The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time (Paperback)

~ (Author), Thomas M. Kostigen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Environmental matters get the star treatment in The Green Book. Rogers and Kostigen address the fact that Americans endanger the balance of the ecosystem by the amount of waste we produce, the amount of water we use, and the amount of energy we consume, and celebrities, including Robert Redford, Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Aniston, Faith Hill, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., contribute observations and suggestions for living green. In the hope that the glamour of the A-list will make discussion of environmental challenges more palpable, Rogers and Kostigen establish 12 aspects of our habitat, such as home, work, and school, and suggest better lifestyle choices in each arena. Small adjustments in the way we consume and dispose of resources add up to significant and positive environmental effects. Illustrating the results of green actions with descriptive rather than numerical analyses, Rogers and Kostigen write, for example, that if everyone in the U.S. used one less paper napkin per day, in a year's time we would have saved one billion pounds of landfill waste. An outstanding resource, The Green Book offers hope and practical suggestions. Crossland, Pamela

Product Description

Ellen DeGeneres, Robert Redford, Will Ferrell, Jennifer Aniston, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Martha Stewart, Tyra Banks, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Tiki Barber, Owen Wilson, and Justin Timberlake tell you how they make a difference to the environment.

Inside The Green Book, find out how you can too:

- Turn your thermostat a degree lower in the winter; if every home in America did it we'd save enough energy to power all the home is Iowa for one whole year!

- Take a shorter shower; if America subtracted just one minute from their daily showers we'd save twice the amount of freshwater withdrawn from the Great Lakes every day!

- Reuse ribbon and wrapping paper; if two-thirds of Americans each saved an arm's length of ribbon this year, we could tie a bow around the earth!

With wit and authority, authors Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen provide hundreds of solutions for all areas of your life, pinpointing the smallest changes that have the biggest impact on the health of our precious planet.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (June 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307381358
• ISBN-13: 978-0307381354
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,481 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #6 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Conservation > Environmentalism
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  #29 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Civil > Environmental

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical, Fascinating and Optimistic, June 22, 2007

By	S. J. Raaen "steve r" (NYC, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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."

66 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Buying Unwrapped Candy Will Not Save the Planet, December 28, 2007

By	John Goodin (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"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.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Green Book -- A must read for everyone!, July 8, 2007

By	Romi Lassally (los angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.