Better World Books is a very innovative enterprise.

In a nutshell, we keep books out of landfill and support literacy by selling them on multiple online marketplaces. Our customers have made us the world's biggest socially responsible used bookseller. We are not a charity, but a pioneering social business. We work in partnership with literacy charities using our skills in online bookselling to make money for them to plough into literacy initiatives.

We also work closely with libraries, student groups and sustainability officers. Many people don’t realise that disposing of surplus books can be a huge issue – so our free service is pretty popular. Nobody likes seeing books thrown into skips! You're in the right place to find out more about how we work with libraries and with other groups who have surplus books. Just give us a shout if you’d like to know more.

We are also a company that strives to make our impact on the world as positive as is humanly possible. In addition to creating social impact by generating revenue for charities and libraries, our whole business is founded on promoting reuse - the lynch-pin of environmental sustainability. Where we can't find a second (or third, or fourth or fifth...) use for a book we make sure it's responsibly recycled.

And when it comes to helping the environment, we took things a step further. We worked with Sustainable Business Consulting and followed the World Resources Institute Greenhouse Gas Protocol to develop the methodology used to calculate our carbon inventory. Then we partnered with Carbon Footprint, a leading carbon management company to help offset the carbon associated with books being shipped to our customers. For every tonne of carbon emissions we produce, one native British broad-leaved tree will be planted in Scotland through Tree Appeal.

In short, we are proud of how we do what we do, and grateful to our partners and customers for making it possible. We would love to answer any questions you have, so please don't hesitate to check out our FAQs.