Written by Devin Miller, Relate Contributing Writer

(Photo by CrunchBase)

Within a span of three years, the U.S. book publishing industry used an average of 4 million trees per year to print textbooks sold in the country. Chegg.com, the top online textbook rental company, is bringing thousands of students great deals while remaining environmentally friendly.

The company was founded by Osman Rashid and Aayush Phumbhra in 2005. Frustration with their university’s bookstore motivated the young men to come up with a plan.

The company name, made up from a combination of the words chicken and egg, came from a dilemma Rashid and Phumbhra faced. They found that one couldn’t get a job without experience, but couldn’t get experience without a job (similar to the question of what came first, the chicken or the egg?).

Today, the website with the unique name serves more than 6,400 universities and community colleges in the U.S. On February 2, 2010, former Yahoo executive Dan Rosensweig became the new president and chief executive of Chegg.

Not only do students receive discounts by renting their books as well as a 30-day “any reason” guarantee return policy, but every time a student rents, buys or sells a book to Chegg, the company plants a tree through the American Forests Global ReLeaf program. By doing this, Chegg has helped to plant more than 4,000 acres of trees!

“Thanks, Chegg! What a cool way to help the environment and make my education more affordable…I was stressing out trying to figure out how I could pay my bills and get my books, too. Thanks to you, I can do both,” University of Evansville student Laura Taylor said on the company’s website.

In light of the situation in Haiti, Chegg statesfor every textbook rented, they will donate to the Unicef Haiti Relief effort, which ensures a minimum donation of $100,000! Buying textbooks can be a very stressful and expensive outing. Chegg makes the entire process much easier and worthwhile. What a great feeling to know that the five textbooks you rented helped to plant five trees!

Tags: book publishing, Chegg.com, environmentally friendly, Haiti Relief Effort, plant trees, recycling, rental textbooks, save trees, university bookstore