The combination of activists occupying streets across the globe, and the pull of an ever worsening economy, is brewing up the perfect storm for banking. With liquidity pricing at its highest since the fall of Lehman Brothers, it could well get a lot worse. But, despite this, the fundamental role of banks in society still isn’t receiving the attention it deserves.

Perhaps as a society we’ve become so blind to banking’s potential for good that, while we express frustration at the unacceptable behaviour of banks, we can’t actually imagine them doing anything else. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The role of banks is no longer an academic exercise, but a timely and fundamental question.

Picture society as a human body. If money is its lifeblood, then banks should act as society’s heart, pumping it around as needed. If the heart is healthy, the body will be able to access the resources it needs to remain healthy. But without a conscious approach to the flow of money, the malaise in the society will feed back to the banks and infect them. The financial crisis has proven that, when the banks fail, the whole of society suffers. And, after bringing the economy to its knees, it’s morally and practically right that banks take an active role in helping to build it back up again.

So what should the future of banking look like? We believe that banks should act as enablers of positive change, focusing more on the real economy and supporting its future, rather than short-term shareholder returns. Research commissioned by Triodos shows that five in six people believe their bank should play a role in helping society. Two thirds (64%) wanted to see more investment in communities. Just 3% of savers feel banks are transparent about what happens to their money. We can guess why. At present, only a fraction of the money lent and invested by the main banks is used to bring about positive change. Clearly the banks’ customers do not think this is good enough. It’s a call to action for policy-makers, shareholders, and bank executives: they have to ensure the banking sector gives more back to society, rather than just taking.

A compelling alternative would see a shift towards smaller banks, and more of them. This would deliver benefits to society while limiting the financial sector’s potential to harm it. These smaller banks could operate on a human scale. They could specialise, and pass expertise onto their customers. The more focused they can remain on the direct impacts of the finance they provide, the more emphasis they can place on its environmental and social advantages.

The Global Alliance for Banking on Values is an independent network of banks which aims to use finance to deliver sustainable development for people, communities and the environment. It demonstrates how a new model made up of smaller, interconnected banks can work. While they serve very different communities, from urban San Francisco to rural Mongolia, they learn from each other, sharing ideas on long-term sustainable thinking, new forms of ownership and economic cooperation.

Crucially, scaled-down banks would be small enough to fail. One of the cruellest ironies of the financial crisis has been that banks – which often act as judge, jury and executioner for struggling businesses – have not been forced to play by their own rules. Arguably, smaller banks would not benefit from the economies of scale enjoyed by today’s banking behemoths. But, while it’s questionable whether these savings are passed on to the consumer, there’s no doubt what the cost of their failure has been.

The banking industry owes an awful lot to society. A little open heart surgery is exactly what it needs to start making repayments.

Bevis Watts is Head of Business Banking, Triodos Bank.

This article originally appeared in Green Futures, the leading magazine on environmental solutions and sustainable futures published by Forum for the Future.

Triodos Bank is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Malcolm Hayday to step down as chief executive of Charity Bank

Malcolm Hayday, chief executive and one of the founders of ethical bank Charity Bank, has decided to step down from the post in 2012  to hand over the reins to a successor.  Under Mr Hayday’s leadership, Charity Bank has grown from concept to launching as the world’s first general registered charity that is also an authorised bank.

This year Charity Bank celebrates its 10th anniversary, with the bank’s balance sheet at the end of 2011 exceeding £80m, an increase of almost 20% on the previous year, and many times the opening figure of £6.4m in 2002. It also expects to report a surplus of over £350,000.  In its first 10 years under Mr Hayday’s leadership, Charity Bank has made more than 1,000 loans, reached a further 1,000 with business support and touched the lives of 3,500,000 people in communities across the UK.

Malcolm Hayday is one of the pioneers of social finance. He joined the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) in 1993 to explore the possibility of loan finance as a new resource for the charity sector.  In 1995 Mr Hayday started Investors in Society, a successful pilot loan fund, before overseeing its formal incorporation as Charity Bank in 2002.  His work with CAF, followed by the successful launch of Charity Bank helped to pave the way for the growing number of social finance institutions in the UK and throughout the world.

