Daily Greenz #142

Eco-conscious consumers will delight in Greenopia’s new “Guide to Green Living” for New Yorkers.  Originally released in L.A. and San Francisco in 2006 and 2007, respectively, Greenopia’s book quickly became the go-to guide for those seeking green businesses and services in their local area.  Due to popular demand, the New York City version was released on Earth Day this year and contains over 1,300 listings of bona fide green businesses and services in all five boroughs, offering New Yorkers the resource to make greener, healthier purchasing choices every day.

What was the behind-the-scenes selection process, you ask?  Greenopia’s team of highly-qualified researchers was sent out to test thousands of businesses systematically – from restaurants to stores, to salons, to hotels – and only those meeting the Greenopia Distinguished Business standards were included in the guide.  Each business was rated 1-4 leaves (their unique grading system) based on its performance of eco-friendly products or services.  No biased ratings here, as businesses can’t pay to be in the guide and advertising is not accepted.

Printed on FSC-certified recycled paper, the guide also offers additional green living tips and is supplemented by an online Greenopia resource.  If your New Year’s resolution was to live greener this year, Greenopia just made your mission that much easier.  Pick up a copy for $17.95 at www.greenopia.com or at your local Barnes & Noble, Whole Foods, or Macy’s.

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Daily Greenz #131

Lately, the folks over at Lonely Planet have really been showing their true color- green, that is.  They understand the huge impact that traveling has on the environment, and as experts in the travel industry, they want to do their part to ensure their readers travel greener.  In addition to their recent release of chapter downloads that are saving tons of paper, they’ve now come out with a new guide, Code Green: Experiences of a Lifetime, that outlines 82 trips for travelers who are interested in sustainable globe-trotting.  Whether backpacking or going the luxury route, it offers a multitude of responsible travel experiences with three common denominators: leaving a light footprint on the environment, soaking up the local culture, and contributing in positive ways to the local economy all the while.  Code Green makes it possible to take a Route 66 road trip, study yoga at an ashram in India, or visit the mountain gorillas of Rwanda in the most eco-friendly way possible, without compromising the quality of the travel experience.  Plan your next escape for $10 at www.lonelyplanet.com.

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Daily Greenz #127

Ever wish you had a green bible to answer all your green life questions?  Leo Hickman’s newly revised and updated A Good Life aims to give you a little peace of mind by tackling a wide spectrum of questions, ranging from the small (what are my household cleaners doing to my family’s health?) to the big (is it ever acceptable to fly?).  His guide to ethical living attempts to connect the dots between our habits and lifestyles to the impact they have on the environment and offers practical solutions to improving the quality of our lives.  His sidebar layout makes the book an easy read, containing such hard-hitting facts as “driving a 13 MPG SUV instead of the average 22 MPG car for one year wastes more energy than if you left the fridge door open for six years.”  The book’s comprehensive directory is also an attractive feature for the would-be ecoist seeking guidance on specific topics.  Thoughtfully written, A Good Life is a must-read for amateurs and veterans alike.  Available for $17.79 at www.amazon.com.

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Daily Greenz #116

When it comes to traveling, whether it’s a weekend getaway or a weeks-long foray into another country, it’s reassuring to bring along a travel book or two to help us navigate unfamiliar territory.  That being said, it’d be nice if these travel books were slim and tailored to our interests, so we wouldn’t have to lug around all 300 pages, as these travel guides tend to be.  Fortunately, Lonely Planet has heard our cry and has come up with a travel- and eco-friendly way to do just that.  You can now download and print any chapter from over 100 of their books, allowing you to custom-create your own travel book and saving you tons of paper and money.  Start planning your next vacation at just $2 – $4 a chapter at shop.lonelyplanet.com.

