World of Books Group
WEST SUSSEX, United Kingdom
October 2019
Wholesale/Retail
United Kingdom
World of Books is a leading global seller of used books online. A circular economy, for profit business that supports charities and protects the planet by enabling more goods to be reused. Established by a group of dedicated book lovers, with an ethos to do good, over the past decade World of Books has seen its inventory grow from 1,000 books to over 4 million in stock. They are pioneers in the re-use and recycling of unwanted books, reusing around 12 million books and recycling about 80 million books each year, an equivalent saving to 500,000 trees. World of Books purchases significant volumes of waste and surplus books from charity shops throughout the UK and Ireland – boosting revenues for these good causes and saving them waste disposal costs. This business model now generates over £3m of value for UK charities every year. World of Books Group is comprised of three direct-to-consumer e-commerce businesses (World of Books, World of Rare Books and Ziffit) each supported by their own technology. Ziffit.com is a free and easy to use website and app to sell unwanted books, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and games for cash. Over 600,000 items are traded in each month, making it one of the largest trade-in sites in the UK. This business model is almost 100% circular.
Overall B Impact Score
Governance 14.6
Governance evaluates a company's overall mission, engagement around its social/environmental impact, ethics, and transparency. This section also evaluates the ability of a company to protect their mission and formally consider stakeholders in decision making through their corporate structure (e.g. benefit corporation) or corporate governing documents.
What is this? A company with an Impact Business Model is intentionally designed to create a specific positive outcome for one of its stakeholders - such as workers, community, environment, or customers.
Governance 14.6
The Governance Impact Area evaluates a company's overall mission, engagement around its social and environmental impact, ethics, and transparency. This section also evaluates the ability of a company to protect their mission and formally consider stakeholders in decision making through their corporate structure (e.g. benefit corporation) or corporate governing documents.
What is this? A company with an Impact Business Model is intentionally designed to create a specific positive outcome for one of its stakeholders - such as workers, community, environment, or customers.
Workers 17.8
The Workers Impact Area evaluates a company's contributions to its employees' financial security, health and safety, wellness, career development, as well as overall engagement and satisfaction. In addition, this section recognizes business models designed to benefit workers, such as companies that are at least 40% owned by non-executive employees and those that have workforce development programs to support individuals with barriers to employment.
Community 16.3
The Community Impact Area evaluates a company's engagement with and impact on the communities in which it operates, hires from, and sources from. Topics include diversity, equity, and inclusion; economic impact; civic engagement; charitable giving; and supply chain management. In addition, this section recognizes business models that are designed to address specific community-oriented problems, such as poverty alleviation through fair trade sourcing or distribution via microenterprises, producer cooperative models, locally focused economic development, and formal charitable giving commitments.
Environment 29.1
The Environment Impact Area evaluates a company's overall environmental management practices as well as its impact on the air, climate, water, land, and biodiversity. This includes the direct impact of a company's operations and, when applicable, its supply chain and distribution channels. This section also recognizes companies with environmentally innovative production processes and those that sell products or services that have a positive environmental impact. Some examples might include products and services that create renewable energy, reduce consumption or waste, conserve land or wildlife, provide less toxic alternatives to the market, or educate people about environmental problems.
What is this? A company with an Impact Business Model is intentionally designed to create a specific positive outcome for one of its stakeholders - such as workers, community, environment, or customers.
Customers 6.9
The Customers Impact Area evaluates a company's stewardship of its customers through the quality of its products and services, ethical marketing, data privacy and security, and feedback channels. In addition, this section recognizes products or services that are designed to address a particular social problem for or through its customers, such as health or educational products, arts and media products, serving underserved customers or clients, and services that improve the social impact of other businesses or organizations.
What is this? A company with an Impact Business Model is intentionally designed to create a specific positive outcome for one of its stakeholders - such as workers, community, environment, or customers.