“After 19 years of establishing and growing the Charity Bank model to the point of profitability, I believe now is the right time for me and the right time for Charity Bank, to hand over the reins to a successor who can take the bank to new heights, ” commented Mr Hayday.  “I am extremely proud of Charity Bank’s achievements, as we have developed a unique banking model that responds to real social needs by financing charities and social enterprises.  As I step down, Charity Bank is well-positioned for sustainable growth. I have no doubt that this is the most exciting and satisfying job in banking. I have agreed to stay on until the right successor is found.”

George Blunden, chairman of Charity Bank, commented; “Malcolm has secured his place in the history of social finance and we thank him for leaving us with a thriving organisation. His dogged determination to realise the vision of a bank from and for the charity sector has brought about change in the way charities are financed.  That change is now gathering speed; the social finance sector has a key role to play as the economic outlook remains challenging. We wish Malcolm well as we begin our search for the leader who will take forward and build upon the strong foundations Malcolm has laid.”

Charity Bank will begin the recruitment process for a new chief executive with immediate effect.  Interested parties should contact Robert Watsham at Odgers Berndston: robert.watsham@odgersberndtson.co.uk, 020 7529 111.

Malcolm Hayday FRSA: career milestones
1993:  After 21 years in international banking and mezzanine finance, Malcolm Hayday joins Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) to explore whether a charitable investment market can be set up alongside grants and donations.

1995: Malcolm Hayday becomes director of Investors in Society, which is set up as a special trust within CAF as a pilot loan and guarantee fund, with £500,000 of funding from CAF.

1996: First loan to the Planning Exchange, Glasgow.
Malcolm begins the first of two terms (1996-2002) (2004-2011) as a Board Member of INAISE, the International Association of Investors in the Social Economy, and was its President, 1997-2001.

1998 Malcolm was a member of the advisory group to the Small is Bankable Report from Joseph  Rowntree Foundation and a member of the advisory group to the Development Trusts Association on asset based development,

2000: Malcolm joins the trustee board of the Big Issue Foundation (2000-2007) and became its chairman in 2003

Member of the SEEDA social capital fund study group and the working group on social investment in Scotland.

2002:  Charity Bank opens its doors. It is registered as a charity by the Charity Commission and authorised as a bank by the Financial Services Authority. Charity Bank launched by Chancellor of the Exchequer at 11 Downing Street, 17 October.  Opening balance sheet of £6.4 million.

Founding board member of the Community Development Finance Association, 2002-2003

Member of the Advisory Group of global foundation leaders to the World Economic Forum, to 2007

2003:  Under Malcolm’s guidance, Charity Bank is the first bank to be a community development financial institution (CDFI), accredited by Government to deliver the community investment tax credit. Launch of the first tax effective community investment deposit account, the Charity Bank CITRA (Community Investment Tax Relief Account)

2004: Leads a consortium of third sector organisations awarded mandate to manage £125 million Futurebuilders investment fund on behalf of Home Office.

2005 Charity Bank NEMSEEA Awards winner; UK Charity Award, ifs Banking Services winner; and first ifs innovation award for the CITRA.

2007: Yorkshire Forward agrees to invest £10 million into Charity Bank; the first investment of its kind by a Regional Development Agency.

BEEAM Enterprise Awards winner and UK Charity Awards Professional Services winner

2008: The first ever Charity ISA launched, the only tax-free savings account where 100% of the funds, the deposit as well as the interest, is used for a charitable purpose.

Charity Bank is selected to administer the £3 million Cylch Capacity Building Investment Fund for Welsh recycling organisations.

Charity Bank West Kent business in the community and Malcolm Hayday entrepreneur of the year awards

2010: Building Change Trust invests £1million capital in Charity Bank to benefit community and voluntary groups in Northern Ireland.

Charity Bank wins two awards from the Institute of Financial Services: the ‘ifs Award for Outstanding Innovation’ and ‘Social Responsibility and Community Banking’.

