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.

Read more of this story »

We’re covering all the Little Green Books and today we have the pleasure to present you with a book with the most optimistic and positive name you can think about.

Our book for today is:

I Can Save the Earth!

Author: Alison Inches

Illustrated by: Viviana Garofoli

Ages: 4 - 6

Description: Meet Max the Little Monster. He is a cute, furry green monster who is an environmental nightmare. Among other things, he leaves on all the lights, keeps his computer plugged in, blasts the TV, hoards his old toys and uses so much toilet paper it clogs the toilet until finally, his excessive ways cause a power outage.

Read more of this story »

Consider the gift of a green book this Holiday season.

Ecobrain, a green publishing company offers ebooks, the ideal green reading choice.  Ebooks can be instantly downloaded to your desktop. Ecobrain has a series of ebooks that make ideal reading for Ecopreneurs.

The Next Sustainability Wave: Building Boardroom Buy-in, by Bob Willard ($16.95)

This book provides a compelling business case emphasizing the importance of how sustainability is presented to corporate leaders. It applies effective selling techniques to reposition sustainability strategies as a means to achieving existing corporate ends, rather than as a separate priority to worry about. It sells sustainability as a solution, a business strategy, and a catalyst for business transformation.

Read more of this story »

Last September we announced on our collaboration with Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing in an educational contest - I CAN SAVE THE EARTH!. This was in a celebration of their new line of eco-friendly children’s books, Little Green Books.

During the time of the contest (you can participate until December 1st, 2008 - see more details here) we review the first four books that were published so far. So far we reviewed Little Monkey and Little Panda, and today we have the pleasure to present you with the third green little book.

Our book for today is: The Polar Bears’ Home: A Story About Global Warming

Author: Lara Bergen

Illustrated by: Vincent Nguyen

Ages: 4 - 6

Description: Come along on an Arctic adventure with a little girl and her father and learn all about polar bears! This 8 x 8 storybook shows how global warming affects two baby polar bear cubs and their family. Includes tips for kids on what they can do to help slow down global warming. This 8 x 8 paperback book is perfect-bound and will be printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper with soy-ink. The paper is FSC certified.

Read more of this story »

Among the books you could get for free if you sign up for the credit: Basic Bread Baking; Bird Food Recipes; Build Your Own Underground Root Cellar; Growing Herbs for Flu & Cold Relief; Helping Orphaned or Injured Wild Birds; Jams, Jellies and More; Simple Home Repairs; and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. And, actually, because a fair number of titles cost $2 or less, you could get two books for free with the credit.

Read more of this story »

Today we have the pleasure to interview Madeline Kaplan, author of Planet Earth Gets Well‘.

This book is Madeline Kaplan’s first children’s book, and as we collaborate with her to plant trees for copies sold at the book signing events and at other promotional sales, I wanted to learn more about the book and what led her to publish a green-themed book for children.

Firstly, here’s a little bit background (and a photo): Madeline Kaplan holds a B.A. in English literature and an M.B.A from Baruch College. She has published various business articles, but her three grandchildren inspired the writing of Planet Earth Gets Well, her first children’s book. She lives with her husband in New York and Connecticut.

And now to the interview:

What brought you to write Planet Earth Gets Well?

Becoming a grandparent was a transitional moment for me. When I realized that I would be leaving the planet to my precious grandchildren I thought that I must do something that would hopefully have a lasting effect beyond my own lifetime. My grandchildren love me to read stories to them and it occurred to me that the overwhelming problem of global warming would not be solved in my generation. For that reason, I decided to write a children’s book that would introduce the topic in a child-friendly concept and make my personal concern a more public one.

Read more of this story »

We love green children’s books and always happy to update you when there’s a new one around. Now we’re even more excited with a new series of them coming soon from Simon & Schuster: Little Green Books.

In exactly 39 days (I counted..) Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing will be launching ‘Little Green Books’, which will be the first eco-friendly line of children’s novelty and storybooks.

The theme of Little Green Books focuses on improving the environment and preserving habitats, aiming to get kids and their parents interested in going green. From recycling and replanting to creating an awareness of endangered animals and much more, the series is looking to plant the seeds for earth-friendly living at an early age.

Read more of this story »

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)

Read more of this story »

Eco-Libris thinks it has the answer. Welcome to offsetting…for your books. Here’s how it works: for every new book you buy, you pay Eco-Libris to "balance" your books. They plant 1.3 trees for every balance you pay for. Buy ten books, pay for ten balances (at $1 each) and, within the next year, they will plant 13 trees to replace those cut down to provide the pages and covers of your books (the 13 is to account for trees that may not survive planting.) They send you a bookplate sticker with the Eco-Libris logo to put inside the cover of your offset book. Eco-Libris’ goal is to balance half a million books by 2008.

Eco-Libris has partnered with three non-profit conservation groups for their tree planting, which all happens in developing countries: RIPPLE Africa, The Alliance for International Reforestation, and Sustainable Harvest International which cover planting efforts in five Central American countries and Malawi. All three groups were selected for their collaboration and involvement with the communities in which they are planting.

Their website also has numerous facts and statistics on the publishing industry and its effort to go green which, if you know anything about publishing, is not that great. Eco-Libris provides a call-to-action for publishers to green up their act. One note: this is a for-profit company, if that matters to you. But the cost seems reasonable, and the groups they’re working with are all highly-recommended.

The first text my students tackle is well known in environmental circles. Daniel Quinn's Ishmael uses a teacher-student dialogue to examine why we live the way we do and how mythology contributes to that. Although some readers dismiss Ishmael as being unconvincing (okay, and downright cheesy at times), the ideas Quinn presents, and the relative ease with which he conveys them, make it a must-read for anyone understanding the philosophy behind sustainability. This book was instrumental in my shift towards green living.

When we talk about environmentally sustainable economies, Lester R. Brown’s Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, outline the problems facing our civilization, and how there is a tangible solution to those problems. Brown’s books are available in full-text PDF or HTML format, for free, online, at the Earth Policy Institute’s website. Brown’s ideas are compelling because not only does he advocate for the environment, but his budgeted plan includes funding for worldwide social goals, such as universal primary education, basic health care, and reproductive health and family planning measures.

Food and agriculture are integral when discussing green living. My kids love this unit, because as city-dwellers, they have little firsthand knowledge of where food comes from, and the entire process is fascinating to them (and I cook for them, too). Fortunately, there are countless remarkable texts that explore different aspects of green eating. We start with excerpts from seminal works (see list below), then move on to current books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan, which examines four different meals, based on four different methods of food production, and the political and environmental implications of the life of these foods. I’m from Iowa and was raised in close proximity to agriculture, but even I was intrigued and amazed by how far removed some of the food we eat is from actual “food”.

Any of these books should serve as a great vehicle on the path to greener living. Don’t forget the green choice for reading them: your local library, or check out BookSense for your local independent bookseller.

Suggested Readings:

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart

Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe

Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash by Elizabeth Royte

The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer and Jim Mason

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson