Drink - Hall Wines

Let's raise a 1GreenProduct.com toast to Hall Wines. 

This winery company has more than five hundred acres of prime Napa Valley vineyards devoted to the classics - Cabernet Sauvignon (2005, $39.99), Merlot (2005, $27.99) and Sauvignon Blanc (2007, $19.99).

The wines are not only tasty to drink (do I detect hints of peach in the bouquet of the summery Sauvignon Blanc), they're also pretty darn friendly to the Earth.

Hall is still in the first year of its three-year Organic certification process, but it's off to a good start with its commitment to use only natural products for weed and pest control. 

If you want to know why this is important, just check out this recent AFP story on pesticide contamination in wines sold in the EU. Anyone want to bet that US wines are any better? 

In addition, Hall says it plants cover crops in all its vineyards to minimize erosion and the sedimentation of locla waterways. Modern farming requires the use of fuel to run machines. At least Hall uses 50% biodiesel to run its machinery. The National Biodiesel Board points out that biodiesel is renewable, biodegradable, less toxic than table salt, domestically produced and produces fewer emissions than petroleum diesel. 

Where to buy:
Pick up a few bottles in person at the Hall wineries in St. Helena or Rutherford.

Can't make the trip? Provided your state allows you to accept wine shipments, you can shop online at Hall's website or from sites like Wine.com.   

You can also find Hall Wines in stock at many Whole Foods Markets.

Children / Toys - Peter Rabbit...Naturally Better

Everybody loves bunny rabbits (except for a certain Fudd).

But for the rest of us, rabbits are lovable if mischievous creatures, and Peter Rabbit is one of the most adorable rabbits of all.

Created by author Beatrix Potter back in 1902, Peter Rabbit has been captivating children ever since with his adventures.

Now the bunny is back and better than ever in a new collection of Naturally Better Peter Rabbit books, toys and other products.

There's something for everyone in the Naturally Better collection.

New stuffed animal versions of Peter Rabbit and his sisters Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-Tail from Kids Preferred are reportedly made out of 100-percent certified organic cotton and other eco-friendly materials. These buns come in PVC-free packaging made from recycled materials.

FYI, the spokesperson who represents Peter Rabbit Naturally Better told me that each company making goods for the collection has commited to a 'Corporate Social Responsibility Charter' that guides the manufacturing, marketing and packaging of the products.

Families with infants can pick up Peter Rabbit Organics - Naturally Better toiletries by Eco Natura including shampoo and baby balm. The products reportedly meet strict USDA-certified organic standards and come in bottles that are free of Bisphenol A.

Meanwhile, families in the States will finally get access to the Peter Rabbit Organics foods that have been delighting UK families for years. The foods will be USDA-certified organic and, if the UK products are any guide, will not contain any added salt, sugar or artificial ingredients.

And of course since Peter Rabbit began as a book, it's only natural that the Peter Rabbit...Naturally Better collection will include a baby record book, two board books and a special edition hardcover version of the classic Peter Rabbit stories. All of these will be printed on recycled paper or FSC-accredited paper, using vegetable-based inks.

Hm...vegetable based inks? Sounds like the sort of thing a rabbit would like!

Where to buy:

You can find the Peter Rabbit Naturally Better stuffed animals at FAO Schwarz ($18-30).

Look for the Peter Rabbit Organics toiletries ($9.99-14.99) in the Whole Body department of Whole Foods stores nationwide starting later this month or early next month.

The organic foods are scheduled to start hitting the shelves of fine food stores in September.

You'll have to twiddle your paws until January when the Peter Rabbit...Naturally Better books bounce into your local bookstore and show up online at retailers like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Food - Kopali Supergood Superfoods

Sometimes I just find advertising really confusing.

For example, I never understood those jam ads that said, "With a name like Smucker's, it has to be good."®

Why did it have to be good? Does the name Smucker's somehow intrinsically embody goodness?

On the other hand, with a name like Supergood Superfoods, you're certainly creating some high expectations.

Created by Kopali Organics, all 10 varieties of Supergood Superfoods are certified Organic according to USDA standards. Kopali says that means a government-approved certifier has checked the organic standards each farm, producer and processor involved in the production of Supergood Superfoods.

Kopali quotes the standards from the USDA's National Organic Program (NOP):

Organic food is produced by farmers who emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations... Organic food is produced without using most conventional pesticides; fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge; bioengineering; or ionizing radiation.

Four varieties of the Supergood Superfoods (Mango, Pineapple, Mulberry and Goldenberry) contain just organic dried foods with nothing added at all - no sugar, no oil, no sulfites.

I thought maybe Kopali had created the term 'superfood', but according to Wikipedia, usage of the word stretches back more than 90 years to mean a food with lots of beneficial phytochemicals (compounds derived from plants or fruits).

Kopali's Supergood Superfoods certainly seem to fit that bill. Take the Goldenberries. These puppies are packed with Vitamin A (81% in a 1.8-ounce serving) and dietary fiber (20%).

I don't believe I'd ever tried a goldenberry before, which isn't too surprising since apparently goldenberries are one of the Lost Crops of the Incas. But now that Kopali has rediscovered this lost crop, I hope others jump onto the goldenberry band wagon. Simultaneously sweet and tart with a bit of crunch, the experience of eating a goldenberry is a bit like biting into a slice of honey-soaked lemon (only less messy).

Have a sweeter tooth? Indulge in one of the five varieties of Supergood Superfoods covered in Fair Trade Certified™ dark chocolate. The chocolate enrobes cacao nibs, goji berries, espresso beans, banana or mulberries. I tried the Chocolate Goji Berries and have to say that the chocolate sort of cloaks the organic berry hiding inside, but it felt good to know that I was getting 23% of my Vitamin A while nibbling on a chocolatey snack!

Incidentally, it doesn't show up in the Nutrition Facts box, but according to a December 2007 article in the UK Telegraph, goji berries are #1 when it comes to concentrations of antioxidants (substances that may protect your body's cells against damaging free radicals).

Finally, if you just can't make up your mind, you can always choose the Supergood Superfoods Organic Mix - goji berries, mulberries, pistachios and cacao nibs.

We don't have any gripes about the taste, presentation or ethos behind Supergood Superfoods, but we do have two quibbles. First, all the Supergood Superfoods come packaged in plastic pouches. Since the pouches themselves are kind of small, you'll go through a lot of plastic if you nibble a Supergood Superfoods snack every day.

Second, with an MSRP of $3.99 for 1.8 ounces (which translates into approximately $36/lb.), you'd need a SuperBankAccount to make Supergood Superfoods a daily snack.

At prices like those, you might want to grow your own Superfoods. Incidentally, that Telegraph article did say that goji berry plants are tough, self-fertile and easy to grow, so if you're looking for a new gardening project...

Where to buy:
According to Kopali, you should be able to find Supergood Superfoods at every Whole Foods Market for an MSRP of $3.99 each.

Sweepstakes Tip -- Green Your Decor & SuzyJack

Looking for an eco-friendly way to decorate your walls or organize your desk?

Green Your Decor, one of our favorite sites for green product info, has the scoop on nifty pencil cups and wall hangings from SuzyJack.

As Green Your Decor points out, SuzyJack uses recycled paper, soy-based inks and wind power in manufacturing its products.

Now until September 1st, Green Your Decor is running a sweepstakes where one lucky winner will get a 2 SuzyJack decorative Iris wall panels. Here's the contest link.

And remember, if you want extra entries to our own 1GreenProduct.com Act2GreenSmart Sweepstakes, you can still blog about the contest or invite your friends to sign up for the mailing list before 11:59 p.m. on August 28. Good luck!

Office - Bagasse Notebooks, Composition Books and Writing Pads from Staples

Some people get pessimistic about the state of the environment, but I am continually filled with optimism thinking of human ingenuity.

Sure, our curiosity gets us into all sorts of messes, but it also helps us come up with ingenious solutions to reducing waste and producing useful Green products.

Consider the example of bagasse, a.k.a. sugarcane waste - the plant fiber that's left over after the sugarcane has been processed and crushed to make sugar.

What would you do with this crushed sugarcane? (I have a sweet tooth, so I might suck on the cane a little just to see if there were any sugar left, but that's not the best answer in this case.)

