EcoLibris means greener books

In the raging debate about whether paperback or eBooks are better, one thing that can't be denied is that paperback books take trees to make, while ebooks simply require a new digital file. While digital files have their own carbon footprint through the energy required to create and read them, the need for paper in a book is immediate and tangible, keeping it top of  mind.

When I was working on self-publishing my own novel in paperback form, I went out looking for ways to minimize or mitigate the impact it would have on how many resources it took to create the book itself.

I found EcoLibris. This company was founded by Raz Goldelnik to address just such an issue. Goldelnik is … and has been active in the green space for years. His EcoLibris service is intended as a way to help offset the carbon footprint of printing paperback and hardcover books.

The process is as simple as signing up for EcoLibris on their website, then keeping track of how many of your self-published books you sell, logging that on their site each month, and paying XYZ to them based on that number. EcoLibris takes care of the rest, putting your donation toward the purchase and planting of trees.

It's not a perfect solution, and it's hard to definitively quantify the amount of paper that goes into a book including waste and the amount of energy it takes to harvest and process that paper, but it is something. Just the act of putting the EcoLibris logo on your book is doing your part to raise the awareness for each buyer of that book that yes, they are impacting the environment through this purchase.

Even greater is the impact of you, as an author, choosing to make a public statement about the fact that you are doing what you can to reimburse the forest for helping you to create that book.

Image courtesy of EcoLibris