Green Books Guides publishing
I discovered a specialist publisher in the UK recently that focuses on publishing green books. In other words, handbooks for companies and other organisations that need to promulgate green behaviour amongst their staff.
Green Book Guides publishes a very wide range of handbooks, including the well known Transition Handbook and other titles all aimed at motivating people to take environmentally friendly steps like biking to work more, making more use of compost bins more, cutting down on food wastage and reducing water usage.
It’s an unusual publisher in that it has a goal to improve the world’s environment rather than just produce books about a particular niche topic. It tackles head on the problem that we all face as individuals: that the environment is our mutually shared problem but that we
need to act as individuals to improve things. Education of course is key to helping people change their behaviour in a way that fosters good environmental practices and this is where Green Books Guides comes in. It distributes its titles via existing organisations such as government agencies and businesses in order to reach groups of people who then can take actions individually but with the support of a culture of change: if everyone in a company gets a handbook on greening the office then it is much more likely that individuals will make changes than if they bought a single copy from a bookshop.
So if you want a book about reducing energy consumption, stopping food waste or how to make your office greener they are worth a look. In fact many government and quasi-governmental organisations (quangos in the UK) are actively charged with implementing environmental change targets so that countries can meet their environmental obligations. These organisations benefit from bulk purchase discounts which makes sense but even if you are an individual buyer, you can always learn something new.