Green Is the New Black—Make an Impact, not Another Purchase

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Go Green
Green Friday with BooksRun

Black Friday is coming, but this time, more and more people and companies are no longer excited about it. Green Friday announces a new era of conscious consumption and suggests a different approach on that same day.

A Shift to Sustainability

The unofficial shopping holiday may be quite lucrative for retailers, but it is far from being so when it comes to our planet’s health. Consumerism is driving climate change, and we are all aware of it. About 2,400 trees are cut down each minute worldwide, and in the U.S., 973,000 square miles of forest were lost between 2001 and 2019 (Global Forest Watch). So it is essential that industries respond to the threat, and they do—in various ways. 

A sustainability strategy has become a necessity for businesses to stay competitive today. Many companies choose to go green and provide various green initiatives; here are just a few well-known examples:

IKEA

One of the sustainability pioneers, IKEA has come a long way in its attempts to become a truly green company. It also has quite ambitious plans for the future. By 2030, they want to shift to using renewable and recycled materials only and to reduce their “climate footprint by an average of 70% per product.” In the U.S. this year, the company offers to celebrate Green Friday the entire month with their Buy Back & Resell service and the new Sustainable Living Shop, offering discounts on sustainable products during November.

Patagonia

This sportswear company says, “Everything we make has an impact on the planet.” Thus, they try to impact positively by providing a few sustainability initiatives. The company had chosen this path long before others (e.g., Nike) turned sustainable. For many years, they have been encouraging a mental shift in their clients, quite successfully. They have implemented a Trade-In program that accepts used “quality, well-loved Patagonia gear” and gives it a second life. They also have environmental grants: in 2016, they gave away 100% of their global retail and online Black Friday sales to non-profit environmental organizations.

BooksRun Sustainability Best Practices

At BooksRun, we are proud to say that we also drive the change. We are a business that deals with books, which means publishing, which means trees, which means climate change. We also want our impact to be positive. 

We think that mindful shopping should be a part of everyone’s lifestyle and conscious consumption is a basic idea behind any business operation. That’s what our business is about—selling and buying used books, giving them another chance. Our business model is focused on something that has already been produced. We prefer to think that it is both effective and eco-friendly, as it doesn’t require any additional resources to be wasted and helps save trees. In 2021, we’ve saved at least 2,000 trees via book buyback and planted about 10,000 trees all over the world.

We are proud to say that we do business with sustainability in mind because we

  • Help students buy, rent, and sell used books, and by doing so, we contribute to the global battle against deforestation
  • Recycle or donate the books that can no longer be used
  • Use eco-friendly packaging for all our orders
  • Recycle damaged books
  • Recycle packaging after their use
  • Advocate for a green approach in business and mindful shopping. 

We do our best to provide our clients with the service that helps them meet their needs. We have developed a simple and highly effective process of buying and selling used textbooks that allows students to get extra money and, at the same time, to contribute to the global nature preservation effort. 

We also plant trees. 

Our partners from One Tree Planted help us and our clients become tree parents. Many of our students participate in our Loyalty Program, where they receive loyalty points and exchange them for eco-products or plant trees. Together, we have already planted 9,354 trees. So we suggest you become a tree parent, too. 

Join Our Green Friday

This coming Green Friday, we at BooksRun, suggest you join us in our journey to mindful and sustainable shopping. Instead of just buying anything you may not need, you can do things differently today: 

  • Sell your used book to us, and we’ll help it start a new life.
  • Plant trees and get a certificate.
  • Win eco-prizes.
  • Get a buyback coupon for future purchases.

Make a buyback order above $40 and get a tree as a present. We will send your donation to One Tree Planted, and they will plant a tree for you where it is needed most. This small contribution may not seem much, but you can make a difference for generations to come.

The Green Friday movement inspires people to shop mindfully and sustainably. We also encourage you to plant a tree! By joining our Green Friday, you can share our greenspiration and do something good.

P.S. Stay cool, stay green! 

Natalie Song