Brand Interview – Raz Godelnik, Eco-Libris

Brand Interview – Raz Godelnik, Eco-Libris

Raz Godelnik CEO Ecolibris

How long has your company been in business? Please tell us a bit about your company, its mission, goals…
Founded in 2007, Eco-Libris is a green company working to green up the book industry in the digital age by promoting the adoption of green practices in the book industry, balancing out books by planting trees, and helping to make e-reading greener.

Eco-Libris is offering book readers, as well as publishers and authors the opportunity to balance out the trees cut down for the production of books by planting trees in developing countries.
We work to plant these trees together with our planting partners – three highly respected U.S. and U.K. based non-profit organizations that work in collaboration with local communities in developing countries to plant these trees. These trees are planted in high ecological and sustainable standards in Latin America (Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Belize, Honduras) and Africa (Malawi), where deforestation is a crucial problem.

Planting trees in these places not only helps to fight climate change and conserve soil and water, but also benefits many local people, for whom these trees offer many benefits, such as improvement of crops and additional food and income, and an opportunity for a better future.

Readers also receive a sticker made of recycled paper for every book they balance out saying “One tree planted for this book”, which they can later display on their books’ sleeves.
So far Eco-Libris balanced out over 177,000 books, which results in more than 197,000 new trees planted with its planting partners in developing countries.

Do you donate to charities? Tell us about that also and why.
No, but we do work closely with our three planting partners (SHI, Ripple Africa and AIR), which are all non-profit organizations.

ecolibris planting trees in africa

How did you know what typeface (font) would be right for your company wordmark or logo? If your logo has an illustration, describe why that art was the right thing, animal, place, object, etc…
We had an excellent designer, Gavriel of Studio Gavriel, who was responsible for designing our logo as well as choosing the font. We were involved in the process, but he was responsible for all the creative work.

How did you decide on the right color palette to fit your company look and feel?
Again, Gavriel did it and he did an excellent job.

How did you decide which type of designer to work with, or did you design your own identity and web presence?
One of our team members had prior experience with Gavriel we chose to work with and he thought he would be a good fit for our needs and he was right.

ecolibris book sticker for planting trees

In what order did you present your company to the world? Did you start with marketing and products, or website, blog and social media?
We launched the website together with our operations. The blog came a little bit later.

How long after the launch of your company did you start pitching in social media?
On Twitter and Facebook it was about a year or so.

Did you do research or study any software, take webinars, teleclasses, before approaching any area of your marketing or web presence?
Not really. We had couple of experts on these issues in our team.

Do you advertise locally in newspapers and/or nationally in magazines? Are they effective?
No.

Do you advertise online using Google, Facebook or on other company sites? Are they effective?
No.

100 bloggers green books campaign ecolibris

When you printed your products, packaging, business cards and other print marketing did you choose an online printer or visit a local vendor?
It was important for us to find a local eco-friendly printer, so we did a little research and found Greg Barber, a green printing expert, who is operating in NJ, and this was the beginning of a great partnership that is going on ever since.

Did you know anything about different types of papers, when you wanted to print your marketing materials?
Yes. We wanted to make sure that our stickers, as well as all our marketing materials, are printed on recycled paper.

Have you ever used “green” technology in printing, using FSC certified papers or recycled paper and if not, how likely are you at trying this on a next project?
Definitely. Our printer Greg Barber is using many green printing practices, which you can read about on his website.

If you sell products, are they produced in the U.S.A. or abroad?
The stickers we provide are printed in the U.S. The trees are planted in Central America and Africa, where deforestation is a crucial problem.

Is there anything you haven’t yet tackled, but will want to do soon?
We keep working to make reading more sustainable – even in the digital era it’s not a challenge, but we’re optimistic we can do it! We invite you to visit our website and green up your books with us.

41 reasons to plant a tree for your book logo

To learn more about Raz Godelnik and Eco-Libris visit the links below:

Website: http://www.ecolibris.net
Blog: http://ecolibris.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ecolibris
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Eco-Libris-Moving-Towards-Sustainable-Reading/18601158360
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/raz-godelnik/0/75b/653

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