Office products company Staples® decided to use the bagasse to create a collection of eco-friendly notebooks, notepads and filler paper. These paper products are manufactured from a formula that includes 80% bagasse and marketed under the Staples EcoEasy™ brand.

Staples says that the quality of bagasse paper is "just as good as tree-based paper," but we think that's incorrect.

In our humble opinion, the bagasse paper looks and feels even better than tree-based paper. There's a sort of silky smoothness and sheen to the paper that we rarely experience in tree-based paper.

Now we don't mean to diss trees, we'd just rather see them standing tall, pumping out oxygen, providing shade and making the world a beautiful place to live rather than pulped into paper.

Could bagasse paper ever replace tree-made paper entirely? One other bagasse benefit to consider (per Staples) is that sugarcane can reach maturity in just 15-16 months, where trees apparently require at least 10 years to mature. This seems to make bagasse a much more efficient (and did we mention sweeter?) renewable resource. Although there are probably many other variables to consider, such as how much paper you can get out of a 16-month old acre of bagasse versus a 10-year old acre of trees.

According to Staples' media reps, the bagasse paper can go straight into the usual paper recycling stream. One more point in its favor...

Where to buy:

Currently, you can only find these bagasse notebooks ($1.99-$2.99), composition books ($1.99) and writing pads ($1.99) in Staples stores. Use the handy Store Locator to find a location near you.

Don't Forget:

You can still enter the 1GreenProduct.com Act2GreenSmart sweepstakes that runs until August 28!

Sweepstakes -- Act2GreenSmart Bags

Trying to kick the plastic bag habit is a good thing.

Doing while using a bag made from recycled plastic bottles truly constitutes poetic justice.

That's why we're pleased to recommend the versatile tote bags from Act2GreenSmart (formerly known as Shoreline).

According to the tags on Act2GreenSmart's bags, 1 billion plastic PET water and soda bottles are dumped in landfills worldwide every day.

Cutting down that waste stream won't be easy. Partly it will depend on consumers deciding to drink tap water and drink from environmentally-friendly reusable bottles like those made by Kleen Kanteen.

The other way to reduce the waste stream while demand for disposable bottles remains high would be to figure out a way to reuse the bottles as raw materials for other consumer goods.

That's what Act2GreenSmart has done by recycling PET bottles into stylish totes, messenger bags, laptop bags and shoulder pouches. According to the company, making one tote bag saves 10 16-ounce PET bottles from the landfill. The tags on the tote ($39.99) - and on other products like the shoulder pouch ($29.99) - make it clear that 100% of the bag's internal and external fabric comes from recycled post-consumer PET bottles.

Both the bags we tested us impressed us with their versatility and build quality. The tote in particular seems like good value. We like the reinforced, structured base and the internal pockets and dividers. Our only quibble is that the handles seem slightly puny for a bag this tough.

In addition to the tote and shoulder pouch, Act2GreenSmart also makes messenger bags and laptop holders from recycled PET.

The company even has a shopping bag made from #5 polypropylene type plastic. From what I've heard, #5 plastics are more difficult to recycle. Usually, you see #5 getting made into something rugged like plastic lumber, so it's exciting to see that Act2GreenSmart has figured out a way to remake the material into a shopping bag. (You may still want to avoid consumption of #5 plastics like many yogurt and sour cream containers if your local recycling authority does not accept that type of plastic. Here in NYC, we're still limited to recycling #1 PET and #2 HDPE plastics.

Where to buy:

Order Act2GreenSmart bags ($29.99 - $74.99) and other eco-friendly products directly through the company's affiliated e-commerce site - AGreenPlace4U.com

Act2GreenSmart has generously offered an exclusive discount code just for 1GreenProduct.com readers. Order your bags through AGreenPlace4U.com and get 15% off any order by using the code "aug1GreenProduct". The discount is good from now until September 30.

Alternatively, you can find Act2GreenSmart bags at both online and offline third-party retailers. Note that some of these links may still mention the Shoreline name. Check to make sure you're buying the new Act2GreenSmart designs if you want to help keep PET bottles out of the landfills.

