I recently signed up for email message delivery from a sassy and fun eco hint web site called Ideal Bite. Each day there appears in my inbox some factoid about what we do in our everyday lives, and how we can one little bit to stop the rains from coming (etc.).
One the eve of the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I got an alert telling me that this edition of the book can work to set the standards for the printing industry. “As the last in the best-selling children’s book series of all time, the printing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows novel will use more sustainable paper than any previous book,” the authors write. “And that’s no fiction.”
Now, my expertise is not in printing. I cannot say whether or not this is true, but if it is, it makes me happy and hopeful. The hint is even more wonderful–in my mind–because there is a link to BetterWorld.com. What a great big hearted online bookstore! With their profits, they work in various parts of the world to build libraries and support literacy programs. Buying Rowling’s Book No. 7 from BetterWorld.Com will help to build libraries in Sri Lanka and Nepal. Five of the $25 (USD) price you pay will go to the fund. How cool is that?! After doing a little digging on the web site, and liking what I was seeing, I decided to buy two books for my nephew, Hudson. The two books I chose had two different programs attached to them, so by buying them, I helped two of the 70 literacy programs BetterWorld supports. In addition, their shipping program is set up so that you, the customer, pays a few cents extra to add to carbon offsets. No matter what your opinion is of buying carbon offsets, you have to agree that it is a smart organization that decides to put this up front and is part of the way they do business. Plus, if you live in the US, your shipping is free–anywhere else is $2.97 (USD).
Hudson may not get his books as soon as I had hoped because BetterWorld doesn’t ship internationally overnight — airplane travel for two books probably isn’t necessary anyway– but I do hope that when he receives them, he enjoys them as much as I am chuffed about discovering this new-to-me bookseller.
DeNel Rehberg Sedo 
Ahhhh…it’s just refreshing to see arrangements like this. Not only is Harry Potter saving literacy, he’s also fixing up the world. He really IS a wizard! I haven’t done a whole lot of carbon offset research yet myself (for shame), but maybe promotions like buy-one-send-one-to-Africa will be the buy-one-get-one-free deal of the future.
P.S. I sent an email to your MSVU account, hopefully you still check it on occasion.
Glad that facebook sent me to this blog Denel. I particularly like this one 🙂 I heart social media. 🙂