The Complete Idiot's Guide® to Greening Your Business provides the most up-to-date concrete, practical steps to take to make money by going green. Setting practical, achievable goals for the right green initiative. Streamlining operations. Innovative staffing strategies to save commuting time and office overhead. Cutting fuel and energy costs. Understanding carbon credits and their value. Making your products greener. Green manufacturing, packaging, and shipping initiatives. Paperless marketing programs, precision-targeted to get more from less. Businesses are always looking to increase their profitability and market share. With rising fossil-fuel costs, consumers searching for environmentally responsible companies, and mounting need for green or greener products, business has jumped on the green initiative and reaped the financial benefits.

For more than three decades, the impact of aid on the global environment has been the subject of vigorous protest and debate. With billions spent on environmental aid each year, this groundbreaking text seeks to understand why aid is given, how effective it is, and whether aid is actually going to the places with the greatest environmental need.

In the bustling landscape of our cities, the very foundation beneath our feet is often overlooked. Soil and the City unveils the hidden world of urban soil degradation and tackles the urgent need to address its compromised health. Through the lens of green infrastructure, this groundbreaking book prompts us to reimagine our cities as vibrant ecosystems where soil plays a crucial role. In the first part, we explore the intricate relationship between urban development and soil degradation. Unveiling the hidden consequences of human activities, we dive into the detrimental effects of pollution, compaction, and erosion on soil health. As we navigate the complexities, a distressing tale unfolds, yet it paves the way for an innovative approach. The second part offers an in-depth exploration of green infrastructure as a solution to combat urban soil degradation. With the introduction of this novel concept, we decipher the countless benefits that green spaces and architectural adaptations can bring. By weaving together nature and human-made structures, we restore soil integrity and enhance the overall livability of our cities. Through compelling case studies in the third part, we witness green infrastructure projects come to life. Collaborations between plant scientists, urban planners, and architects give birth to visionary designs that unravel the potential of urban soil. These examples ignite our imagination and demonstrate how small changes can have a profound impact on our cities and their inhabitants. Soil and the City is not just a book; it is a call to action. By embracing green infrastructure and acknowledging the central role soil equality plays in creating vibrant urban landscapes, we are paving the way for sustainable city development. Reading this book opens the door to a new understanding of urban environments, one that harmonizes both our concrete jungles and the silent life beneath our feet.

This book, the only one of its kind on ravine lands, reflects the significant advances made over the past two decades in our understanding of gully erosion, its controlling factors, and various aspects of gully erosion. It also addresses central research gaps and unanswered questions, which include historical studies on gully erosion to better understand the different stages of their formation; appropriate measuring techniques for monitoring or assessing the geological and hydrological parameters and processes involved in gully development; interaction of hydrological and other soil degradation processes; ecology and biodiversity of fragile ravines; impact of climate and environmental changes on soil erosion processes; development of effective and reliable gully erosion models; effective gully prevention and control measures; watershed-based management options; and ravine rehabilitation policies. The present book is a highly timely publication and deals with various aspects of ravine ecology and rehabilitation of degraded lands, particularly with the aid of biological approaches. As such, it offers a valuable guide for all scientists working in the fields of soil conservation / rehabilitation and agroforestry, students, environmentalists, educationists, and policymakers. More importantly, it focuses on the rehabilitation of one of the world’s most degraded and fragile ecosystems, ensuring the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers and landless families living in harsh ecologies that are more vulnerable to climate change.

This policy guidance outlines a number of steps to be considered when building capacity for greening national development planning, national budgetary processes and key economic sector strategies.

This publication examines soil and water conservation technologies and approaches from a global perspective, using case studies from over 20 countries around the world. It addresses key environmental concerns such as desertification, poverty, water scarcity and conflicts. Various land use categories are covered (cropland, forest and grazing land) and technologies described include: conservation agriculture, manuring and composting including vermiculture, vegitative strips, agroforestry, water harvesting, gully rehabilitation, terraces and grazing land management. Co-published by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTA), FAO, UNEP and the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) on behalf of the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT), this publication sets new standards for the systematic documentation, evaluation and dissemination of knowledge on sustainable land management.