How to win:

Yep, it's another exciting 1GreenProduct.com Sweepstakes! Two lucky winners will receive either an Act2GreenSmart Messenger Bag (Approximate Retail Value $69.99 - $74.99) or an Act2GreenSmart Tote Bag (ARV $39.99).

Entering the sweepstakes is easy. Just sign up for the 1GreenProduct.com email subscription list. Most weeks, you'll get 3 emails from us (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) with news, reviews, discounts and sweepstakes announcements on great Green products.

Note that you must verify your email address and thus activate your subscription in order to actually enter the sweepstakes. To do this, just respond to the activation email that Feedburner will send you.

Already a subscriber?

Kick back and relax, because you my friend are already automatically entered into this and all subsequent 1GreenProduct.com sweepstakes.

Want more chances to win?

This time, you have two ways to get additional entries.

1) As usual, you can blog about the Act2GreenSmart Sweepstakes and get three (3) extra entries. Just send us an email with a link to your blog posting.

2) Invite your friends to enter the Sweepstakes. For every friend who signs up for our email list, you can get 1 additional entry up to a maximum of ten (10) additional entries. For example, if 5 friends join, you get 5 additional entries. Just make sure that your friends send us an email after they sign up for the mailing list and mention your email address so that we can give you credit for referring them. (As an added bonus, your friends will of course get entered into all future sweepstakes as long as they remain active subscribers.)

When it ends: 11:59 p.m. EDT on August 28, 2008.

How we choose a winner: On August 29, we will pick two (2) winners using an Internet-based random number generator at Random.org.

Our promise: We will never sell your email address to marketers or spammers. Your email address is used solely to deliver 1GreenProduct.com news, reviews, discounts and sweepstakes announcements.

One entry, many great prizes: Remember, as long as you remain an active 1GreenProduct.com email subscriber, you'll automatically be entered into all future sweepstakes. We'll try to run an average of at least one sweepstakes per month.

The fine print: Unfortunately, for legal and/or logistical reasons, we apparently have to limit the sweepstakes to residents of the 50 United States and D.C. who are 18 years of age or older.

Please play fair. You can only subscribe once to the email list. If you want additional sweepstakes entries, please either blog about the contest or invite your friends to sign up for our email list as described above. To read the complete list of Sweepstakes rules, follow this link.

Thanks for your participation and good luck to all!

Update - This contest is now listed on Sweepstakes Advantage, SweepsGoat and Swisher Sweetie.

PS - Congratulations to the third winner of our Green Works Dishwashing Liquid sweepstakes - Jamie from Rome, New York. We're still waiting to hear back from the owners of two more winning email addresses. If they don't respond, we'll eventually hold a supplemental drawing and pick two alternate winners, so stay tuned...

Green Works Sweepstakes - We have our winners! // New sweepstakes starts tomorrow!

Thanks to all our current email subscribers and all the new folks who signed up for the email list to enter the 1GreenProduct.com Green Works(TM) Dishwashing Liquid Sweepstakes.

(Please note - If you're viewing the blog with Microsoft's Explorer browser, the ending of the Sweepstakes post may be mashed into an earlier post for Beleaf organic cotton tote. We're not sure how that happened or how to fix the problem, but we do recommend viewing the blog via the Firefox browser where everything looks just fine!)

The Sweepstakes ended Tuesday night at 11:59 p.m. EDT and yesterday we picked 5 winners, each of whom will receive 1 bottle of Green Works Dishwashing Liquid.

In the interests of transparency, we are pasting below screengrabs from Random.org showing how we randomly choose the winners from all active email subscribers. (Note that if you never verified your email address, we're unable to include you in the sweepstakes drawing.)

Three of the winners have already responded and two have given us permission to personally congratulate them on this site. So a hearty congratulations to Kendra from Greensboro, North Carolina and to Jackie from Ocala, Florida!!

Meanwhile, even if you didn't win the Green Works dishwashing liquid, we hope you'll stick around to find out all about the great green products we're reviewing these days on 1GreenProduct.com.

We can tell you that we're running one more August 1GreenProduct.com Sweepstakes starting tomorrow in which all current email subscribers will automatically be entered.

