Working Toward the Point of No Returns: Chelsea Green Publisher and President Margo Baldwin on the company's Green Partners program.

December 19, 2008 By Peter Beisser

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… Our business with our Green Partners is up something like 80 percent over the business that we were doing before. I would say that's definitely a win-win situation.

Extra: Do you hope to do away completely with returns?
Baldwin: … Would we like to see our direct retail go nonreturnable? Sure. … The biggest thing is how you would be able to do business with a national chain. Amazon is already nonreturnable. Most of the key independents are nonreturnable. You're really talking about the last remaining segment of the retail sector—the national chain.

Extra: What other environmentally friendly actions have you taken as a publisher that you're particularly proud of?
Baldwin: Mainly publishing important and inspirational books about the environment like, "The Man Who Planted Trees," "Limits to Growth," "An Unreasonable Woman" and "Not One Drop." Our long-term commitment to using recycled paper, starting in 1985 with the publication of "The Man Who Planted Trees," with a portion of the royalties [going] to Global ReLeaf to plant trees. ...

Check out the January/February issue of Book Business magazine for an in-depth interview with Margo Baldwin, including a discussion of her decision to sell “Obama's Challenge” exclusively through Amazon.com for the first few weeks of its release and the subsequent backlash from other book-sellers.