Newly Published Books on Sustainability Topics

Like to read? Then check out some of these recently released books (below are the promotional descriptions of the books).

The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems (by Van Jones) debuted at number 12 on the New York Times best sellers list. Provocative, personal, and inspirational, New York Times best-seller The Green Collar Economy is not a dire warning but rather a substantive and viable plan for solving the biggest issues facing the country--the failing economy and our devastated environment. From a distance, it appears that these two problems are separate, but when we look closer, the connection becomes unmistakable.

SustainAble: A Handbook of Materials and Applications for Graphic Designers and Their Clients (by Aaris Sherin) has just been released. The book explores eco-friendly print and paper production and highlights companies who are making innovative products. The work of both established and emerging designers from around the world is featured. Projects are traced from concept through to practical considerations of production. The book itself is an example of sustainable design. It is printed with vegetable-based inks on Mohawk 100 percent post-consumer-waste paper. In addition, no two covers are alike as they reused the printing leftovers that would otherwise have been wasted.

Entrepreneur Journeys, Volume One (by Sramana Mitra). Venture capitalists are chasing hot areas with planet-scale problems: energy, water, global warming. Industry legends, including John Doerr and Vinod Khosla, have become prominent spokesmen for the issues, pumping huge sums of capital into these eco-markets. In our enthusiasm for green, however, there's a forgotten industry segment that remains woefully unaddressed – education. With the advent of social media, and with the revival of entrepreneurship and investments in consumer Internet services, technology-enabled education looks like a huge opportunity for wealth creation.

Greening Your Business: The Hands-on Guide to Creating a Successful and Sustainable Business (by Daniel Sitarz) helps create green standards by providing a step-by-step approach to analyzing business operations and developing detailed plans to make those operations much more energy and resource efficient. Greening Your Business provides small and medium business owners with a comprehensive guide to saving energy, saving materials, and saving money by reducing their businesses’ impact on the Earth. Every element of a business’ impact on the environment is examined in this book from energy and water use, waste generation, transportation, computing and office equipment, supply chains and purchasing, building practices to product and service design. Each copy of the book comes with a CD which contains dozens of computer templates and worksheets for developing a complete business environmental plan, along with Excel® spreadsheet programs that calculate a business’ carbon footprint. The CD also includes additional green business strategies and over 1,500 pages of business environmental publications.

And don't forget to browse the USGBC's Green Book Club. Books are categorized by Global Systems, Natural Systems, Human Systems (including Business & Economics), and Built Environment.

Incorporating Sustainability Into Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite celebrations. But how can we make it more sustainable? Here are a few suggestions:

• Parties - Decorate with LED lighting, don't use disposable plates, cups, and utensils, email your invitations, and support the farmer's market when purchasing pumpkins, apples, and food. Use your waste and recyclables (such as styrofoam, cardboard, tin cans, and other items) to create decorations.


• Pass out Fair Trade chocolate - Fair Trade chocolates come from organically grown cocoa in rainforests around the world. Through Fair Trade practices, these chocolates benefit cooperatives and small family farms, allowing for a commitment of social justice as you make a direct contribution to the livelihood of the farmers and workers.


• Skip the candy - pass out healthy food treats or non-food items, such as Halloween party favor bubbles, rings, erasers, temporary tattoos, etc.


• Homemade costumes - instead of buying more stuff you don't really need, why not create a unique one-of-a-kind costume from materials you already have at home? If you must buy items for your costume, visit the resale and thrift shops. And be sure to skip the makeup and face paint.


• Reverse trick-or-treat - as your children go door-to-door, they will pass out Fair Trade chocolate along with a card with information on problems faced by cocoa-growing communities, such as poverty, child labor and environmental degradation.


• Donate candy - do your children really need to eat all that candy they collected? Donate your extra candy to foodbanks, schools, churches, shelters/agencies that work with children, Ronald McDonald houses, pediatric hospitals, nursing or veterans' homes, or Meals on Wheels.


• Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF - as you go door-to-door, collect money for UNICEF that will be used to help children around the world.


• Walk or go to a one-stop trick-or-treating site - if walking, make sure you have your BoGo flashlight (which donates one flashlight to those in the developing world for each one you purchase). Or go to a one-stop trick-or-treating location rather than driving around.


• Green Halloween - organize, host, or attend a Green Halloween event in your community. "Think outside the candy box" and make Halloween something meaningful.


• SightNight - participate in SightNight for the Gift of Sight Foundation and Lions Club International by collecting used eyeware during trick-or-treat.


• Donate treats to the troops - donate your extra candy to one of the many organizations, dentists, or orthodontists that will send it to our troops.

Democrats Planning Green Convention

The Democratic Convention will be held August 25-28 in Denver CO. The convention hired its first-ever Director of Greening, Andrea Robinson, to ensure this would be "the most sustainable political convention in modern American history."