This time, we're planning to experiment with a new way for you to get extra Sweepstakes entries!

Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment or send us an email with your comments or suggestions on future sweepstakes or the site in general.

- Aaron Dalton, 1GreenProduct.com

Office - Office Depot Green products

I once had a job where I was in charge of ordering office supplies. That meant I got to browse through the big catalog of supplies and see the staggering variety of envelopes, file folders, calendars and other essentials of modern office life.

I don't recall many - if any - recycled products in that catalog, but fortunately things are beginning to change.

In April, Office Depot® announced the launch of a new line of 'Office Depot® Green™' products including copy paper, hanging folders, all-purpose wipes, manila folders, hand soap, cleaning sprays, academic planners and note pads.

Some of these products are better and greener than others. The 100% recycled hanging folders ($9.99) are made from minimum 95% post-consumer recycled content. Not only that, but they look and feel almost the same as conventional hanging folders.

On the other hand, some of the other products like the perforated writing pads ($5.99), weekly/monthly planners ($8.99) and manila folders ($21.29) contain only 30-40% post-consumer content.

It would be great to see Office Depot increase the percentages of post-consumer content in some of these products, especially items like the manila file folders where having a uniform writing surface is not of paramount importance.

Still, there are plenty of office products on the market that contain 0% recycled content. If you've been buying those supplies, you can take a giant green step forward by switching to Office Depot Green products.

FYI, we didn't get to test any of the soaps or cleaners first-hand, except for the all-purpose wipes ($5.99). Honestly, we weren't terribly impressed with their green-ness. For one thing, they come in a big plastic tub. For another, the label says the cleaning solution used on the wipes is "formulated with less toxic chemicals than traditional cleaning products". OK, less toxic is good. But non toxic is better. And since there's no ingredient list, you can't judge the toxicity for yourself or do any research on it. Finally, the label calls the wipes biodegradable, but an asterisk qualifier points out that only the cleaning agent is biodegradable, not the wipe itself.

Where to buy:
Find Office Depot Green products at more than 1,200 Office Depot stores nationwide or buy online at Office Depot's website.

Travel - Buttermilk Falls Inn, Blue Ridge Destination Center, HomeAway.com, Hotel Rosa Alpina, Hotel SO, Earthsong, Callaway Gardens, Aerial Trams

In the summer, New York City (1GreenProduct's home base) can be a summer festival, but the heat and crowds can also get a bit overwhelming.

That's why it was so nice to get away for a couple of days last week to the historic Buttermilk Falls Inn, located about two hours north of the city along the Hudson River.

What makes Buttermilk Falls Inn a great destination for eco-minded travelers looking for a little rest and relaxation?

1. The organic kitchen garden and the organic eggs from the resident heritage breed chickens. This organic bounty goes into delicious and beautiful breakfast dishes such as scrambled eggs with cheese and broccoli or raspberry pancakes. As Local Harvest says, "The best organic food is what's grown closest to you." It's hard to get more local than an organic garden on the property.

2. A new spa that uses solar and geothermal systems to heat the mineral pool, sauna and steam room. The spa also features natural and organic skincare lines such as Dr. Alkaitis, Spa Technologies and Jurlique in its treatments.

3. The Inn's 70 acres of bucolic riverfront property provide plenty of room for hiking and strolling. You can borrow bikes to ride on gravel trails or the lightly trafficked local roads. You can play a bit of tennis or take stale bread down to the pond and feed the ducks, swans and one very aggressive goose.

4. Technically, you don't need a car. It's possible to reach the Inn via a 2-hour train ride on Metro North from Grand Central station. You get off at the Poughkeepsie station (last stop on the Hudson Line) and then take a $20 cab ride to the Inn. Note that the inn only serves breakfast, so you'll want to bring some of your own food and perhaps ask for one of the suites with its own kitchen, like the spacious and comfortable Gindelle Suite where we spent our time.

(Tip - If you do take the train up to Buttermilk Falls Inn, sit on the left side going north and the right side on the way back to NYC. You'll enjoy beautiful views of the Hudson River most of the way.)

