15:00 +0000 Timothy B. Hurst http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/12/24/book-review-american-earth-environmental-writing-since-thoreau/ Whether you’re (still) trying to figure out what to get that hard to shop for greenie for Christmas or you’re looking for a good book to hunker down with over the holidays, a new volume edited by Bill McKibben and titled American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau is so packed with high-quality writing it is literally hard to put down.

McKibben, well known for his environmental writings, including The End of Nature (1989), the first book for a general audience about global warming, and more recently, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (2007), has compiled the foundational writings of American environmentalism and stuffed them into a 1,000 page epic tome that anyone with a green bone in their body would love to add to their bookshelf.

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]]> http://redgreenandblue.org/2008/12/24/book-review-american-earth-environmental-writing-since-thoreau/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/12/18/book-review-when-santa-turned-green/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/12/18/book-review-when-santa-turned-green/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:35:17 +0000 Robin Shreeves http://sustainablog.org/2008/12/18/book-review-when-santa-turned-green/ Have you been waiting for a green Christmas story for children? I found one. While perusing Barnes and Noble the other day I came across When Santa Turned Green by Victoria Perla.

Here’s the premise. Global warming is wreaking some havoc at Santa’s workshop. It’s causing a leak in the roof. Since Santa’s got a big in with the kids of the world, he calls on them to help him take action. The children in the story do small things like planting trees and packing their lunches in reusable containers. Santa starts using solar and wind power and wearing a Green Santa suit.

My first thought when I saw this book was, “ugh.” I don’t need something like this for my kids. They don’t need to be hit over the head with any more green-ness than I already clobber them with daily. But then I started reading some of the reviews from readers on various sites.

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2008/12/18/book-review-when-santa-turned-green/feed/ http://ecoworldly.com/2008/10/24/new-photo-book-proves-that-chevron-caused-ecuadors-amazon-chernobyl/ http://ecoworldly.com/2008/10/24/new-photo-book-proves-that-chevron-caused-ecuadors-amazon-chernobyl/#comments Fri, 24 Oct 2008 06:04:21 +0000 Levi Novey http://ecoworldly.com/2008/10/24/new-photo-book-proves-that-chevron-caused-ecuadors-amazon-chernobyl/ “We often hear of environmental catastophes but almost never meet the people who suffer the consequences.”

Those are some of the introductory words of Lou Dematteis, one of the authors and photographers of the new photo book Crude Reflections: Oil, Ruin, and Resistance in the Amazon Rainforest.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2008/10/24/new-photo-book-proves-that-chevron-caused-ecuadors-amazon-chernobyl/feed/ http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/10/03/grow-it-cook-it/ http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/10/03/grow-it-cook-it/#comments Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:21:51 +0000 Beth Bader http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/10/03/grow-it-cook-it/ It’s late in the year; harvest season is upon us. If this year in local food has had a “theme” it would be the victory garden. Growing your own has a new appeal. If you haven’t started your garden yet, maybe it’s a bit late, but it’s not too early to think about sharing the garden experience with your youngest family members next year.

DK Publishing’s resident children’s cooking expert, Jill Bloomfield, just published her own children’s guide to gardening. Grow It, Cook It is a great step-by-step visual guide to how to grow a plant on the first spread of pages, then shows step-by-step how to cook the ingredient on the next.

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]]> http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2008/10/03/grow-it-cook-it/feed/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/09/19/relevance-green-businesses-just-be-real/ http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/09/19/relevance-green-businesses-just-be-real/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:41:52 +0000 Leah Edwards http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/09/19/relevance-green-businesses-just-be-real/ Book Review– At the beginning of “Relevance: Making Stuff That Matters,” Tim Manners states that “an epidemic of irrelevance has brought once-powerful brands to their knees”. Perhaps, I am a bit younger than Manners, but I do not see what he calls an “epidemic” being anything more than business as usual, but perhaps I just lack perspective.

Some businesses have always been better than others, and once-good companies often lose their way. However, despite Manners’ [Armageddon-sounding] lead-in, I liked this book. The mini case studies Manners has collected show that having a quality, useful product or service is usually a primary requirement for success. You can’t tell consumers you are something fantastic and then not deliver upon that in terms of product usefulness, product quality, the sales experience, customer service levels, etc.

