Just discovered Better World Books, an online book retailer that funds literacy programmes from the money they get from selling new and used books. What’s more, they provide FREE worldwide shipping of books you buy from them, with NO minimum purchase required!

About 14 years old and started as a result of the success they saw in a simple book recycling drive, the for-profit social enterprise has so far donated over 20.5 million books and raised almost $24 million for their literacy partners. Books bought from them either fund non-profit literacy initiatives; are sent to one of their non-profit partners for use, or are recycled if unsuitable for sale or use.

They work closely with organisations like Books for Africa, the largest shipper of donated  books to the African continent who have shipped over 28 million books to 49 different countries since 1988; Room to Read, an organisation that works to develop literacy skills and gender equality for school children across Asia and Africa; and over 80 other literacy-based non-profits.

Their impact is also environmental: to date, they have re-used or recycled over 250 thousand tonnes of books, and reached 44,000 tonnes of carbon offsets on BetterWorldBooks.com shipping. Every order shipped from their book store in Mishawaka (Indiana) is carbon balanced with Green-e Climate certified offsets from 3Degrees – a leading green power and carbon balancing services provider.

They were certified as a B-Corporation in 2008, making them one of 1008 companies that meet the highest standards of verified socio-environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability; and aspire to use the power of markets to solve social and environmental problems.

More on their impact can be watched here:

You can buy their books on Amazon too (8 million to choose from!), so bookmark them for the next time you want to order a book online.

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