"In order to create a truly sustainable economy we must mimic the ecosystem so that the waste of every household and business becomes resource inputs to other enterprises, and the only waste produced is diffuse, low-grade heat from renewable resources like solar." --Thomas J. Elpel Direct Pointing to Real Wealth

Going Green at HOPS Press, LLC

      Books: When we first started HOPS Press, LLC, we didn't worry too much about the recycled content in our books, simply because we were learning the ropes of the publishing business and had all we could handle at once. But each time we returned to the printer we asked for more earth-friendly production. Direct Pointing to Real Wealth includes about 30% post-consumer recycled content. With Living Homes, everything but the cover is printed with soy ink on 100% post-consumer recycled paper, bleached without chlorine. Botany in a Day is now printed with soy ink on 100% recycled content as well. The fifth edition of Participating in Nature became our greenest book ever. Even the cover was printed on 100% recycled paper. On every project we ask for the highest recycled content we can get. We have also donated tens of thousands of dollars to several nonprofit organizations, such as the Jefferson River Canoe Trail Association.

     Shipping: Wholesale Orders are packed at Granny's Country Store. Most wholesale orders are shipped in secondhand boxes and cushioned with secondhand peanuts. We even built our own hotwire tool to recycle scrap styrofoam block packing material into packing peanuts!

     Videos: Plastic DVD cases consume extra resources and break easily. Our DVD's are packaged with minimalist cardboard covers to further conserve resources.

Going Green at Granny's Country Store

      When you place a an order using our on-line shopping cart system, then you are purchasing directly from Granny's Country Store. Besides my titles, we also carry books and videos from outside publishers and vendors. Most of them have little or no recycled content in them, but we carry them as tools for people to get closer to the natural world. Other items we sell include primitive friction fire sets, which are made from ethically wild-crafted natural materials, except for the nylon cords. We sometimes encourage the vendors that we buy from to increase the recycled content of their products.

     Shipping: Most of our retail orders are shipped in Priority envelopes and boxes provided by the United States Postal Service, typically made from 100% recycled paper, including 80-100% post-consumer fiber, and printed with soy inks. Other retail orders are shipped in Jiffy Padded Mailers manufactured from 77% recycled paper, including 62% post-consumer fiber. Be sure to recycle your own papers to help close the loop on waste!

     Recycling: At Granny's and at home, we compost almost anything that is biodegradable and recycle everything else that we possibly can, including: cardboard, paper, magazines and catalogs, junk mail, plastic bottles, glass, tin cans, aluminium cans and scrap aluminum, scrap iron, copper and brass. We save just about every bent nail and broken screw for recycling, and often pull other recyclables out of community dumpster. Our Green University Intern House is built primarily with salvaged and secondhand materials, including a lot of lumber that came from the dump.