Almost Green: How I Saved 1/6th of a Billionth of the Planet

by James Glave

"Reading Almost Green is like getting a new pair of glasses when you thought you could see just fine. Many important shades of distinction and subtle insights fill the book. A smart, contemplative read."—Douglas Coupland James Glave, a self-proclaimed "child of suburbia," learns about the real implications and sacrifices involved in sustainable living when he practices it at his home on Bowen Island, British Columbia, where "eco-yuppies" and local hunters are engaged in a turf war. Employing gurus and energy-savvy builders, Glave sets out to build a "green" writing studio on a budget of $50,000. But he remains skeptical of the current trends in the eco-movement, and questions the high-and-mighty "conservationist" rigmarole. How can a family man on a modest salary afford to live a green lifestyle? At what cost to his children? How do you get rain to go to your garden? How much eco-destruction is too much? The book that results from Glave's attempts to answer questions such as these is a surprisingly funny, informative, and refreshingly irreverent take on green issues and a candid look at the costs and benefits of living an eco-friendly lifestyle.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Green

272 pages, Hardcover

First published July 28, 2008

Reviews

[Kandise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, and at first I did. Glave's voice is strong, funny and self-deprecating, and that is what ultimately kept it from being a detestable read. The self-awareness gradually reads as smarmy, and it was around the chapter devoted to the time he put on a pretentious themed dinner party to convince his neighbour to turn off his floodlights that I began to hate him.

Call me a greener-than, but the irony of someone moving half-way across the continent, buying into a spec assembly line home on an island, and working a daily 2 hour commute into the city calling himself eco-conscious seems totally lost on Glave. He spends a year obsessing over the process and products required to build an entirely superfluous building (a glorified "man cave", really, because he can't just use the house like the rest of his family), driving all over British Columbia (in a Lexus SUV) in search of the perfect reclaimed wood, all the time ignoring that the best practice would be to make do with what he already has (there's a reason "reduce, reuse" are the first two "R"s). No emission goes unspent in the development of the so-called "eco-shed," which is a primary reason I never believed that this building was built for any reason other than a book deal.

As an aside, the 2 pages that were written in the voice of the Lexus SUV (did I mention that the SUV is a Lexus?) were utterly absurd.

I'll wait for his next book, probably about the evils of mass consumerism, or perhaps divorce.

[Deniseh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining, but superficial. This is by no means a book about green living, but rather a story written by a journalist who needs to pay off his newly built over-the-budget "eco shed." Although the book is peppered with green building statistics, his desire to go carbon free is hardly plausible in light of his choices: buying a newly built 1800 sqft home with new materials in a second growth forest on an island, having 2 kids (with mounds of toys everywhere), having his wife commute up to 2 hours a day for a job in the city, building a $90k "eco shed" next to his house while tearing down the newly built carport so the shed has better solar placement, driving a SUV (albeit a gift from his father-in-law), and I could go on and on. This guy needs a money management class--oh wait, that's why he wrote this book.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly entertaining, but hardly green. Filled with bad decisions and poor (money) management, Almost Green is hardly an environmental celebration.

This book seems only to have been written to help pay off the debt incurred by building the $90k "eco-shed." I almost abandoned it within the first few chapters, deciding to read on only as a manual of what not to do when attempting a construction project.

Mr. Glave fails to plan or think ahead, and goes against the core fundamentals of eco-consciousness. His project is a monumental waste and (in my opinion) a huge failure. Not recommended.

[Steven Dzwonczyk · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book chronicles a guy about like me who is trying to do something to save the planet, but finds out that it is not as easy to do as he had planned. I've been involved in these types of projects and can identify with him. However, this book was listed as "humor." I think that is a stretch. Most people I know say more humorous things per hour than this guy said in the whole book.

All in all, not worth the read.

[Desiree · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time getting through this one. Everywhere he turned, there seemed to be one problem after another. He had to tear down the carport that was a gift, an expensive and useful one at that. I definitely think there were other better options than what he decided to do to "save 1/6th of a billionth of the planet." Not recommended...

[Cassie Steiner · Rating 1 out of 5]

A very white, upper middle class view of the climate crisis and possible solutions. Had super interesting info about green building that is useful to gather and share, but engineers/electricians/etc should be the target audience, not the general public who likely cannot afford to do the same.

Also, I found the consumer-based "solution" as problematic.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Glave wants to build a "green" house which he implicitly (but not explicitly) defines as carbon neutral. He lives in Canada so heating his house is a big issue for him. Unfortunately he and his wife couldn't afford to build the carbon-neutral house of their dreams so he instead tries to build the carbon-neutral office/guest house of his dreams. He does a decent job too and makes the story entertaining and even somewhat informative. $90,000 later he has a nice 400 square foot space built with responsibly grown lumber and solar-heated. It sounds good, but it was a lot of effort and a lot of cost and is so obviously out of reach for most people that I sort of wonder what the reader is supposed to do with the information?

