I’ve talked about it many times how my family has made changes over the years to be more green. A lot of my choices were obvious like recycling but some were made doing research. I’ve compiled a list of these resources that can be found at your local library, bookstore or used bookstore if you’re lucky enough to have one and of course online. Each book below covers a different element of life like parenting, healthy eating, cleaning green, gardening and much much more. Do you have a favorite source for green living? Share with me and everyone else where you get your green ideas.
Green Goes with Everything by Sloan Barnett
Packed with common sense and sass, product picks and practical tips, Green Goes With Everything is a must-read for anyone who wants to be green AND clean, and for everyone who wants to take simple steps to safeguard the health of their family and the planet.
50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth by John Javna
The 5 million copy bestseller that sparked a green revolution in the 1990’s is back with a new message: The best way to save the Earth is to pick just one issue you care about…and make a sustained, committed effort to work on it. This book shows you how!
Organic Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck (this on e is a personal fave and what got me to make a lot of the changes)
This book has everything! From clearing your clutter to protecting the health and well-being of your family. Further, everyone wants to make a difference, and the ideas in Organic Housekeeping make a difference for our fragile, endangered planet.
Eat Where You Live by Lou Bendrick
Finally–a fresh, funny and positive approach to eating locally! By now you know that everyone is eating locally and sustainable and maybe you want to do it too–to reduce your carbon footprint or just to ensure the freshest, healthiest food for yourself and your family. Whatever the case may be, this easy-to-read, hilarious and informative national guidebook will help you find it, cook it, and enjoy it
Raising Baby Green: The Earth Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth and Baby Care by Alan Greene (seriously, his last name is Greene)
Pediatrician Greene, a leading figure in the green baby movement, enthusiastically discusses everything from what to take with you to the delivery room to questions to ask hospitals/birth centers, about how green they are. “Buying Green” text boxes give contact info for recommended retailers or products of all types, useful for comparison shopping.
Generation Green: The Ultimate Teen Guide to Living an Eco-Friendly Life by Linda Sivertsen and Tosh Sivertsen
We all know about the Earth’s environmental crisis, but there is someone who can truly make a difference: you. If you text your friends or chat with them online, download music to your iPod, or toss bottles and papers into recycling bins, you’re already more eco-savvy than you think. It’s just as easy to do even more to help save the earth, and Generation Green shows you how.
The Big-Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano
The Big-Ass Book of Crafts is packed with ideas for sprucing up your living space; concocting fabulous, all-natural body products; designing your own unique stationery; and creating countless other crafts that will convince your friends and loved ones that you’re the secret love child of Martha Stewart (only much, much cooler).
Garden Girl, Urban Sustainable Living by Patti Moreno (DVD)
Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl, host of Public Televisions’,Farmer’s Almanac TV and how to web video diva invites the world into her home to inspire generations x and generations y to live more in harmony with the natural world. Patti Moreno will help you produce more and consume less in ways that will make you and your family live a healthy lifestyle; by eating an organic diet and save money by growing your own organic produce, as well as, bring up the net worth of your most valuable asset, your home.
Green Your Work: Boost Your Bottom Line While Reducing Your Carbon Footprint by Kim Carlson
Today, many companies are flourishing by delivering high-quality products while pursuing policies that leave the world a cleaner, better place. Those policies can help retain customers, energize employees, and serve as brand-building tools. This book shows managers practical steps to make their companies environmentally responsible while staying profitable and efficient. Environmentalist and businesswoman Kim Carlson shows managers how to green company operations by moving to a paperless office, recycling at work, setting up employee carpools, developing eco-friendly packaging, using green building products, and more. She explains in detail topics ranging from green marketing to setting up a carbon footprint assessment for the company. With this book at their side, managers can turn green into profits.
My family and I have been going through a lot of green changes in the last 7 or so years as well. It's now time to replace our carpet and I'm wanting to make a green choice (chemical free/natural material). Have you come across a good book or website that discusses this? I know we could go with wood, but I love the feel of carpet in bedrooms and our family room. It's just more homey, imo! What do you think?
Goodness, what a wonderful selection of green reads. I must say, I've been making changes rather slowly, need to get my husband on board, because the kids will follow. Thank you for this resource :). BTW, I came over from your husband's blog :).
I love the Big Ass Book of Crafts! Our local library has it, and it's wonderful.
Thanks for sharing these books. I'm a green enthusiast!
I love the Big-ass Book of Crafts. Thanks for the suggestions. I'm off to check them out! =)
This is great–it's so nice to know what good books are out there about going green. Thanks for the list!
Thank you for all of this wonderful information. I've been looking for a good resource book that's user-friendly and offers reasonable tips to further my efforts to live greener and healthier. For example, I'm not going to build solar panels or buy all of my produce from Farmer's Markets, I want advice on what I can do at home and when I'm traveling. I very much appreciate that by clicking on the book titles, I can be directed to the purchase sites. That really helps me out. Thanks for all of the great information.
maggie@mannwieler.com
It is easy to make your life greener – we have our house powered by solar, our own well and we grow our own food. People do not realize that growing your own food save in lots of different ways including but not limited to save the fuel it take to process and transport the fruits and vegetables – also it is so much healthier for your family.
My family and i have been thinking about doing so many green changes, we have plans to start our own farm and start using solar power for our farm and house. We have started little by little by starting a vegetable garden in our small apartmen's deck. I think people should start being more conscious and start making their own small changes to help make this planet better, before we destroy it with all of our bad habits. It would be so great if we could all be conscious together to change how things are affecting this planet which is our home, for a better future for ourselves and our kids, and of course, our mother earth. Thank you for sharing all these useful tips, ideas and links.
I want the Big Ass Book of Crafts! thanks for posting these resources!
For Jill, the first poster, check out some of these sources for healthy flooring. Coopamerica's greenpages have an extensive directory of green resources.
http://coopamerica.org/pubs/greenpages/results.cfm?category=CR&state=&keywords=&Input=Search
Dee
http://newenglandnanny.blogspot.com/
These articles seem inspiring, amusing, wonderful and sad to me. Inspiring because they are getting people to do the right thing and also to keep me going. And I am still learning. Amusing because I have been "green" long before it was "green". Wonderful because so many people are doing this. And a bit sad because it took so long to wake people up. Very good post.
We are (slowly) introducing better ways of doing things into our lifestyle…we recycle, take our own bags to the stores (most of the time), changed out light bulbs for more energy efficient ones, etc. So we will look for even more ways now to put into our lifestyle.
Wonderful list! I’ve been reading my mysteries lately, but since it’s Earth Month I’ll have to catch up on some of these eco-friendly reads. I’m sure a lot of these are available to get for my eReader so I’m going to check them out. Thanks, Melinda! 🙂
happy reading 🙂
So many books! Thanks for sharing, never realized how crazy this topic has gone, now there is more than I can read about it all!
going green can be done in any and every aspect of your life, a little google search is all it takes
True true 🙂
Once you go green, you never…
well, can’t think of anything that rhymes and is funny, but we’ve been greening ourselves too. It’s a life change that is sooo important.
it rubs off on the kids too. Shaun likes to take things to the composter
Great list. We have been teaching our kids as well. I’ve changed a lot of products. It’s something that must be done!
I want to do more too but the recycled paper towels we have aren’t very good. A roll lasts a couple weeks but still I want it to absorb and not rip so easily 🙁