Going Green by the Book

Looking for new ways to go green around the house in 2009? Get out of the house - and into your local bookstore.

Books on eco-friendly living are sprouting up all over, offering tips on remodeling, gardening and shrinking your home’s carbon footprint.

“We’ve been doing green books for the last 25 years and feel like we’ve been wandering in the wilderness. Now the culture has finally caught up, and every publisher is doing green. It’s grown a lot in the last few years,” says Margo Baldwin, president and publisher of Chelsea Green Publishing in White River Junction, Vt., which publishes 25 to 30 green-themed titles per year.

Green topics include growing your own food, building a sustainable home and simple ways to go green. These include recently released popular paperback titles “Living Like Ed: A Guide To Eco-Friendly Life” (Clarkson Potter, 2008), by actor Ed Begley Jr., Hollywood’s premiere green guru. As well as “Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life” by Sophie Uliano (Collins Living, 2008).

And Chelsea Green’s latest 2008 release, “The Carbon-Free Home - 36 remodeling projects to help kick the fossil-fuel habit,” by Stephen and Rebekah Hren, was hailed by “Publishers Weekly” as an “endearing mix of down-to-earth practical solutions and funky DIY projects.”

The book features carbon-reducing tips like how to create edible landscaping and even build a solar oven out of cardboard and aluminum foil to cook stews, soup, bread and cookies.

“A lot of people want to do something about these problems, but they are unsure of what to do or maybe how to do it,” says Stephen Hren, who lives with his wife, Rebekah, in Durham, N.C. “Hopefully we can shed some light on this, especially the fact that you can get to work where you are living now, even if you’re just renting.”

New gardening books due out this year include “Gaia’s Garden: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture” (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009) by Toby Hemenway, who is also an adjunct professor at Portland State University. Other green living books for 2009 include “Clean Sweep” (Skyhorse Publishing, 2009) by Australian author Allison Haynes, which provides easy, practical eco-friendly solutions for cleaning your house. Another is “1000 New Eco Designs and Where To Find Them” (Chronicle Books, 2009) by Rebecca Proctor, which focuses on how to furnish and decorate homes without harming the environment.

New Society Publishers in Canada will publish several new green-themed books in 2009, including “Bothered By My Green Conscience” by Franke James, a Toronto-based artist who dumped her SUV and turned her driveway into a garden. In May, New Society will publish “The Green Teen” by Jenn Savedge, known as the Green Parent by her Web site and previous book.

“The Green Teen gives step by step instructions on things like writing press releases, organizing meetings and petitioning a school board…all things that teens need to know how to do if they want to spread the word about going green,” Savedge says.

For more information on eco-friendly books to help you go green, contact your local bookstore. Or better yet, walk there. It’s the greenest way to go.