2011: Charity Bank makes an unaudited surplus in excess of £350,000 with a balance sheet that exceeds £80 million.

Malcolm has also been a member of the Advisory Group for NCVO’s Sustainable Funding Project, and a member of the International Advisory Committee of NESsT, the non profit enterprise and self-sustainability team, and trustee of NESsT UK Limited.

He has contributed to the Banking on Culture report; and work on new financial instruments with the Arts Council.

About Charity Bank

Charity Bank is the world’s first general registered charity that is also an authorised bank.  It lends to charities, social enterprises and community organisations, including those that would find it difficult to secure funding from traditional banking sector.  It invests its depositors’ money in loans to support charities and enterprises that benefit society and publishes details of every loan it makes.

Charity Bank is committed to transparency and community involvement. It provides hands-on support to the business and charities it lends to, as well as encouraging its own staff to volunteer within the community. Charity Bank’s innovative approach to banking and its mission to benefit society have enabled it to lend over £165m to charities and social enterprises, touching the lives of 3.5 million people in communities across the UK.

Charity Bank – Ethical Bank is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

There are many of us who try hard to do the right thing.  We may buy Fairtrade food, worry about our carbon footprint and recycle our packaging.  Yet most of us have not the slightest idea what our money is doing when we aren’t spending it.

For the majority of us with accounts in high street banks, it’s not that we don’t care; it’s that we don’t know.  A survey commissioned by Charity Bank last autumn revealed that 78% of us are not sure what our banks are doing with our money.  They are not obliged by law to tell us, and we don’t like to ask.  Stories such as the Independent’s last summer, which revealed how UK high street banks are funding the arms industry, make us uncomfortable but unsure what to do.  Changing bank accounts is a hassle and it is much easier not to think about it.

The good news is that there are alternatives out there.  The Move Your Money UK campaign is supported by a whole range of organisations offering alternative ways in which to grow your money, from the Co-operative Bank to local credit unions.   Since the economic crisis, alternative providers have benefited from public distrust of major high-street banks and at Charity Bank this has seen our deposits book doubling in size since 2007, to over £65million today.

While mainstream banks are often focused solely on the principle of profit maximisation, alternative providers implement the triple principle of profit-people-planet.   For Charity Bank this means we adhere to three principles that are in short supply with high street banks:

1) Responsibility. We know our customers personally and expect our borrowers to use loans responsibly and only for the greater good.

2) Transparency. Unlike many mainstream banks, Charity Bank knows and shares where we lend our savers money.

3) Sustainability. While most mainstream banks are focused on creating short term profit, Charity Bank is focused on creating long term social change.  We reinvest our entire surplus for charitable purposes.

So if you are wondering whether to open a new savings account, give some thought to the good that your money could be doing while it’s invested.   It will help you to sleep more easily.

Charity Bank is an ethical bank that offer savings accounts and an ethical ISA where customers not only receive a competitive return, but can also be confident that their savings will help Charity Bank lend money  to charities and social enterprises.  Charity Bank is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (207701) and is a registered charity (1091648). Registered Office: 194 High Street, Tonbridge, Kent. TN9 1BE. Registered in England and Wales (4330018).

Charity Bank – Ethical Bank is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Research has revealed that 78% of Britons don’t know how or where their savings are invested.  We investigate further, asking the public where they would and wouldn’t want their savings invested.

This video is part of our campaign, in the build up to National Ethical Investment Week, to raise awareness of the good you can do just by saving money with an ethical bank – and of how easy it is to do.

Where Your Savings Go (National Ethical Investment Week) from Charity Bank on Vimeo.

To learn more; join one of Charity Bank’s borrower visits, explore Charity Bank’s ‘Think Ethical, Save Ethical’ microsite, or visit www.charitybank.org

Charity Bank – Ethical Bank is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

As cuts in the Public Sector populate the media, Vicky Kenrick at International Sustainability Recruitment Consultancy, Allen & York, explores how these cutbacks have highlighted the value of Environmental professionals with Health and Safety experience and skills.  In addition, Allen & York discuss the impact of the cuts to The Environment Agency and Natural England, as Defra recently find their budget cut by 30% compared to government average of 19%.

