I love this company. I fell upon it one day in the parking lot of Harry's Farmers Market in Alpharetta, Georgia, and then read raves about it in Fast Company magazine, where I discovered, shock of shocks, that the company was headquartered right here in metro Atlanta! Named BetterWorld Books, it is a for-profit social enterprise built on the triple-pronged foundation of economic, environmental, and social sustainability. That's pretty much a dream company for me, as I am committed to sustainability in both my vocation as a professional writer and my avocation as a catalyst and advocate for creating a more sustainable world (I founded the sustainability commission when Dunwoody became the newest city in the United States, I helped start the largest community garden in the state, where Steve Ward from Better World Books helped plant for the food pantry with me, I wrote a book about sustainability, which, of course, I made sure was listed on Better World Books' site, blah, blah, blah). In short, I live and breathe this stuff, so when I got an opportunity to become a Change Agent for Better World Books recently, well, you can imagine how much thought I needed to give that.
Better World Books provides an easy, free way for consumers to dispose of their books by donating them, thereby diverting millions of pounds of books from landfills each year, and a convenient way for people to purchase books online while donating book-for-book to those in need at the same time. (Yes, it's the TOMS Shoes of books.)
It supports established, effective literacy projects around the world and close to home while enabling drop box hosts to access a turnkey revenue stream that benefits them as well as their favorite local non-profits.
To date, it has donated more than 5.5 million books, raised almost $10.5 million for literacy and libraries, and reused or recycled more than 66.5 million books. And, frankly, this little chart that shows the annual environmental impact of just one box pretty much blows my mind:
It supports established, effective literacy projects around the world and close to home while enabling drop box hosts to access a turnkey revenue stream that benefits them as well as their favorite local non-profits.
To date, it has donated more than 5.5 million books, raised almost $10.5 million for literacy and libraries, and reused or recycled more than 66.5 million books. And, frankly, this little chart that shows the annual environmental impact of just one box pretty much blows my mind:
In short, it's a win-win-win situation.
Win: Employees of this innovative B-Corporation* don't have to choose between doing well and doing good while doing business.
Win: People with the means to buy and donate books benefit people and organizations in need, who receive books and bucks that can change their lives (see an example of this here).
Win: Companies that want to do good and/or accentuate the good they already do can now easily and publicly do so, while also generating a little extra cash and helping their local communities.
Encouraging donations is as easy as 1-2-3:
1. Shout it out. Use your full bag of communications tools to let your customers, employees, suppliers, friends, everyone know that there is a box at your location for their convenience.
2. Give incentives. Run special contests, sweepstakes, or other incentives to encourage book donations. At company locations, maybe the person who donates the most in a month wins a free latte, or anyone who donates during a set period of time gets entered in a sweepstakes for the prime company parking spot. Sports arenas could give a buck off ticket prices or a discount on concessions.
3. Share. Feature people donating to your drop box on your website, Facebook and Twitter. Have any celebrities involved with your organization? Show them donating and you may possibly garner some media attention. Be sure to circle back and blog about how the money earned is used--people really love to feel like they have truly helped. Most of all, have fun! Nothing attracts more positive action than positive energy.
Learning as I grow,
--Pattie Baker
* Better World Books was a founding member of B-Corp and is now joined by almost 500 other companies nationwide that harness the power of private enterprise to create public benefit. I love it, love it, love it.
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1 comments:
It has taken me all of a day to realize "it's not about the box." It's about connecting with others who want to make a positive difference, and then harnessing our collective energy to achieve something bigger than what we could do alone.
That's how I feel right now, after connecting with my dear friend, Rashid Nuri of the Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture. He is happily adding a Better World Books drop box to his brand new community recycling center at Wheat Street Gardens urban farm in Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward, right next to the King Center. I will be sure to report back on this on my blog, pix and all!
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