Aaspirations Publishing, a committed green publisher based in Canada, is collaborating with Eco-Libris for more than two years, planting with us over 10,000 trees to green up great books such as as "The Micro Meanies", "Where the Buttercups Grow", "Under the Desk" and "I Love to Be Me".
Last September, Aaspirations Publishing suffered the sudden and tragic loss of its founder and CEO, Anjali Sondhi, to Dengue fever while working in India. Now the publishing house is headed by her husband, Anil, who is determined to continuing the committed work of this unique publishing house.The last newsletter of Inc. 500|5000 dedicated an interesting piece to Aaspirations Publishing and their work that I would like to share with you:
In an age when the book business can seem to be guarded, gilded, and, well, way too digital (admit it, an algorithm recommends more books to you than your friends do), here's an Inc. Community company committed to making book selling a community affair. With offices in New York, Toronto and Delhi, India, Aaspirations Publishing is looking to make the world a better place, one book at a time.
The company was founded based on the vision and passion of writer Anjali Sondhi, with the support of her husband Anil. After their daughter experienced the closed doors of many a publishing house in an effort to publish her children's book, the couple decided to open their own publishing house, one with a clear purpose at heart. Their mission? To support good works in the world through books—their authors, their consumers, and their lessons.
According to Anil, "Every book we publish has an important message for the world." And for each book, Aaspirations supports good works projects associated with that book topic that range from tree-planting to fundraising to children's education programs. For Aaspirations, each book becomes the inspiration and driver for change "for people in pain, for people who want to learn, for people in the world who need things". Aaspirations has a concentration on children's and teens' books, and thus supporting global literacy, learning and awareness seems like an appropriate purpose. They also consider themselves a "green" publishing house—they plant a tree for every children's book they print, and all their teen books are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.
Sadly, Aaspirations recently suffered the sudden and tragic loss of their visionary founding CEO, Anjali Sondhi, to Dengue fever while working in India this September. In her memory, Anil says that Aaspirations is carrying on full throttle, growing the business toward the fulfillment of her dream under the guidance of her vision. Anil affirms fervently that her memory helps the Aaspirations team push harder toward its goal of making the world a better place—"her vision was that great, and this was her passion."
In the future, Aaspirations hopes to move on to Anjali's long-time goal of making movies based on the books that it publishes. The first one is due to be finished by the end of next year. The team at Aaspirations remains committed to growing the business to scale without losing sight of its challenging dual mission to succeed as a for-profit company and to make a positive impact in the world. Thus, it's a good thing that the folks at Aaspirations don't do anything in the publishing world by the book.
You can find more information on Aaspirations Publishing on their website at http://www.aaspirationspublishing.com/
Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!