Service was unfailingly polite and cordial at the Inn. Since travelers with cars will often head off during the day to explore nearby destinations like Hyde Park, you may have the property mostly to yourself if you decide to lazily explore the grounds and gardens.

Room rates range from $225 - $450 per night, although you can sometimes find discounted rates and special promotions.

Here's some more Green travel news we've uncovered recently -

• North Carolina - Travelers to the Blue Ridge Parkway can enjoy the new LEED quality Destination Center providing information and orientations services inside a building with active/passive heating and cooling, radiant floor heating and a green roof.

• Instead of staying at an eco-friendly hotel, why not consider an eco-friendly vacation rental? Sites like HomeAway.com can get you the keys to a villa in Spain that uses solar power for lighting and reuses pool water to irrigate the garden. Or how about an organic Italian farm with free range animals, olive groves and of course solar panels to heat water and make some of the electricity? Another Spanish mountainside home gets its energy from both solar panels and wind turbines, while giving visitors a panoramic view of the Mediterranean.

• According to a PR representative for Hotel Rosa Alpina in the Italian Dolomite mountains, the hotel (part of the Relais and Chateaux group) will soon start getting its power from a brand new water-driven power plant. The hydropower plant will apparently produce enough energy to power the entire town of San Cassiano. Nightly rates at Rosa Alpina range from approximately $440 - $540, depending on the season.

• Travelers to Christchurch, New Zealand are "so" lucky to have the option of staying at Hotel SO, a property that uses recycled paper throughout the hotel, 100% biodegradable vegetable-based soaps and shampoos, non-hazardous water-based cleaning products. Want to explore the city? Hotel SO has bicycles available to tool around town. Back in the rooms, water-saving showers and fluorescent or LED lights help you save energy and water. Amazingly, all these eco benefits come wrapped in what looks (from the website) like a gorgeous modern package with flat-screen televisions, wireless Internet and a touch-screen virtual concierge. Even better, rates start as low as ~$63 per night for a double room.

• Looking for more remote and wild (but still luxurious) New Zealand lodgings? You can also check out the Earthsong Lodge, about 30 minutes by air from Auckland on Great Barrier Island. The walls at Earthsong are built from the leftover stems of harvested wheat grain using straw bale construction methods. New Zealand Rimu timber used in window and door joinery were recovered and recycled from a demolished factory. Solar panels and low energy appliances reduce Earthsong's dependence on fossil fuels. The lodge even has its own aerobic treatment plant to clean waste water to the point where it is used to irrigate the resort's organic gardens. Read all about Earthsong's environmental program here. Since Earthsong is located on a rather secluded island, its room rates include airport transfers, cocktails, dinner and breakfast. Still, those nightly rates are rather steep with the least expensive option a bit less than $700 per night for a double room.
  

• Callaway Gardens, a 13,000 acre resort in Pine Mountain Georgia (about 80 miles southwest of Atlanta) recently opened a new LEED certified Lodge and Spa. The resort claims to have eliminated the waste of 200,000 disposable plastic bottles by using refillable shampoo and conditioner dispensers. Housekeeping chemicals are certified 'green' by GreenSeal. All conventional lightbulbs have been replaced with energy-efficient CFL bulbs. Native plantings reduce the need for irrigation, and Callaway Gardens has gone a step further in water conservation by even installing waterless urinals. We encountered a hiccup in the reservations system when we tried to check on sample nightly rates, but Callaway Gardens is advertising special "Back to School" packages through the end of September with rates starting as low as $169 per night.

• If you're heading to St. Lucia, Costa Rica, Dominica or Jamaica and looking for a way to explore a rain forest canopy without the heart-thumping zipline experience, consider a ride on a Rain Forest Aerial Tram. The slower pace of the tram allows for an unhurried ride (up to 90 minutes in the case of the Dominica tram), giving you a chance to examine the beautiful flora and fauna instead of having everything rush by in a green blur.
  

FYI, 1GreenProduct.com will be visiting Europe next month to personally check out some of the green travel attractions in Belgium, France, the Czech Republic and Austria. Stay tuned for our reviews!