According to the Wall Street Journal, some of Robinson's sustainability initiatives include:

• Reuse, recycle or compost at least 85% of all waste generated during the convention (and a "trash brigade" to make sure it happens)


• Celebratory balloons will hopefully be biodegradable (although early tests show they aren't degrading in a compost heap)


• Hired an Official Carbon Adviser, who will measure the greenhouse-gas emissions of every placard, every plane trip, every appetizer prepared and every coffee cup tossed


• No fried food and at least 70% of ingredients should be organic or grown locally


• At least 50% fresh fruits and vegetables in each meal


• Compostable utensils


• Biofuel made from (Coors Brewing Co.) beer waste to power the convention's fleet of flex-fuel vehicles


• Fanny packs made in the USA of undyed, organic fabric


• Banners made from canvas or corn-based bioplastics and recycled afterwards into handbags


• 1000 bicycles for free use provided by Humana and Bikes Belong


• The stage is built with salvaged plywood and other recycled or reused materials


• The podium is finished with eco-friendly paints and soy-based sealants


• Solar and wind energy will be used to partly power the event


• All signs and placards made from post-consumer recycled or biodegradable materials and recycled afterwards


• 160 miles of cable laid for the convention will be recycled afterwards


• Lightbulbs have been replaced with energy-efficient models


• Water spigots have been retrofitted with water-saving models


• Water filling stations will be installed to refill empty water bottles

baabaaZuZu - Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week

baabaaZuZu (Lake Leelanau MI) was started in 1994 by Sue and Kevin Burns. baabaaZuZu makes clothing from items that would otherwise be discarded. All clothing is made from 100% recycled materials, primarily wool and tweed. Most of the supply comes from second hand shops. Each product is unique but all have a common pocket and hand sewn blanket stitch. The product line consists of jackets, vests, hats, scarves, mittens, purses & bags, pins, and Christmas stockings.

Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week: If they can do it, so can you!

Greyston Bakery - Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week

Greyston Bakery (Yonkers NY) is an example of social entreprenuership at its finest. The for-profit bakery was started to provide employment opportunities and economic renewal for this inner-city community. Their website states, " "We don't hire people to bake brownies; we bake brownies to hire people."

All profits go to support the Greyston Foundation which offers affordable childcare for the community, affordable housing for homeless and low income families, and affordable health care for persons with HIV. The bakery's facility was selected as a Top Ten Green Project in 2004 for their use of natural light, rooftop gardens, efficient machinery, and the use of outdoor air to cool baked goods. The bakery produces many traditional baked goods, but they are probably best known as the exclusive supplier of brownies for Ben & Jerry's ice cream products.

Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week: If they can do it, so can you!

Zambezi Organic Forest Honey - Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week

Zambezi Organic Forest Honey (Oxford OH) was founded by two former Peace Corps volunteers who spent time in Zambia Africa. "The Lunda people of northwestern Zambia have wild-crafted honey from wild forest bees for over 500 years. Sustainable organic beekeeping is a way of life for the Lunda people, who use honey as food, to make mead, or as a natural medicine."

"The remote Miombo forests of Zambia have one of the highest densities of wild bee colonies in the world. Spanning more than 11,000 square miles, these pristine forests cradle the headwaters of the mighty Zambezi River. Untouched by modern civilization, this is one of the last remaining biologically diverse ecosystems in the world. By helping Zambian farmers access new markets for their organic honey, we help them to value and preserve their vital forest ecosystem" by generating a viable income from a forest resource other than deforestation.

Zambian beekeepers who register with the company cooperative gain access to free training on sustainable beekeeping, agriculture, and forestry practices; free education for literacy, mathematics, and small-business skills; free beekeeping supplies; and farmers are under no obligation to sell solely to the company, fostering further economic growth of the region. They pay, on average, 40% above market prices for the organic honey and their collective currently has 5000 registered beekeepers. In addition, "Zambezi Honey donates a portion of profits back to Zambia for projects such as malaria prevention, HIV/AIDS education, school scholarships, and rural-income generation grants."

When you purchase Zambezi Organic Forest Honey, you "can have an impact on environmental health and on farmers who live and work halfway around the world."

Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week: If they can do it, so can you!

White Bear Racquet & Swim - Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week

White Bear Racquet & Swim (White Bear Lake, MN) has fully embraced sustainability.

The sustainability section of their website outlines the many initiatives that they have undertaken in their quest for a more environmentally-friendly facility. Here is a sampling:

• They replaced incandescent lights and increased natural lighting, both of which resulted in decreased energy usage.


• Replaced chlorine with a salt water system.


• Replaced a five tennis court bubble with a permanent, super insulated tennis building featuring in court radiant heat, cooling and heating powered by ground source heat pumps, and a super efficient lighting system (courts 1-5 in the old bubble used $44,744 worth of natural gas to heat. During the same time, courts 6-10 in the new building used less than $300 to heat.)


• Installed water-saving showerheads.


• Made improvements outside, such as taking an acre of land they used to water, mow, and fertilize and restoring it to a short-grass praire.


• Reduced waste.


• Use local and organic foods.


• Switched from chemicals to natural green cleaning.


• Office furniture is made from renewable or recycled materials and can all be recycled.

White Bear Racquet & Swim was acquired in September 2007 by the "big box" of fitness centers, Life Time Fitness.

Why do we highlight sustainable and responsible businesses each week? To show the ways in which for-profit businesses are looking beyond profit and are seeking to address their environmental and social impact. Sustainability goes beyond the product sold or service offered and attempts to incorporate positive impacts through all aspects of the business. We hope to show the wide array of possibilities across various businesses and industries.

Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week: If they can do it, so can you!

Extraordinary Photos of Our Impact

Although I intend this blog to be related to BUSINESS issues, I saw some photos today that were particularly disturbing and I felt compelled to share them. Oceans Live offers a teaching guide, entitled What's for Dinner?, about the human impact on seabirds. If you download the lesson and scroll to the end of it, you will see three photos: the beach of an uninhabited remote island, the stomach contents of a dead albatross, and the contents from this bird's stomach laid out for you to see. There is also an accompanying video entitled, Albatross Necropsy. These photos alone provide an irrefutable case for the need to reduce our environmental impact.