The self-proclaimed greenest government ever had announced in October, some of its most vicious spending cuts to the environment. Environmental and Health & Safety Recruitment Specialists, Allen & York, have looked into the impact these, cuts have made to job opportunities within Environment. This year alone, Defra’s budget will shrink – from about £3bn and by about £700m by the end of the four-year spending period, in 2015. As a result, the department and its delivery agencies, including the Environment Agency, which monitors pollution and protects against flooding, and Natural England, which helps look after the natural world, will have to shed 5,000-8,000 out of a total of 30,000 jobs.

Nevertheless, demand for environmental expertise continues to soar as the consultancy sector goes from strength to strength and new corporate roles are created for climate change, sustainability and social responsibility specialists.  Whilst compliance based roles continually reward professionals that have both Environmental and Health and Safety qualifications.

In light of the Environment Agency and HSE cut backs; senior level compliance based roles consistently require Health and Safety, as well as Environmental experience.  Chris Saunby, Environmental Recruitment Manager at Allen & York, suggests that some jobs roles are being combined and there is a demand for an Environmental Manager with NEBOSH certificate qualified and knowledge of 14001 and 18001 management systems.

Cuts to the HSE and the Working Environment

With cuts of 35% to the Health and Safety industry’s watchdog – the HSE, coinciding with the fact that employers will no longer face automatic health and safety inspections, health and safety, specifically, within the construction industry has been recently scrutinised in the media. With job losses within this area, more attention is being given to how the role of the Environmental Manager can be built upon in order to include Health and Safety responsibilities.  For example, with pressure from the government on the HSE affecting the safety of the workplace, specifically construction sites, the importance of assessing and preventing dangers in a workplace environment is in the limelight. George Guy, UCATT’s acting general secretary, said: “The Conservative-led government’s financial attacks on the HSE will make workplaces more dangerous and will lead to increased deaths and injuries of workers in future.” Reports suggest the number of construction related deaths is already on the rise. The HSE’s figures were revealed by its head of construction, Philip White, at the London conference on Safety Schemes in Procurement, earlier this month. The provisional statistics revealed that the 2010/2011 period saw an increase of 15% on last year’s low of 42 deaths.

How will Environment Cuts Affect the Industry?

Meanwhile, by delving a little further into the proposed cuts for Defra we are able to better assess the impact of the cuts on career opportunities in the Environment sector.

Defra’s biggest cuts in money terms are in resource spending for administration and front-line services, which will be reduced by 29%, from £2.3bn this year to £1.8bn in 2014-15.  Specifically, capital spending, mostly on flood defences, will drop from £600m this year to £400m each year. With cuts in place, it is the quality and qualifications of employees that become important.

With The Environment Agency needing to reduce staff numbers by 3,000 in three years’ time; Environmental professionals are up skilling in order to not only secure their role but to progress within their career.  Recognising the value of the combination of Health and Safety and Environment combinations is Dr Paul Leinster Chief Executive of the, Environment Agency who said is pleased to support a recently launched NEBOSH Diploma for Environmental Management, “as it provides the core knowledge for practical environmental management in industry”.

Meanwhile, catastrophes, at high risk environmental sites, such as The Big Creek mine disaster, the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform and the death-defying rescue of the Chilean miners put health, safety and the environment in the headlines. Combined with HSE cuts, fewer workplace inspections and a tighter budgetary situation for The Environment Agency, Health and Safety skills will be increasingly required within senior compliance based Environment roles.

Meanwhile, with the HSE under pressure from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to limit the number of on-site inspections it carries out. HSE Chief Executive, Geoffrey Podger, also said the department would have to adapt and cut up to 350 jobs.  With fewer inspections, the responsibility to ensure a safe working environment lies even more with the corporation.  Sources have revealed that industry bodies will be asked to ensure their members self-regulate while HSE inspectors focus mainly on high-risk sites. Self regulation provides another reason for corporations to allocate these responsibilities to existing Environmental professional and those with a NEBOSH qualification and previous Health and Safety experience make them a very valuable asset.

