Better World Books is among a unique and growing group of triple bottom line companies who understand that
profit is not the only way to measure business success. People also matter. And so does the planet on which we all live.
For Better World Books, the triple bottom line comes in lots of forms. From helping to build a nursing library in Somaliland to offering customers carbon neutral shipping on every book they buy, doing good is not just a part of Better World Books’ business—it
is the business.
Social: power to the people
We've been thinking about some people we're proud to know. People like John Wood, the founder of
Room to Read. John quit Microsoft in 1998. Eight years later, he’s building libraries in rural villages in Nepal with the "scalability of Starbucks and the compassion of Mother Theresa." John has written a book about his journey called Leaving Microsoft to Change the World.
We love literacy programs like
Room to Read,
Books for Africa,
Worldfund,
National Center for Family Literacy,
Invisible Children, and our 80 other literacy partners. They provide the building blocks for children and families to learn, grow, and share in the vast collection of human knowledge committed to paper. It just makes sense that a bookstore ought to generate funding for these programs, and we do it with every book we sell.
Environmental: love your mother
One book that really got us thinking was
The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken. Paul argues that a true economy mimics ecology in its circular no-waste systems and healthy fecundity of niches. In a perfect world, we'd package your books in edible bamboo pouches and load them into Willie Nelson's biodiesel bus, where he'd hand deliver them with a song. We’re not quite there, but we've got some things we think you'll like.
For starters, we asked the advice of a smart engineer from Carnegie Mellon who suggested we implement an e-commerce first: the Carbon Neutral Shopping Cart. Working with Carbonfund.org, the leading non-profit provider of carbon offsets, we collect a few cents from every customer at checkout. And since we sell a lot of books, it’s enough to offset our shipping as well as the shipping of our literacy partners, keeping tons of carbon out of the atmosphere in the fight against global warming.
Couple that with the National Postal Service. They use the lowest energy per package of any carrier, thereby generating the least amount of carbon in the first place. We use local post offices whenever we can – so be sure to choose eco-shipping on checkout.
Of course, our greatest contribution of all is finding homes for books. We've even heard horror stories about librarians dumping unwanted tomes down a well at midnight because they couldn't find a good home for them. We gladly accept these orphan books and work hard to find new readers for them. So far, we've kept over 8,000 tons of books out of landfills.
Economic: true accounting
As this is the end of the page, it's a good time to talk about our last bottom line.
We understand the importance of running a profitable enterprise. But while most businesses answer only to their shareholders, we answer equally to all of our key stakeholders: our employees, our customers, our literacy partners, our investors and the environment.
By accounting for and supporting the long-term viability of those who have a stake in our success, profit takes on a much broader and richer meaning, To prove our commitment, we’ve signed on as a founding
B-Corporation joining a growing international network of purpose-driven businesses dedicated to setting a new standard for social and environmental performance.
We hope you'll visit our parent site
Better World Books, to learn how to get involved. Together, we truly can build a Better World.