Review + Giveaway: The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget by Josh Dorfman

Last word first: A timely and user-friendly guide to easy greener living. Read it!

Would Joe like this? Yes! Joe is all about saving money.

My thoughts: The title of this book is a perfect description of me. I do a few good-for-the-environment type of things, like using eco-friendly cleaning products (excellent for households where every item is a potential chew toy) and walking as many places as I can (tire out those kids for a nap and get some exercise at the same time!) I buy local veggies, because they're so much tastier than the ones at the grocery store. But I definitely don't go WAY out of my way to be green.

Can I just say, it is incredibly refreshing to read a book about green living that doesn't spend several chapters making you feel guilty about everything you aren't doing right? This book is so positive, I love it! It is guarenteed to get you excited about doing something good for the planet, and your wallet. My copy has a dozen pages dog-eared with things I'm going to go back and look into.

There is a chapter in this book for just about every area of your life, from your kids to your car to your home, with suggestions on how you can reduce your negative impact on the environment. What is even better, Dorfman has listed, at the end of each chapter, where you can find just about every product or service mentioned. There's a low-flow shower head mentioned that's so inexpensive, I'm definitely going to get one. As a mom, I was especially excited to read about responsibly-harvested wooden toys, and organic kid's clothes and bedding that I could actually afford. Did you know that Wal-mart is the world's largest purchaser of organic cotton? It's true! They have an entire line of organic baby clothes.

Dorfman has also listed some fantastic services. There's a company that will recycle your old electronics and pay for them. Hurray! No more guilt about the ancient laptop collecting dust in the closet. There's a service that will repair your old jeans so they look like new. Though, at the prices cited, they would have to be expensive jeans to make it worthwhile. But if I ever rip my one pair of really nice jeans, I will know not to start crying.

Obviously, you have to use your critical thinking and calculator skills when evaluating the concepts presented in this book. I worked out the numbers on a few and I found some that made great economic sense, some that were just even or slightly more expensive than their less-eco-friendly counterparts, and one or two that were much more expensive. Also, a lot of the services and products are only available in the states at this time. So, you can't be totally lazy using this book, but it will definitely make being green a little easier. Recommended!

About Josh Dorfman: Josh holds an MBA from Thunderbird, The School of Global Management, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. His international background includes posts at the Economist Intelligence Unit in Hong Kong, Delphi Automotive Systems in Paris, France, and Kryptonite Bike Locks in Nanjing, China where he had his major environmental epiphany. In 1996, while traveling throughout China selling bicycle locks, Josh recognized that this hugely populated country of a billion bicyclists would one day develop into a nation of a billion car drivers, causing potentially unprecedented stress on the local and global environment. How all nations enable their populations to raise their living standards while simultaneously bringing their lifestyles into balance with nature is a vital challenge for the 21st century and what Josh’s ventures strive to address.

GIVEAWAY! Does this book sound like exactly what you need to green up your life? Of course it does! And you can even get a copy for free, along with an awesome Nalgene water bottle. Just comment here and tell me one thing that you do to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle, and your email address so I can contact you for your mailing address if you win. Contest open to anyone in the US and Canada. I will pick a winner on July 17th.