Today's mail brought a copy of Really Green by Debra Lynn Dadd. It's a print-on-demand book, printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper on a Xerox iGen. Fits the bill of being a book that is produced by green processes, but it's also a book about "green." Sometimes it's easy to make assumptions (remember, that's an "ass" in front of "u" and "me," when you run it all together.) On first glance, I thought, "This is a book for consumers who are looking to buy green products for the home." Not so. Or maybe I should say, not only... On a closer look, there is a lot of good information for businesses to apply as well. A particularly interesting chapter is Chapter 3 - Life Cycle Analysis. Debra starts off the chapter with:

"When evaluating a product for environmental effects, there is more to it than just knowing if it saves energy or is made from recycled material. Products are multi-faceted and can benefit or harm the environment in a variety of ways throughout their existence. Life cycle analysis allows you to see the whole picture in one glance."

The whole concept of "green" comes in many shades, and going through the exercise helps to examine products from six facets:

• Design
• Resources
• Manufacture
• Transport
• Use
• Disposal

The end result is a more complete picture of how really environmentally friendly a product is. If you want to pick up your own copy, go to Oak Grove Omnimedia here>>