Culture & Celebrity (books)

Eco-Libris wants American readers to put something back for all their bookworm pleasures. It’s encouraging them to donate a dollar for each book they read, so trees can be planted to offset all the paper consumed. They figure that 20 million trees are no more for each year of US book sales. To get those trees happening they’ve teamed with three conservation groups: Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) who operate in Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama; RIPPLE Africa operating in Malawi, Africa; and The Alliance for International Reforestation whose focus is Guatemala and Nicaragua. But the blog Book Patrol asked Raz Godelnik, CEO of Eco-Libris why the program was initially targeted at book readers, not publishers, distributors and retailers? Raz responsed in part with: “Our intention is to become a voice to book lovers who want books to be more eco-friendly and make sure the industry will know there's demand for that. We also want to assist pressuring the industry to raise the bar and move quicker towards printing books in an eco-friendly manner.” To their credit they also promote used bookstores, local libraries and borrowing from friends. ::Eco-Libris.

See also our How to Green Guides for Authors and Publishers.