by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

I recently read and posted about The Green Book, The Every Day Guide to Saving The Planet, One Simple Step At A Time. Released last month with several celebrity-endorsements and a shout out on Oprah, this book is the Live Earth of Hollywood. Co-authors, Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen dig in with mainstream moxie. Rogers created and produced the eco-friendly MTV show, Trippin and Kostigen currently writes the “Ethics Monitor” column for Dow Jones MarketWatch.

The web site reveals that The Green Book also supports many non-profit environmental organizations, and provides a national resource guide. You can go here to learn more or buy the book - a must-read for every household and business.

The authors took time to answer some of my questions below:

TAO: If this book is a “starting point”, what are the next steps towards
change and how can this book take people in that direction?

TGB: My hope for this book is that it make green user friendly and accessible. That it reach a broad base of people that may not be aware of how easy it can be to start shifting a habit and how little changes can add up to make a big difference. With that sort of momentum this book will take us all in the right direction.

TAO: How and why did you choose the celebrities that are quoted in your book?

TGB: Any time that you can make your message part of pop culture you are bound to get more attention to your content. By adding 12 celebrities to the book it gives someone 13 different ways into the green book and once they are in there are over 400 solutions of simple shifts of habits that they can do on a daily basis.

TAO: Who do you think will read this book?

TGB: The book was written for everyone. It was set up to follow most of us through our lives and show us all how the little things can be shifted. I am a working mother and tried to start with my day and build from there, but with 12 chapters that include: home, entertainment, shopping, school, health & beauty, sports, business & finance, building, travel, work, communication & technology and going carbon neutral there really is something for everybody in this book!

TAO: What role does local and federal government play in helping people make
these changes?

TGB: I think that they play a crucial role. But if we were to wait for them we may find ourselves out of luck most of the time. Hopefully we will see more support coming from our government, but in the meantime it seems that we have to take matters into our own hands and that is why a book like this is so great. It shows people that they can make a difference. That they can start moving through their day making the shifts and making a difference.

Tags: community, culture, entertainment, people

This entry was posted on Monday, July 16th, 2007 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Green Misc.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.