Conscious Business of the Week: Social Venture Better World Books

In today’s market, success is a lot about being original and inventive with resources and the services one offers.  However, when it comes to blending such ingenuity with triple bottom line principles, many still question whether companies can succeed.

Enter the social venture Better World Books, with their powerful blend of values-driven mission to increase literacy worldwide and their ingenious business model for obtaining and selling used books online.  This conscious business has shown some extraordinary growth and sales despite of the recession and is proving that success through the triple bottom line can easily be achieved.

Better World Books Social Venture: Success Through Values & Innovation

Better World Books is an exemplary model of triple bottom line innovation and accomplishment from beginning to end.  Their operations reflect a genuine regard for the welfare and advancement of people and our planet; a concern that has resulted in serious profit.

What is so pleasing to hear about this venerable social venture is how it didn’t begin with thoughts of markedly capitalizing on some bright idea.  Rather, it began simply with three college students whose need for some extra cash after graduation led to some profitable innovation.

When their college bookstore wouldn’t buy back their perfectly good used textbooks, they decided to sell them on ebay’s website, half.com.  Upon seeing how fast the books sold, the Notre Dame grads decided to lead book drives, one of which collected nearly 2,000 books that sold for $20,000.

From the beginning the plan was to donate a portion of the proceeds of these drives right back to local libraries and the Notre Dame Community Learning Center.  The success of these drives led to more drives and greater creativity as to where to find unwanted used books.  Reaching out beyond universities and onto libraries, they soon discovered just how many thousands of perfectly good books were ending up in landfills every day, discarded by schools and libraries who didn’t have the shelf space for them.  And thus their multi-million dollar social venture was born.

Today this conscious business brings in 40,000 to 50,000 books, capitalizing on the value of those books through online sales.  And their triple bottom line business model is resulting in great profit for the founders, notable benefit for the planet and generous support for literacy initiatives worldwide.

A Better World One Book at a Time

So how exactly are the guys at BWB helping literacy?  Simply stated, the Better World system of collecting unwanted books and selling them inexpensively online for profit has resulted in about $7 million raised to date to help more people learn to read.

5 - 10% of their profits have been donated to over 80 literacy and education nonprofits worldwide. Their beneficiary organizations stem throughout the U.S., Africa, Asia and Latin America and do everything from construct books and libraries, support high-quality education for impoverished children and improve the quality of life in war-affected regions. They have also sent more than 1.3 million actual books to many of their beneficiaries including Books for Africa, the National Center for Family Literacy and Worldfund among others.

And all this while providing great books to the public at a fraction of the cost.  For example, it is not uncommon for a $100 textbook to be sold on BWB for $10.  Plus all national shipping of items bought is free.

A Guilt-Free Read for the Planet

The triple bottom line business model of this conscious business is also resulting in great benefit for the planet amidst an industry not known for such.  In total, they have stopped over 25 million pounds of books from being sent to landfills and have reclaimed more than 680,000 pounds of metal shelving from libraries across the United States.  Their sales have resulted in over 9000 tons of carbon offsets and all their items are shipped via carbon neutral shipping.  Lastly, if a book doesn’t sell and isn’t fit for donation, the company will ship it off for recycling.

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Treasure

Books inspire, make us think, encourage us to expand and improve our lives.  They are so much more than words on paper and this social venture has created an innovative vision that has resulted in great profit for all.  Better World Books has seen their revenues grow from $4 million a year in 2005 to a projected $31 million in 2009.

And while we can count the millions of dollars they have donated to literacy programs and the tons of books diverted from landfills, the benefit they are doing for the planet and the people of this planet is likely immeasurable.  This is truly the transformational power of the triple bottom line shown so eloquently by Better World Books.

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