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Looking for a good green read this winter?  Check out Diane McEachem’s new book, Big Green Purse – Use Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World, which urges women to use their influence as consumers to make a positive change to the environment.  As consumers who spend 85% of every dollar in the marketplace, women’s capacity to use their spending power for the greater good has virtually been untapped.  An environmental expert and bestselling writer, Diane McEachem outlines the small-step-big-impact ways in which women’s dollars can be used wisely for 25 commodities.  From food to clothing, to cars, to computers, she explains concepts in layman’s terms and walks readers through green buying choices, listing eco-friendly companies that they can trust.  She also simplifies the often confusing world of green products by organizing hundreds of options into “thumbs-up” and “thumbs-down” categories.

Big Green Purse is a perfect, non-intimidating way to explore the ways in which you can become a green consumer.  Although it’s scheduled to come out in March, you can pre-order a copy for $12.21 at www.amazon.com or find it at a bookstore near you at www.booksense.com.

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Daily Greenz #98

    As an eco-friendly bookworm, you try to off-set your need to read by borrowing from your local library or buying from used bookstores like www.strandbooks.com.  But considering that publishers cut down 20 million trees each year to produce new books, you want to do more.  With the recent partnership of Eco-Libris and BookMooch, you now can.

The two services have joined their philosophies to allow a free exchange of used books (BookMooch) with planting a tree for every dollar donated to the cause (Eco-Libris).  In this case, members can earn a BookMooch point for every $10 they donate to Eco-Libris, allowing them to mooch a book online for free.  Since Eco-Libris’s philosophy is to plant one tree for every book you read since every book you read was once a tree, each dollar you give to the cause is really just another way to ensure that books will last forever.  What bookworm can resist such an eco-friendly guarantee?  So start reading and planting at www.ecolibris.net and www.bookmooch.com.

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Daily Greenz #82

Eco-friendly giant Danny Seo has been making a big
splash with his Simply Green books, which cover everything from creating a
greener home to throwing festive parties that are sensitive to the environment and your wallet. His focus is, as his titles indicate,
simplicity, and his new 2008 “Do Just One Thing” calendar runs along the same
theme of simple actions you can take on a daily basis to make your life a
little greener this year. His 366 eco-tips
(leap year!) are clever and inexpensive, such as recycling the black tape from
your old videotapes as gift-wrapping ribbon or unplugging your cell phone
charger when it’s not in use. His last
tip even tells you how to recycle the whole calendar, so following all his tips
will ensure that the calendar pays for itself. Prop his calendar on your desk for $19.99 at www.amazon.com and recycle his tips by
sharing them with your coworkers.

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Daily Greenz #75
If
US Weekly just isn’t doing it for you anymore, give yourself a subscription to
Verdant Magazine.
Verdant is a beautifully designed
lifestyle magazine for the eco-savvy reader published by the Cottages and
Gardens magazine group (so we know it’s reliable). It covers all aspects of
eco-friendly living—from design, art and fashion trends to news summaries and
authoritative product reports.
Basically, it’s a perfect source for
upscale eco-chic living, delivered straight to your door. Get a full year’s
subscription for $18 at verdantmag.com.

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Daily Greenz #40

If you’ve ever stressed about being green, put your fears aside. Josh Dorfman teaches you how to be well fed, well coiffed, well dressed, and well traveled while remaining "deeply committed to and ecologically sustainable lifestyle."
His book, The Lazy Environmentalist, provides guidance for fashion-forward consumers who are as
concerned about the long-term health of our planet as they are about the design of their bathroom fixtures.

Apparently, green can be quite stylish.
We told you so.

Find this book for $10.17 at Amazon.com.

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Daily Greenz #38

The Black Gold documentary (which debuted at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival to explosive reviews) is now out on DVD. Directors Marc and Nick Francis explore the uncomfortably wide gap between the prices that consumers pay for a cup of coffee vs. the poverty wages that farmers receive for the coffee beans. It is an equation that equals huge profit margins for corporations like Starbucks, who don’t purchase fair trade beans that are readily available for a marginally higher price.

To educate yourself about the cost of coffee, pick up the DVD for $26.95 at newsreel.org.

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