To discuss your Sustainable recruitment requirements or our latest job opportunities, please contact Allen & York at www.allen-york.com

Allen & York is an active member of Ethical Junction, learn more

Bristol Credit Union
is well equipped to take advantage of the expected changes in credit union
legislation thanks to a subordinated loan from The Co-operative Loan Fund.

The Legislative Reform Order due to
be laid before Parliament in October will give credit unions the flexibility to
accept local community groups, companies and social enterprises into membership
and to extend membership to new groups of people, such as housing association
tenants and employees of nationwide companies. This will allow large numbers of
people to benefit from credit union services for the first time.

Bristol Credit Union is using the
loan from The Co-operative Loan Fund as resource capital that will be used to provide
members with greater lending opportunities and investment capital over the
coming years. The loan is the final part of The Co-operative Loan Fund’s
2004 initiative, in which over £200,000 was allocated to help support credit
unions in the UK.

Bristol Credit Union was developed in
2005 and 2006 through a partnership of smaller community credit unions, and it
is now proud to offer financial support to the city of Bristol and its surrounding area. The members
of the credit union share a common bond of living in and around Bristol and this
has resulted in the city becoming more inclusive, and benefitting from greater
economic activity and a lower risk of financial exclusion. There are now over 4,500
members in Bristol Credit Union, plus local organisations, landlords and advice
agencies who work alongside the credit union to benefit its savers and
borrowers.

In addition to the wide range of
savings accounts on offer, Bristol Credit Union also welcomes loan applications
from its members, who are safe in the knowledge that by law, their interest
rates will be lower than two percent per month on the reducing balance of the
loan. It is credit union policy to meet the borrowing requirements of as many
members as possible, depending on the available funds, and the loan from The
Co-operative Loan Fund will ensure Bristol Credit Union have sufficient money
to meet the needs of its investors for the foreseeable future.

Speaking about the loan, Bristol
Credit Union Chief Executive James Berry said: “Bristol Credit Union is
delighted to receive this loan from The Co-operative Loan Fund, as it
represents a vote of confidence in us and our future development plans. The
loan enables us to maintain a comfortable capital to assets ratio through an
expected period of fast growth, and helps us to develop further services for
our members, many of whom are financially excluded. Bristol Credit Union has
over 4,500 members across Bristol,
working together for mutual financial benefit. By building a strong capital
base we can help members by encouraging further saving deposits, and
investigate mortgage lending too. It is great to work with an organisation that
understands credit unions and co-operatives.”

The loan is very unusual in the sense
that it is subordinated, which means that in the unfortunate event that credit
union suffers severe financial problems, The Co-operative Loan Fund ranks below
the credit union savers on the creditors list. In addition, the credit union
only needs to make interest-only payments for 10 years and then repay the lump
sum, which relieves a lot of pressure for Bristol Credit Union.

Ian Taylor
at The Co-operative Loan Fund added: “This is the third subordinated loan
we have made to credit unions, and in the current financial climate we believe
it has come at a crucial time. The money will be used to ensure Bristol Credit
Union can support its members and help them overcome the difficult financial
times ahead. We are pleased to be able to offer our support to an organisation
such as Bristol Credit Union, which puts its member’s interests first and
promotes a strong community ethos.”

“Ethical” is fast becoming a brand name – a cleansing agent
that can be strapped to a product or service to alleviate the guilt of consumption. Does it mean that the mythical ethical
consumer is emerging, a consumer who tries to act and buy ethically in all
aspects of their life? Or does there
simply exist a growing demand for “ethical” products? For the two are not the
same.

The Co-op’s latest annual “Ethical consumerism” report now
shows that the ethical sector in 2005 was worth £29.268 billion, a growth of
11% on 2004 exceeded the sales of ‘over-the-counter’ beer and cigarettes. Whichever way you look at it, something is
changing amongst consumers.

