The Green Book

Customer Reviews

• Practical, Fascinating and Optimistic  Jun 22, 2007 (55 of 60 found this helpful)

  This is great execution of a fantastic idea. It's non preachy and illustrates the million little things we can do to be greener without any real inconvenience. While it is a practical / how-to kind of a book, it also supports it's suggestions with statistics that are reminiscent of Freakonomics (or an even better book called Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan). Who would have known that if all vinyl floors were made of linoleum instead, we would have saved 600,000 barrels of oil?
  
  There are 50 pages of web-site references, indexed by product and a well executed index for quick reference. The topics are broken down into bite sized pieces and the book just begs to be picked up again and again.
  
  Even the celebrity comments are interesting and well written. Jennifer Aniston doesn't display an ounce of sanctimony when she points out that all we have to do is think about our consumption, and new, greener habits will develop. "If we all begin to learn from one another and sharesome of the things we do, we might just be able to affect the world for the better though these little rituals. In a curious way, this would be a great wave of awareness; doing the right thing without being told to or without having to think why."

• Buying Unwrapped Candy Will Not Save the Planet  Dec 28, 2007 (65 of 75 found this helpful)

  "The Green Book" is not so much a cohesive manuel on how to save the planet as much as a collection of little paragraphs highlighting insignificant things which would have minimal positive impact on the Earth. While there are paragraphs on insulating your home and sustainable forest products most of the book focuses on such things as consuming fewer staples, buying unwrapped candy (wrappers are difficult to recycle) and using non-petroluem based lipstick. (After reading that section I had visions of a woman driving her Denali across town to Whole Foods to buy all new make-up.)
  The book is also riddled with factual errors. For example, in the section on phone books the authors stated that "Telephone books make up almost 10 percent of waste at dump sites." A visitor to the dump would be hard pressed to find a single phone book amongst the thousands of tons of asphalt shingles, old carpet, construction debris and other household waste that really fill the nation's dumps.
  Although somewhat dated a much better book on this subject is "The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists." It details which consumer activities are the most harmful and least harmful and what everyday people can do to lessen their footprint on the environment. While it does not have cute little vignettes by Jennifer Aniston or Justin Timberlake it is written by real scientists who have provide a thought provoking analysis of environmental issues.

• The Green Book -- A must read for everyone!  Jul 8, 2007 (31 of 34 found this helpful)

  I've read all the green guides out there (some, very good) but this is the first book to really change my habits...truly helping me make small changes that I know will have a big impact. By offering so many simple solutions that are so so easy to put into action, my family and I have made a shift in our lifestyle and have become evangelists for green living. Thanks to this book, I will NEVER take another ATM receipt, never eat from my own bag of popcorn and I will ALWAYS bring my cloth bags to the market. I may not be ready to compost...but there are so many other changes I will continue to make in my life -- and will encourage my 3 kids to do also -- that I know will make the planet a better place to live. Buy this book for yourself and for everyone you know.

• This book is good news for all of us!  Jun 22, 2007 (24 of 27 found this helpful)

  Can't afford a hybrid car? Don't have the funds to convert your house into a fully self-sustainable dwelling? Unfortunately, most of us can't help the environment as well as Bill Gates or Al Gore can. However, this book gives us the good news that we can all do our parts every day much more efficiently in little ways. Celebrities impart advice and tips are given to help you and me to make our lives a little greener. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to help save the world on a low budget!
  
  - Jeff
  Gimundo
  Good News...Served Daily

• Stays true to its vision of serving as the go-to, accessible, reason-based green guide  Jul 31, 2007 (17 of 19 found this helpful)

  The power of The Green Book lies in its strict adherence to its vision: to make a practical, accessible guide for the average consumer to live a little more greenly, one day at a time. The Green Book is not revolutionary in the scientific concepts or practical advice presented. The strength is that all these tips are collected together in a small book, with the rationale behind each idea. Yes, you could probably dig up all this information elsewhere on the Internet, but who would want to?
  
  I just read an energy saving "tip" on my electric company's website saying that a mom fed her kids off paper plates for the whole summer to save energy running the dishwasher. So she saved water and electricity at the cost of trees, landfill space, and manufacturing waste? When that's the quality of information you can find for free on the Internet, I'll pay $10 for a well-written, well-researched, and heavily endorsed green guide.
  
  This is the guide for everyone who liked the concept of the July 2007 Live Earth concerts and wants to start taking one step at a time to live a greener life. If you can't afford a Prius or retrofit your home with solar panels, look no further. You still can make a dent in your energy footprint, and without becoming obsessive about the topic. The Green Guide will make you cognizant of what your shower, air conditioning, computer use, and buying habits do to the environment and the power of small changes if enough people adopt them.
  
  The book is structured into chapters on the functional areas where you can apply tips: at home, work, school, while traveling, while shopping, and so on. The tips apply not just to saving Mother Earth, but to keeping our own bodies healthy (bicycling outside when you have the least exposure to smog, not using plastic containers to avoid chemical leaching). The Green Book made me think in new ways about environmental consciousness. Buying local made toys saves petroleum that would have been used to ship them across the Pacific from Asian countries. If you are going to buy a non-replantable Christmas tree, go for a live one instead of an artificial ones, because the artificial ones have a short 6 year-life span and end up in landfills with their PVC and lead waste. Paper or plastic? Go for paper, because they baggers will fill more groceries per bag, and paper has a better chance of being recycled.
  
  The Green Book is complete with an exhaustive guide to online references for more information.