Investing in Our Employees’ Career Growth
Employee training and development opportunities are critical to our success, as we believe they fuel individual growth, foster leadership, and enhance our ability to support the schools and customers we serve. We offer robust, ongoing employee training and career development programs through our Learning & Development system, which provides employees access to a library of more than 75,000 learning resources for professional advancement and personal growth.
Student employees can also participate in our Aspiring Leaders Management Development Program, which is geared toward our Campus Store Team Members and Supervisors who demonstrate an interest in developing their managerial skills as well as learning more about the ins and outs of running one of our unique campus bookstores. This comprehensive, interactive program is part of our commitment to developing future leaders from within.
As one of the nation’s largest employers of college students, Barnes & Noble College offers meaningful employment opportunities that help students gain valuable workplace experience while supporting the campus communities we serve. Our wholesale operations also provide employment opportunities for students.
All full-time and part-time employees are considered for periodic performance and development reviews, to support individual career objectives and align with organizational priorities. Managers are encouraged to provide ongoing feedback and guidance to promote employees’ continuous development and growth.
Protecting the Environment
At our core, we are built on sustainability: we are the nation’s largest used textbook wholesaler, as well as a provider of a robust assortment of digital course materials. By facilitating the sale of used and digital textbooks, we help cut down on the production of paper books and enable a circular economy.
As a trusted partner at colleges and universities nationwide, we are committed to expanding our sustainability practices and integrating them into the programs and philosophy of each campus we serve. Our goal is to reduce negative impacts on the environment and reduce costs by working with our partners, peers and others to promote responsible and cost-effective environmental practices. Over the past decade, we have implemented many company-wide initiatives aimed at reducing financial costs and increasing our sustainability efforts across operational areas, including environmentally friendly stores, merchandise, shipping, data center design, digital course materials, technology and more.
To meet our school partners’ green goals and vision, we can help design LEED-certified buildings. These “low-impact” stores may also feature recycled floor coverings, eco-friendly carpeting, non-toxic paint, LED lights, eco-friendly merchandising fixtures made with recycled particleboard and non-toxic glues, and mannequins laminated with sustainable bio-resins.
We incorporate green business practices throughout a number of our offices and warehouse facilities including the use of recycled materials, recycling of all paper, plastic and glass products, replacement of our facilities’ lighting to increase energy efficiency and the utilization of efficient shipping methods that help decrease waste and reduces costs.
To provide our customers with environmentally-friendly choices in our stores, we offer sustainable products such as reusable water bottles, CFL light bulbs, recycled notebooks, recycled, reusable tote bags, and organic foods and snacks. In addition, over 200 of our physical stores do not use plastic checkout bags, but instead either use paper checkout bags, which are made from 100% recycled fiber, with a minimum of 40% post-consumer content and are 100% recyclable, or require customers to use their own bags. We also proactively promote reuse and recycling of our bags to consumers.
We ship over $530 million in textbooks and general merchandise purchases annually, which necessitates a large number of shipping cartons. We understand the impact this volume of shipments can have on the environment, so we have addressed the environmental impact of our order receiving and fulfillment in multiple ways. We always try to consolidate orders whether we are sending or receiving the package, we use cartons that have 35% post-consumer recycled content for every shipment we send, we re-use the boxes, packing materials and pallets many times over, and we work to make sure all materials including every carton is recycled properly when it can no longer be used. These shipping processes also help to significantly reduce costs.
Lastly, although our business is built on extending the useful life of textbooks, there are times when books can no longer be a part of our system, but we try to ensure that they do not end up in landfills. For unwanted textbooks, we work with Better World Books, an award-winning, for-profit social enterprise and a global e-retailer that collects and sells
