Offsetting Your Reading Habit
In an age of conspicuous consumption, one thing I don’t feel guilty about is buying books. I love books: used, new, antique, paperbacks, hardcovers. You name it, I’ll probably read it, and if I like it, I’ll buy it. I love having a house full of books. And yes, I know: books are made of paper. Paper comes from trees, and I love trees, too. Live ones. So what’s an eco-conscious reader to do when the library and secondhand books can’t help you out?
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.
September 27th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
As someone who is concerned with both the environment and debunking myths… let me say this… recycled paper is NOT better for the environment than “new” paper. The energy that it takes to recycle paper is much, much higher than the energy it takes to grow a tree and make paper out of it.
The fact is, for paper, trees are cut from tree farms… which means that when they cut down a tree to make paper, they… plant another tree to replace it, so they can make MORE paper in a few years! Paper is an industry that is completely sustainable, and while things such as newspapers/packaging are commonly thrown away, books are usually kept for long periods of time… so they don’t even create trash.
Remember, this doesn’t apply to all forms of logging industries… hardwood for furniture, for example, but when it comes to paper and books, the “normal” option is a green one.
September 27th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
1. Making paper from recycled paper is generally a cleaner and more efficient process than making paper from trees. It’s not only saving trees, it also save water, energy, air pollutants. Check the FACTS. Here are few good sources for info:
- http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/postconsumer-recycled.htm
- http://www.conservatree.com/paper/PaperTypes/RecyBrochure.shtml
- http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/saving/recycling/solidwaste/paperandglass.html#SavingEnergy
2. About tree farms - let me start by quoting the Rainforest Portal: “Tree plantations, like forests, are full of trees. Beyond that, all similarities end. A forest is a complex, self-regenerating ecosystem, encompassing soil, water, animals, and plants living in mutual relation. A plantation, on the other hand, is a commercial tree farm whose species have been simplified to produce only one of a few goods, such as lumber, pulp, resin, oil, or fruit. ”
Many environmental issues are associated with tree plantations. For example, the fact that plantations are usually monocultures. That is, the same species of tree is planted across a given area, whereas a natural forest would contain a far more diverse range of tree species. There are also issues relating the use of chemicals in these plantations, the usage of genetically modified trees, the impacts on local flora, degrading soil, etc.
Please also remember that “75% of the tree plantations established in the last 20 years have been established at the expense of natural forests (USFS, SFRA 2001)”.
All in all, tree plantations are not a sustainable solution for the problem of all the millions of trees that are cut down for the production of books.
3. Even if books sit comfortably on your shelve and don’t make any trash, you still have to remember the trees cut down to produce them and that’s where Eco-Libris gets into the picture, aiming to balance them out.
Best,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
http://www.ecolibris.net