Read for the Planet

I was going to do this as a holiday gift idea — which it most absolutely is but decided that it warrants it’s own post. Void of the holiday gift category.

Eco-Libris is this very neat website that’s promoting eco-savvy by means of reading and books. Their goal is a world where books and reading does not have a detrimental affect on the planet. Books are; as we well know mostly paper. And we all know paper comes from trees. As a big reader myself I do get stressed out about books vs. the planet. If you’re wrestling with this too then Eco-Libris can help.

Eco-Libris is doing something akin to balancing. Balancing books and trees. How it works is you decide how many books to balance out and Eco-Libris will plant a tree for each book balance. providing you now with a simple and affordable way to do something about it. All you have to do is to choose how many books you want to balance out with Eco-Libris, pay for it online, and a tree will be planted for each of these books.

I recently received an email with the following helpful information from Raz, who works with Eco-Libris.

“The process itself is fairly simple – upon entering our website, 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 books’ sleeves.

We have partnered with three highly respected US and UK registered non-profit organizations that work in collaboration with local communities in developing countries to plant the trees. These trees are planted in high ecological and sustainable standards in Latin America and Africa, where deforestation is a crucial problem, and 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.

We hope that people who buy books as gifts these holidays (and a book is always a great present) will green up their gift with us, balance the gift book and add our sticker to it.”

Right now another cool deal Eco-Libris has going is their own holiday gift guide that can help you find the best green-minded books for gift giving.

Overall I think this is an excellent idea and a great gift too. If you are concerned about how your reading habits affect the environment check out Eco-Libris today.