The hidden ingredients

Recent legislation in the food industry introduced universal food
labelling; specific ingredients, whose quantities must be revealed are clearly
listed on all food sold from the shelves of our supermarkets. Now we know exactly what we are putting into
our bodies and if we choose to, we can make better educated decisions about our
diets. Suddenly it makes sense why my
Mum banned me from drinking Ribena all those years ago. The labels show clearly what has physically
gone in to the product: salt, sugar, fat and protein. Of course, there is more to it than they can
display, but it is a vast improvement on the rather
cryptic link between Coca-cola and some of its original ingredients. But what about everything else that went in
to producing that product? Where are the raw materials sourced from? In what conditions are they grown, mined,
raised, fished and processed? What about the number of miles it travelled to
get on the shelf? What about what the
producer does with the money? What about
the “ethics” that brought that product to market?

What is ethical?

Ethical practice is about more that just fair-trade, it is more than organic, it involves holistic appraisal of every aspect
that goes into the trade and industry behind a product or service, in Marxist
terms it is the “means of production and distribution”. There is no one definition for “ethical”, as
an adjective it’s very nature is open to interpretation, although there is no
doubt that to be ethically led means to be trying to “do the right thing” at
all points of the supply chain. As of yet, however, the consumer cannot easily
get a fair appraisal of the ethics that lie within and behind a product as
easily as they can find the ingredients that lie within it. So the question must be: Do consumers really
know in what proportions they are demanding “ethical”?

What measures the ethical quality of a product? Minimal environmental impact? I think so.
Respect for fellow living creatures?
Probably. Fair treatment of all
labour involved in the production process? Definitely. So the key to a truly ethical product lies in
the production process and the “worker” is core to that as we are, mercifully,
not entirely mechanised yet. It would be
fair to say then, based on ethical demand requiring suppliers to adhere to
these practices, the worker is going to come off quite well. Fair wages, workers rights and limits on the
amount of hours worked are just some of the benefits available. However, we haven’t addressed price yet.

Addressing the price

Price, whilst the least tangible of all costs that we can relate to a
product, is more often than not, the deciding factor in the relative success of
any product or service. Price,
traditionally, drives both demand and supply.
Price as a financial measure is ultimately a measure of the relative
cost of a product. It is a generic
summary of the resources that have been consumed bringing the product to
market; it is not necessarily related to or indicative of the “ethical” cost of
a product. Waitrose now boasts that its
products are “honestly priced” and, in case you hadn’t noticed, their locally
produced organic products are not cheap.

Organic food will probably always be more expensive than
non-organic, the animals have more space and the intense battery and shed
systems are banned; the avoidance of pesticides and chemical fertilisers means
that more human labour needs to be utilised for the same kilo of production so
organic farmers will always have to charge more, until of course the full
environmental cost of agri-chemicals becomes factored into industrial farming
by legislation. Fairtade coffee on the other hand is very different, in
non-Fairtrade coffee the amount paid to the grower of the beans makes up a mere
7% of the total cost, for Fairtrade coffee including the minimum price and the
social premium this rises but to only 11%. Yet this small rise is not reflected
in the increased cost of Fairtrade coffee over non-Fairtrade, why? When the
Co-op first introduced Fairtrade coffee into its range, it had a 1p difference
in price from the rest of its coffee range. One conclusion to draw is that some
of the traditional large retailers are cashing in on ethical consumerism to
increase their margins.

Take the cost of two different tomatoes; one is 20p, the
other 35p – one is from Africa the other is from Somerset. One was bought from Tesco Express, the other
from an independently run local produce shop.
One is sprayed in pesticides; the other has been exposed to the elements. One was grown on land that is patrolled by
thugs and funded by a bank you have never heard of; the other was grown in a
field about two miles north of Hove in a farmers field whose family had owned it for generations. The food labels, if tomatoes carried such
things, would be identical. It’s the
“Tale of Two Tomatoes” and if they had ethical labelling they would read very
differently indeed.

Does ethical demand really exist?

