Ready, Set, Green: Eight Weeks to Modern Eco-Living

by Graham Hill, Meagan O'Neill

The time to save the planet is now.

Ready? Set? Green! Living green means reversing climate change, but it also means protecting your kids and pets, improving your own health, and saving money. And it doesn’t necessarily demand a radical overhaul of your life–just some simple adjustments, such as switching to healthier cleaning products and driving fewer miles each week.

Written by the visionaries at Treehugger.com, the most heavily trafficked site of its kind, Ready, Set, Green is the definitive (and recyclable) guide to modern green living. It offers solutions to make your home, office, car, and vacation more eco-friendly. For

• Using a dishwasher instead of hand washing will save you 5,000 gallons of water annually.
• Eating less beef will save you 250 pounds of CO2 per year.
• Washing your clothes in cold water instead of hot will save 200 pounds of CO2 annually.
• Replacing three of your home’s most frequently used lightbulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs will save 300 pounds of CO2 every year.

Including advice on how to properly insulate your house, cancel junk mail, and choose fruits and veggies wisely, Ready, Set, Green will help you change the future of the planet and restore balance to your daily life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Green

240 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 2008

Reviews

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well informed, inspiring and honest. I enjoyed this book, and the information it shared about being more sustainable. It is understandably out dated since it was printed in 2008 but still has tons of great info.

I didn’t love how some brands were recommended over others, some spots felt like ads, but skipping past those sections is easy ☺️

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent read if you are beginning to learn about how to minimize your waste. I feel as though these tips are all for people who have no idea how to cut back and need beginner advice. Because of that, I found myself skimming through the last half of the book, just reading the subtitles for the most part.
The novel gives great advice, but not enough to keep me gripped to reading as I've already been taught all of these points.
Great for beginners! I recommend it for that audience for sure.

[Kino McFarland · Rating 3 out of 5]

In theory, the advice in this book is good. However, since the book is a few years old now, it has quickly become outdated because of our technology and, of course, government setbacks. Also, many of the links provided are now defunct. It also recommends animal products for certain tasks, and as we all know by now, animal agriculture contributes to some of the largest environmental damage.

[Alejandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

As many reviewers have pointed out, time has moved quickly past this book.
I think it's still a good starting point, but some of the solutions or companies are different or obsolete now. And its a starting point- not for someone seeking to dig deeper into green living.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Treehugger.com and had high hopes for this book — maybe too high. The authors, Treehugger founder Graham Hill and Treehugger employee Meaghan O'Neill, are a designer/businessman and writer, respectively, and are really great at giving practical "green" advice and synthesizing the wealth of information they've gathered over the years for their Web site. However, they're not scientists or economists, and there were times in this book where I felt they were almost presenting themselves as such. Or at least as unannotated experts.

I'm being nitpicky here, since they do footnote the majority of their claims, but if they were going to go down the "we're not just another trendy eco-guide" route, and really get into the nitty gritty details of sustainability, conservation and the like, they might have supported everything with solid credentials. I mean, you don't have to cite a source to tell me that global warming poses a serious threat to the planet, but when you say that "one-third of all species could face extinction" by the end of the century if current greenhouse-gas emission levels remain the same, I'd like to know where that statistic came from.

Ready, Set, Green has the best intentions, and works as a basic eco-primer. Maybe that's all they intended it to be in the first place.

[Svenja · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an absolute must-read for just about anyone who lives on this planet. I thought it was going to be really preachy, since the good people at tree-hugger have just about any DIY-tipp you can think of, but it's actually an excellent starters book. It gives you all the basics, backed up by facts, that make a difference for the earth without even having to change your lifestyle. It explains everything and is very lax about people who might be concerned but still want to keep their high-end / high-tech lives. On top of that, there's a section at the end of each chapter for those who "want to do more".
The only downside I have concerning this book is it's focus on America. Understandable, since it's the land with the biggest carbon footprint and the most room to improve, but disappointing from a european consumer point of view. It especially makes it hard when they suggest something like "buy this material instead of that", but don't say where to find it. Maybe all those links listed at the end could help...

[Jo ☾ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Treehugger.com and PlanetGreen.com are my two most favourite 'green' blogs so I was extremely excited to hear they were releasing a book. This is a great book for people who are interested in greening up their lives, especially for beginners and people new to this lifestyle who want to make positive earth-friendly changes in their life. Packed full of great information, tips and ideas that will have you living a healthier, greener lifestyle in 8 weeks. :)

[Evgenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book thinking that I probably wouldn't learn anything new. That is probably true about the practical tips that they give at the end of every chapter. There was nothing there that made me say: "This is brilliant, I never thought of this before!".

But this isn't just a practical guide to greening your life. It is also packed with information about global warming and environmental degradation, a lot of which was new to me and found very useful. Overall, I wou

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot of good ideas on how to make your life greener, and it repeats often that you don't have to do everything, just do something! Even changing a light bulb can make a difference. I liked that -- I think too many times people thing they can't go green because they can't do everything...but that is not the point with this book.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're already a devoted environmentalist, you might not find too much information here that you don't already know. But this is a good beginner's guide to green living--not too overwhelming, with some solid suggestions for changes to adopt.

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book.You would think this would be very preachy (from Treehugger.com) But it is not. It looks at the big picture. Explores different people and thier philosophies. They say- nothing is perfect but what is best?
Highly recommend. But read Ed Begleys book first!

[Racheal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably would've finished this book within an hour, if I was not constantly stopping at the end of every chapter and start to reorganize the recycling, cleaning my apt, going through closets, tossing old makeup, etc... twas a good informative book and gave some ideas I'd never before considered.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good tips backed up with solid facts but most of the items I was already familiar with. Ideal for someone new to environmentalism and hoping to reduce their toll on the planet.

[Mary Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! From the minute I started reading I found myself making simple changes to my everyday life.

[Miss M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good tips on basic ways to start being more eco-friendly.