I will say that if I were headed to do a building project I'd look for the responsibly grown/harvested lumber he discusses, that seemed minimally more expensive, and definitely worth it, although at least where he lives, hard to come by.

I was disappointed that he insulated with an expanding polyurethane foam. It does it's job well but was incredibly toxic getting installed and I wonder what happens if the building ever has to be torn down or a wall replaced or something like that? Not to mention that even though once cured it appears to be inert it is incredibly volatile and dangerous until then and the people who work with it are putting themselves at risk for respiratory problems. And of course when it is installed some of those toxins are released into the greater world.

I think keeping our carbon footprint down is important, I'm just not sure it is important above and beyond all other environmental concerns, especially in a building project the size of Glave's which is so small as to have a small impact regardless. And, after all, sits immediately next door to his much larger house which was built without the same carbon consciousness.

At the end I found it to be a fun read but as I'm not building anything any time soon I didn't take much from it that I could use.

[Mark Valentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hah! Reading this account of a family man building his own writing shack--called an Eco-Shed--is hilarious and keeps the Old Man (Henry David Thoreau) in perspective. I found his lively writing style witty and informative and rarely reflective, but not a bad thing for humor writing. When he does pause to moralize, maybe twice in the book, it is worth it. (First, Preservationists will be more important in the years ahead than architects; and Two, how he ends the book, whatever your dream is for Eco-anything, just get out there and do it. Eventually 1/6 of 1,000,000,000 will add up.)

My wife and I having lived through a re-model and add-on ourselves last year, I could relate in many ways to the things that he was describing. I really enjoyed his quick wit. I hope that now that the Eco-Shed has been completed, he will use by writing some more books.

I will pass on this read to my former general contractor and hope that he reads it with as much pleasure. I sense that the book's hasty closing, though, had to do with the fact that he had run out of money, his wife had run out of patience, and his book needed to get sold. That's ok. Good things come to those who are patient.

[Aidan Carlson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title indicates that the main character would be living an almost green way of life. The book is about his struggles to live that life with his wife and 2 kids. The book is based off James, the main character, and his eco shed he tries so hard to build throughout the story. He runs into multiple problems with building his eco shed. The book gives facts and statistics along the way.


Quite honestly, it was not my favorite book. The book was confusing. The book did not flow nicely. It was too drawn out. It took him almost the whole book to finish his shed. He ran into too many problems that did not seem like reasonable problems. The book also jumped around too much which led me to not like the book. The book has lots of big words and complicated sentences so I would not recommend this to young children. You need to have a little knowledge on building houses and living a cleaner life before reading this book. There is lots of stuff in the book that younger kids may not understand and some stuff I did not understand. But if you are a teen or older and want to learn about living a cleaner life, then you should give this book a shot as it has lots of information on living a cleaner life..\

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found myself somewhat annoyed by this book. The goal of trying to live a bit smaller and be better to the planet is an admirable one. However, it would have been nice if the author could have found a way to do this without undertaking a hugely wasteful, poorly planned construction project.

If I take one lesson away from this, it's "Know what you don't know." The author's Eco-Shed project would have gone smoother had he been more willing to defer to people who knew what they were talking about. In the meantime, he wastes resources, time, and money left and right.

One quick note: The part where he privately vilifies his neighbor for leaving a couple of floodlights on overnight, while he himself is driving a 17-MPG LEXUS SUV... yeah, that stuck in my craw. His defense is that, well, at least he feels bad about driving the SUV, but it's people like his neighbor who are really killing the planet. Definitely an "Are you kidding me?" moment.

[Doreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice read, peppered with humor. The author attempts to build, using sustainable, green materials. He leads us through his daily home life, while attempting environmentally responsible construction. There are many insights into the green initiative. Finding contractors willing to build green, obtaining the green materials needed for construction, and being able to come up with the additional funds to pay for a green undertaking, are all addressed in this book. The author's efforts at green, responsible building are thwarted at every turn. Being the reader, it's easy to chuckle at the author's well-meaning efforts. On the light side, the humor is fun. On the more serious side, the limited availability of green materials, in addition to the difficulty in transporting these materials, should be concern for all of us who would like the opportunity to be more environmentally responsible.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this really interesting. James actual process for getting the eco-shed together was the best part of the story for me. it comes across as an entertaining venture. I don't know how effective the method he used in building his shed was. I felt like there were better ways to make his shed eco-friendly even in the price range he worked with.