So perhaps, as with the latest food labelling laws, the public need to
be exposed to a standardised measure of the ethical costs of a product, or
should we say the ethical compromises made to ensure that it could be
successful according to its derived financial price. We can then see if ethical demand really
exists. If effective ethical demand
really does exist it will not be price driven, it will driven by the other
costs normally associated with supply.
Fashion too would be relative to what was achievable within ethical
parameters, not simply within the realms of possibility.

What can I do about it?

At Ethical Junction we believe that ethical demand does exist. But, like the fundamental economic problem,
it is not a perfect world. Moving in the
right direction is all anyone can do to create an ethically driven supply and
demand chain – lots and lots of tiny steps in the right direction – millions of
consecutive ethically driven decisions that help to shape the economy. And this can only be done if we co-operate.

Ethical Junction represents more than one thousand enterprises that have
signed up to do just this – which is move in the same
ethically guided direction. Choosing an
Ethical Junction member as a supplier helps build the chain and consequently
feeds into the development of core ethical principles held by thousands of
people.

Ethical Junction (www.ethical-junction.org) is a not-for-profit community interest
company that has established itself as the UK’s leading network of ethical
businesses. Ethical Junction was established in 1999 and has an active network
of over 1,100 companies and organisations that operate ethically and
provide a range of goods and services which are environmentally friendly,
sustainable, fairly traded and socially responsible.

15%
off Peak District self catering accommodation for two people -
from £237 per cottage for two nights short break before 27 August

Set
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More
info:
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For more offers and travel discounts see the rest of the newsletter here

A new organisation is helping people tolive happier and more fulfilling lives, despite the challenges of the creditcrunch.

Life^² (www.lifesquared.org.uk) is offeringcourses, guides, public talks and advice aimed at helping people to ‘live well’ – to live happy, wise lives inthe modern world.  It is currentlyrecruiting for new participants to join its ‘just think… ‘ scheme – an innovative8-week group course that people run themselves without a tutor in their ownhomes.  It aims to help people to standback from their lives and find ways of making them better – including living inline with their values and living the lives they want.

One participant on a recent ‘just think…’
course commented ‘the course has been really useful in reflecting and focussing
on my life and making practical plans to work towards a future I hope to
realise.  It has been great to meet and
discuss these with the group who have been very supportive and encouraging’.

Life² Director, Richard Docwra, noted that ‘in
modern society, we’ve become obsessed with the idea that the only way to be
happy is to earn more money, get more status or acquire new things.  Our courses and guides show that this is not
only untrue, but also that constantly striving for this material success can
actually cause us problems in health, stress and happiness.  Our courses and guides help people to help
people to stand back from their lives, understand the world better and work out
how they really want to live.  On
reflection, many people find that the most important things in life often don’t
involve money – such as good relationships, having more time and having a sense
of purpose.  This is a particularly
important message during the credit crunch, when people have less money and
career stability and are looking for ways of making life better’.

The Life² website and shop can be found at www.lifesquared.org.uk.  

Supreme Creations were awarded the BITC ‘Responsible Supply Chain’ Award by HRH The Prince of Wales at Clarence House.

Winners of the top Business in The Community Supply Chain award in this year’s Awards for Excellence, Supreme Creations has been showing the big boys how it’s done. The accolade recognises the company’s pioneering product development and commitment to creating secure working conditions and sustainable communities for its 2,000-strong workforce.

Guardian Article yesterday
Supreme Creations, the world leading
ethical manufacturer of reusable bags has been campaigning against
single use plastic bags for years. We have not just campaigned, but
provide a range of alternatives for promotional, retail and packaging.
We now offer the widest range of reusable bag alternatives in the UK.

Long
lasting reusable bags will strengthen your marketing message by making
it a positive one: environmentally friendly and extremely useful; two
excellent things to be associated with your brand.

Quick link to the largest range of bag styles, colours and options.

Call
0845 230 5996 or email kiran@supreme-london.com for the WIDEST CHOICE
OF ECO-BAGS FOR PROMOTIONS, RETAIL & PACKAGING & OUR LOW PRICE
PROMISE.