Boomerang Books is proud to be Australia's first carbon neutral online bookstore, independently accredited by the Carbon Reduction Institute (Certification #NC166).

In addition to its carbon neutrality, Boomerang Books has implemented a host of environmentally-friendly measures to minimise its internal environmental footprint. In this way, Boomerang Books is contributing to the environmental sustainment of the Australian book industry.

Carbon Neutrality

Books are made of carbon.  Trees are felled to pulp paper.  Energy is consumed to publish and print books.  Fuel and resources are consumed by the supply chain that delivers books to the customer's doorstep. 

It is appropriate that Boomerang Books, as a book retailer, contributes back to the environment from which its books are derived.

By making a contribution, Boomerang Books is helping to ensure that book publishing and retailing are sustainable practices into the future.  Boomerang Books is doing its part to ensure that coming generations will have the opportunity to read and treasure books, as we do today.

Boomerang Books is subject to an annual carbon audit and purchases carbon credits each quarter to offset the organisation's emissions.  Carbon credits are a mechanism that allows organisations to fund and trade climate change actions on an open market. Each carbon credit represents one tonne of carbon dioxide or its greenhouse gas equivalent (CO2-e) reduced or saved from entering the atmosphere. Here's some information about how carbon emissions are offset.

The cost of offsetting a book is, on average, 1% of the price of the book. Boomerang Books customers have the opportunity to help pay for the environmental footprint of their books by contributing half of that cost (ie. 0.5% of the sale price) when they purchase books on our website.  For a $30 book, this levy represents an additional cost of only 15c to the customer. 

Customers will be presented with the following dialogue box on the payment page:

The customer has the opportunity to opt-out of the carbon offset contribution by unticking a selection box, and in this instance, Boomerang Books will still contribute 1% of the book sale price to purchase carbon credits. 

Environmentally-friendly measures

Beyond contributing to carbon credits each quarter, Boomerang Books and its staff are committed to reducing the organisation's overall environmental footprint.  Boomerang Books undertakes the following environmentally friendly measures to reduce its carbon emissions:

• We only sell books online - we don't operate a retail shopfront.
• We trade with local businesses in favour of overseas businesses, minimising the energy consumption associated with transport and handling of books.
• We don't do any print or mail marketing - all marketing is done via electronic means (email, social media, website).
• We don't print emails or other documents that can be read directly from a computer screen.
• We maintain a paperless office to the fullest extent possible - we use a wiki and other online repositories for information and knowledge management.
• We use recycled paper and we print on both sides.
• We recycle paper, batteries, mobile phones, printer cartridges, computer and electrical equipment, plastic containers and bottles.
• We have plants on our desks.
• We never wash our coffee mugs.
• We don't own any business vehicles.
• We regularly work from home offices, minimising vehicle travel.
• We use public transport as much as possible.
• We rarely fly anywhere and prefer online meetings, Skype and the trusty telephone.
• We wear attire that is appropriate for the climate (normally a t-shirt and jeans) and don't overuse heating and cooling.
• We turn our lights off at night, make use of natural lighting where possible, and use electric lighting only when it is required.
• We use Energy Star rated computer and electrical equipment.
• We turn all electrical appliances off when not in use.
• We turn our computers off when not in use.