I had an issue with the voice here. I've read environmental memoir books before that I've enjoyed, but this didn't quite work for me completely. I think it's the approach to how certain conversations were written. Even early on with his wife Elle.

I also think that if you weren't familiar with eco-projects already some of the things mentioned would be rather confusing for you because there isn't a lot of explanation fo things in the story. I have an environmental science background and still recognized that could be an issue for certain readers. It's somewhat informative, but could be a lot better.

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a quick, entertaining read. The author was self-deprecating, honest and funny which isn't what I was expecting. As an amateur home remodeler myself with green intentions, it was nice to see that I am not the only one that does not always have the best of luck in these circumstances.

While it was entertaining, I was disappointed because I was expecting something more along the lines of "Cradle-to-Cradle": educational, motivating, really speaks to the green building movement. The book is educational in the sense that it shows you how NOT to approach a green remodeling project. It was demotivating because it makes living a green lifestyle and making green choices hard, and it isn't! It has some good points, and I am sure Mr. Glave had the best of intentions, but I think the world would be better off if everyone had his desire and never read his book.

[Adrianne Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is in some ways a tempest in a teapot, as the subtitle suggests. The author's quest to build a small Eco-Shed (at-home office/overnight cabin) on his property is enlivened by a marvelous sense of humor and his wife's skepticism of the project. I was hoping for a little bit more insight into how the author's quest for sustainability was affecting his decisions beyond the shed building, but aside from their decision to sell their SUV, there's not much indication that their lives have changed. Nonetheless, I found myself picking up this book day after day, and I read it quite quickly and with enjoyment.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was informative and realisitic...it was nice to see that even someone who is aspiring to be super green understands there are many shades and we are all on our eco-journey. I am not sure he convinced me to build green, but he did reinforce the notion of do what you can and do what you feel strongly in....After reading the book, I am wondering if it is his way of paying for the rest of his eco shed!

[Sandie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a few things from this book. Glave is in the same boat as myself and many other green-tinged people, in that he has a great desire to live lightly, and to reduce his footprint, and yet with a not-large income, and two young children, he finds that he must make many compromises when choosing between green and affordable. Of course, I loved the part where he trades in his Lexus SUV for a Honda Fit. Great choice!

[Michael Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humorous, self deprecating documentary of an attempt at doing the "green" thing. Glave misses almost every opportunity to insert valuable information about sustainable practices into the book and his life.

I found the chapter about the city living couple to be enlightening for its comparison of values to choices. To paraphrase Forest Gump, "Eco is as eco does". This chapter made me critically reflect on my own choices about where to live, whether to drive and how much is enough.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was not a good book. It is pretty obvious Glave is not actually interested in being as "green" as he can be because who builds a brand new large house and then immediately decides he needs more? I guess this book was written before it became "cool" to build green and his choices were limited, but I felt like Glave was just talking in circles to up his page count.

I would not recommend this book.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very funny book about an ordinary guy who really wanted to do his bit for the environment, but met with every possible obstacle. Although the subject was never mentioned, in fact there was nothing serious about the book, it does explain why it is so important that the environmental impact of carbon usage be added into the cost of the things we buy.

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Glave recounts his experience trying to build a ecologically sound writing shed outside his home. Challenges with cost, contractors, neighbors, etc. Felt like a magazine article that went on and on. Genial, pretty unsubstantial.

[Annie J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grabbed this from the library because the title made me smile. Super easy read, honest and funny. There are a couple of phrases that Glave might be a little too fond of, the repetition of which I found annoying, otherwise not bad.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave up reading this book, because I couldn't get behind the author. He whines about how he is "middle-class" and can't afford to go green. Well, he's an idiot. Who in their right mind spends almost $100,000 on a shed!?! So, so dumb!

[Turi Becker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a regular guy trying to keep his sanity while he builds a super-green outbuilding on his Vancouver property. Fun to read, covers lots of angles of real-life enviromnentalism.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just grabbed this at the library because the cover looked interesting, it's a witty tale of a normal guy trying to be green without breaking the bank...really fun read.

[Donna Jo Atwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Glave has an admirable ecological agenda and a highly annoying opinion of himself. After reading this book I wanted to run out and burn a pile of leaves just to pollute the air.

[Sandi Hinton]

Funny book about the near impossiblity of living on this planet without leaving an imprint. Great humor that eased the angst.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not amazing, but not bad. For a home building/remodeling book, I liked All the Way Home by David Giffels better.

[Jenn · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was so bad...I stopped reading it and gave up..something I've only done twice in my life

[Whoretense Facepillow]

kinda lame