Eco-Libris is a new green business that works with book readers, as well as with publishers, writers, bookstores and others in the book publishing industry, to balance out paper used for printing books by planting trees.

It all started when I was thinking about paper and the environmental impacts of its production. I realized that it might take a while to get to the point where eco-friendly alternatives (from the use of recycled paper to e-books) will replace virgin paper. Then, I talked with some friends about the idea of giving people the opportunity to balance out their paper consumption by planting trees and received good feedback about it.

The decision to focus on books was made after learning that only about 5% of the paper used for printing books is made of recycled paper and because most books don’t have yet an online, eco-friendly alternative (e-book), like magazines and newspapers. So, if you want a book, you usually can’t avoid purchasing the paper-made version, unless you go to the library or get it from websites like BookCrossing or BookMooch, which are all excellent choices. You also can’t tell people to stop reading books, so it seemed to me only natural to give book lovers a new alternative to make their reading habit greener -planting trees for the books they read.

The numbers are overwhelming - about 20 Million trees are cut down annually for virgin paper used for the production of books sold in the U.S. alone. What we want to do is to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of using paper for the production of books and provide people and organizations with an affordable and easy way to do something about it.

The process itself is fairly simple - upon entering our website ecolibris.net customers decide how many books they would like to balance out. They then pay for it online and a tree is planted for each of these books. Customers also receive a sticker made of recycled paper for every book they balance out saying “One Tree Planted for this Book” and can later display these stickers on their book sleeves. 

We have partnered with three highly respected US and UK registered non-profit organizations (AIR, SHI, RIPPLE Africa) that work in collaboration with local communities in developing countries to plant the trees. These trees are planted according to high ecological and sustainable standards in Latin America and Africa, where deforestation is a crucial problem.  Where planting trees not only helps to fight climate change and conserve soil and water, but also benefits many local people, for whom these trees offer many benefits and an opportunity for a better future.

Eventually and hopefully sooner then later, books will be made from recycled paper and also come in other eco-friendly forms (including e-books) and logging for paper will stop. On that day we'll happily move on to a new cause, but until then we think every book reader should take action. We also haven’t forgotten about the responsibility of the book publishing industry and intend to become a strong voice, demanding that more eco-friendly solutions for book printing be implemented.

I also want to mention that we love book clubs and we see ourselves as a great fit to work with these groups of people who share our passion for reading. We already had the pleasure of working with a book club from Ohio, where we balanced out all the books discussed at their meetings throughout the year. We provided the members with Eco-Libris stickers to put on all the books that have been balanced out, so they can proudly show their commitment to the environment.

Since the holiday season just started I want to mention our new holiday gift guide for book lovers. It helps our readers find the best green books to give as gifts this holiday season. We have great recommendations on books like:

•  The Man who Planted Trees
•  Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter
• The Joy of Vegan Baking
• The Tiny Seed and Deep Economy

You’re welcome to check our blog every Sunday for more recommendations on green gift books. All the recommendations we had so far can be found here. 

Happy green holidays to everyone!

Raz Godelnik

Eco-Libris