21st Guru

I came across a specialist publisher in the UK not long ago that focuses on publishing green books. In other words, handbooks for businesses and similar organisations that want to promote green behaviour amongst their staff.

Green Book Guides publishes a very wide range of handbooks, including the Transition Handbook and other titles aimed at motivating people to take environmentally useful steps such as bicycling to work more, using compost bins more, reducing food waste 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 titles about a particular niche topic. It tackles head on the problem that we all face: that the environment is our shared problem but that we
must 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 an organisation gets a handbook on say, 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 (so called 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.