A Strong Brand Is Authentic and Relevant

Your brand is the sum total of the experiences people have with your company and product. If your product is irrelevant or your way of distributing the product is not really

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]]> http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/09/19/relevance-green-businesses-just-be-real/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/17/book-review-caribou-and-the-north-a-shared-future-by-monte-hummel-and-justina-c-ray/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/17/book-review-caribou-and-the-north-a-shared-future-by-monte-hummel-and-justina-c-ray/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:00:23 +0000 Justin Van Kleeck http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/17/book-review-caribou-and-the-north-a-shared-future-by-monte-hummel-and-justina-c-ray/ Quick: What is your favorite ungulate? If Monte Hummel and Justina C. Ray have their way, you will answer with one resounding word: “CARIBOU!”

In Caribou and the North: A Shared Future, Hummel and Ray use their expertise on these cold-loving herbivores and on the science of conservation to provide a fact-filled, highly persuasive bio-graphy of caribou and the “North” they inhabit. (Hummel is President Emeritus of the World Wildlife Life Fund-Canada, and Ray is Executive Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society.) Even if you are not an ungulate lover or prefer tropical warmth to boreal chill, Caribou and the North is an engaging introduction to these animals and how crucial they are to their environment.

Hummel and Ray begin with the biology of caribou, giving readers a head-full of distinguishing facts. For example, they make clear that there is not just one type of caribou but instead three “ecotypes,” classified by their habitat: migratory tundra, boreal forest, and mountain. While sharing the qualities that make caribou unique, such as a diet consisting mostly of lichens and the reuse of particular calving grounds each year, the different ecotypes each have special characteristics, habits, risk statuses, and sensitivities.

But whatever their differences, the three ecotypes of caribou all share an essential, symbiotic relationship with the places and peoples of the North (i.e., Canada and Alaska). Hummel and Ray do a beautiful job of presenting this symbiosis through both data and anecdotes from a wide spectrum of Northerners. As the authors note, caribou “sustain people, but they are revered for more than the essentials of life, such as food and clothing. Caribou weave their way through stories of creation, values, and respect for the land itself.”1 Because “caribou have both shaped and been shaped by the North,” the two do indeed have “a shared future,” being “inseparable, braided together by the larger forces of nature that have produced both” (38).

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]]> http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/17/book-review-caribou-and-the-north-a-shared-future-by-monte-hummel-and-justina-c-ray/feed/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/16/book-review-david-suzukis-green-guide-a-resource-chock-full-of-ideas/ http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/16/book-review-david-suzukis-green-guide-a-resource-chock-full-of-ideas/#comments Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:01:38 +0000 Robin Shreeves http://sustainablog.org/2008/09/16/book-review-david-suzukis-green-guide-a-resource-chock-full-of-ideas/ When it comes to the environment, I’m all about doing. I try not to worry about the things I’m not doing yet or judge others for the things they’re not doing. My theory, since I started making changes has been A Little Greener Every Day. Start where you’re at, and grow greener daily.

David Suzuki’s Green Guide written by ecologist David Suzuki and environmental lawyer David R. Boyd is a book all about what individuals can do, starting right where they’re at, to be greener.

The blurb on the front cover of the book reads, “How to find fresher, tastier, healthier food, create an eco-friendly home, make sustainable transportation choices, reduce consumption, and be a green citizen.”

I would describe the book as “Greening Your Life 101 for Regular Folk.” Chapter 1 begins with the question “What Can I Do?” and the book goes on to discuss what people can do, what others already are doing, and lists lots of resources.

It starts out, as any book on changing environmental habits should, with explaining the environmental problems that are prevalent today. Focusing on America’s contributions to the problem, it calls for a reduction of North Americans’ ecological footprint by at least 75% if a sustainable future is to be obtained. That’s a tall order.

The guide is hopeful though, and says that “after a destructive period of human arrogance” we are now in a “time of transition between the industrial era and the sustainability era.” I like the sound of that. The authors believe that “people’s values are evolving rapidly” and provide a blueprint so that people’s actions can reflect their rapidly evolving values.

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