Derek Haake was complaining about the cost of textbooks in class when his professor told him instead of complaining, he should do something.

Haake, who graduated in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in political science from UTA, took his professor’s advice and started a website called BookDefy in 2006. The original website was created for students to check textbook prices and who was offering the best rates. Now, Haake has further developed the website into a safe way for students to sell or swap their textbooks.

“I did a fair amount of market research, and I surveyed a lot of students,” he said. “I found out that students are wary of book swapping, because it’s not private and it’s not safe.”

When students make an account with BookDefy, their personal information is not shared with the other users, he said. Communication between students happens only in the website.

Students are then paired with other students from their school to ensure they are receiving the right book. The company has designated safe businesses where students can meet and make the swap.

Haake said what he envisions with BookDefy is a connection with a local business.

“That way, the owner or the manager is aware that there is a swap, and it can be supervised and completed safely,” he said.

He also envisions these businesses offering the students incentives if the swap is made at there.

Haake said he wanted to help as much as he could with the site, from helping students find the best prices for books to helping save the environment. Recently, he partnered with Trees for the Future, a non-profit organization that plants trees in areas experiencing deforestation.

“I’ve always been passionate about things like deforestation, Trees for the Future goes out to areas in the rainforest and tries to plant trees there,” he said.

The partnership between the two companies was a result of Haake’s initiative, said Gorav Seth, Trees for the Future head of partnerships and operations. He said the organization will plant one tree for every book sold, bought or swapped through the site.

The organization helps by distributing seedlings to areas of the rainforest that have been affected by deforestation, Seth said. They provide agroforestry training and empower rural groups to reforest trees to their lands.

“The trees are planted by the community for the community to use,” he said. “Our work is on moving forward, not just chopping and burning the trees, but planting new ones also, that the community can use.”

Susham Modi, Haake’s friend and UTA alumnus, helped Haake start the site in 2006. Modi said that Haake did all the programming, and he edited the site for errors.

He said right now, they are working with the student associations at different universities to push it forward and generate advertising. He said they are even using students themselves to promote the site through word of mouth or by asking them to place fliers on bulletin boards.

“The next idea beyond Facebook is the student-book exchange,” he said. They could save even more money, and signing up for the site is free.”