And if you come across any green hotels or destinations in your own travels, please drop us a line and we'll try to include your suggestions in a future post.

Reminder -- You still have a few days left to sign up for the 1GreenProduct.com email list and thereby enter the 1GreenProduct.com Green Works Dishwashing Liquid Sweepstakes.

Technology - Eco-Libris

Let's say you love books (I do), but you also love trees (me too).

This presents a conundrum, because books are generally made out of trees. Even worse, most books are not made from recycled paper, but from virgin paper.

Deforestation is obviously a huge global problem. If you want scary stats, just browse Wikipedia, where you can learn that between 1990 and 2005, Nigeria lost 79% of its old growth forests.

How much does your reading habit contribute to the problem? Eco-Libris says that 20 million trees are cut down annually in the U.S. to make books.

If you're feeling guilty about your stack of bestsellers, you have a few options:

1) Increase your use of the library. Sharing books lowers the total number of books in circulation. Not great perhaps for authors or the publishing industry, but less wasteful and better for the environment.

2) Use BookSwim, a Netflix-like service that sends you a certain number of books per month through the mail. You pay a flat monthly fee with no late charges. Basically, BookSwim has all the ecological benefits of the library -- with the added advantage of saving you time and gasoline (presuming that you would otherwise drive to the library). Read our complete BookSwim review from June 13.

3) Switch from paper to an e-book reader like the new Amazon Kindle or the Sony Reader. No paper required - plus you can carry dozens of books without needing a wheelbarrow.

4) Plant some trees to offset the ones cut down to give you reading material. This is where Eco-Libris steps back into the picture. Just as some airlines are giving you the option of planting trees to offset the carbon emissions from your flight, Eco-Libris has partnered with various tree-planting organizations (Sustainable Harvest International, RIPPLE Africa and the Alliance for International Reforestation) to fight deforestation.

The cost per tree seems pretty reasonable - you can sponsor the planting of 10 trees for just $10. Economies of scale let you plant 500 trees for just $450 -- in case you want to offset a whole library...

Personally, this math seems a little fuzzy to me. I can't imagine that it takes an entire tree to make one book (even a huge book), but maybe the tree-planting offsets the carbon emissions that go into the production and distribution of the book.

If you want to combine the eco-benefits of tree planting with book-sharing, go right ahead. Eco-Libris has partnered with BookMooch, an online used-book exchange. Basically, BookMooch provides a framework for people all over the world to request certain books and to share books they've finished reading with others who might want them.

The advantage of BookMooch (as compared to BookSwim) is that you don't have to pay a monthly membership fee. The disadvantage (as far as I can tell) is that you'll still incur some costs associated with shipping your books to others, plus the site can't guarantee you'll find the book you're looking for.

Still, if you dig swap meets and you have the time to figure out BookMooch's points system, it might be a fun supplement to the library.

And if you do decide to go that right, you'd probably be jazzed to know that for every 10 trees you plant through Eco-Libris, you can get a free BookMooch point (which basically translates into a moochable book).

Like we said, it's a little complicated. But spend some time nosing around the Eco-Libris and the BookMooch websites and we're confident you'll figure it out. After all, if you care about these sorts of issues, you must be pretty book-smart!

Where to buy:
Contribute to reforestation directly through the Eco-Libris website. Sign up for an account at BookMooch to start mooching.

Sweepstakes -- Green Works™ Dishwashing Liquid

Back in May, we had the pleasure of testing Clorox's Green Works™ line of natural cleaning products.

Now Clorox has just introduced a new Green Works product for the kitchen - Green Works Dishwashing Liquid.

Using plant-based ingredients derived from coconuts and olive oil, the Green Works Dishwashing Liquid promises to cut through grease and loosen cooked-on food while being gentle on your dishes and cookware. As always with Green Works products, the product has not been tested on animals and is apparently both non-allergenic and biodegradable.

But does it work? You betcha!

Unlike some puny natural cleaners, we found that Green Works Dishwashing Liquid sudzed up great and worked just as well as the non-Green cleaners we used in our unenlightened youth.

(Apparently "sudzed up" is not technically a real English phrase, but we would like to submit it for inclusion in the language. You know what we mean, right?)

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