'Printing and distributing books can be very harmful to the environment.'

Suzanne Elvidge browses some ethical publications.

You’ve booked your late ethical break, you’ve found things for the kids to do, or sent them back to school and all you have left to do is relax. So why not take the opportunity to catch up on your ethical reading? Here's some recommendations.

Lifestyle

The Rough Guide to Ethical Shopping
Don’t Throw It All Away

Food and drink

More with Less
Great Organic Wine Guide

House & garden

Small Ecological Garden
The Green Building Bible

Work

Just Work: The Ethical Careers Guide

Ethical ways of buying books

Printing and distributing books can be very harmful to the environment, from the wood pulp used to make the paper through to the fuel costs for distribution — a single print run of a best seller at 2.5 million copies is equivalent to 8000 trees.

A good way round this is to buy second hand books — this also saves landfill (not that I could ever bear to throw a book out, unless it was truly terrible).

Barry Crow has set up GreenMetropis.com, a site for recycling books. They buy books for £3, sell them for £3.75, and donate 5p for every book sold to the 'Plant a Tree' scheme run by the Woodland Trust.

Charity shops (even some online) and second-hand book shops are a good way to pass on old books and buy new ones, and you can pick up second hand books on sites like Amazon and eBay.

And when you’ve finished your books, why not set them free and track where they go.

Suzanne Elvidge is the editor of www.echurchactive.net, effective use of technology for the church.