The Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC)
announced today that Peter Holbrook will become its new chief executive officer
following the departure of Jonathan Bland in the New Year.  Peter is
currently the CEO of Sunlight Development Trust in Gillingham, Kent, as well as
one of England’s Social Enterprise Ambassadors.

Claire Dove, the chair of SEC, announced
his appointment by saying: “Peter is one of the most innovative leaders
working in social enterprise today. He brings with him the right experience and
an enormous amount of passion. Peter’s entrepreneurial abilities, the
pioneering work he has done at Sunlight and his commitment to social enterprise
make him the right person for the job. On behalf of the SEC board and staff, I
am absolutely delighted to welcome him to the Coalition.”

Holbrook said: “Politically and
economically, social enterprise is set to be tested like never before. But
alongside the undoubted challenges that face the sector, we have a unique
opportunity to promote an economic model that can change not only the way we do
business but also society at large.

“I’m honoured to lead SEC
during this period of change, which would be daunting were it not for
Jonathan’s inspiring legacy and the incredible team I’ll be proud
to be working with.”

Jonathan Bland will continue full time as
CEO until 31 October and after that will provide interim support until Holbrook
starts in the New Year.

Bland has been CEO of the Coalition since
its inception six years ago and is leaving in order to start an international
consultancy on social enterprise. He said: “I couldn’t be more
pleased to be passing along the reigns to Peter. I am confident that his vision
and passion will take the Coalition into a new and exciting phase.” 

Sunlight is one of the UK’s most
dynamic and successful social enterprises and works to tackle long-standing health
and social inequalities in the community.  It was the
winner of the 2004 Community Regeneration Awards (BURA), was given special
recognition by the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in 2005 and was
highly commended by the Centre for Social Justice in 2007. In 2008 Sunlight
Social Enterprises CIC, home of cafesunlight, parentis, radio sunlight and
sunlight studios, was awarded Best New Social Enterprise at the Enterprising
Solutions Awards.

There are
approximately 62,000 social enterprises in the UK with a combined turnover of
£27billion. They operate in almost every sector including health, employment,
education, retail, technology, renewable energy and the arts.

The Social Enterprise Coalition is the
UK’s national body for social enterprise and represents a wide range of
social enterprises, regional and national support networks and other related
organisations. The Coalition key activities are centred around informing the policy agenda, influencing the political
agenda, promoting the benefits of social enterprise through the media, campaigning and events, and undertaking research to expand the social enterprise
evidence base.

We’ve been neglecting keeping our compatriots at Ethical Junction in the loop about developments in Leap’s world… Here are some of the latest happenings including the Leap designed – Good Energy Shop winning the observer ethical awards, a Leap designed children’s book ‘Tales of Porth’, winning a Big Tick for Climate Change from Business in the Community, gaining an ISO-14001 accreditation for our Environmental Management System, confrimation that Leap had achieved the Ethical Company Organisation’s Ethical Award and winning gold medal at the Hampton Court Flower Show in association with the Lost Gardens of Heligan…

Back
in April we were told of our success on behalf of the Cornish Language
Partnership and their Leap designed children’s book series ‘Tales from
Porth’:

PICTURE
CAPTION: From Left to Right: Matt Hocking, Director of Leap-design for
change; Pol Hodge, Cornish Language Consultant; Jenefer Lowe,
Development Manager for Cornish Language Partnership; Brian Hoskin,
Illustrator; Will Coleman, writer of ‘Tales from Porth’ and Kieran
Holden, Designer for Leap (Other Illustrator Emma McCann Not Pictured).

In June we won a Big Tick for Climate Change from Business in the Community:

PICTURE
CAPTION: From Left to Right: Peaches Gelding, Regional Director,
Business in the Community; Chris Maynard, PR and Marketing Coordinator
for Leap.

At around the same time the Good Energy Shop won The Observer Ethical for Best Online Retail Initiative:
“We can now say that Leap
designed the most ethical online retail site in 2009! That’s right
folks… Good Energy Shop won! Everyone is thrilled at the news and
we’d like to congratulate everyone at Good Energy for ensuring that a
great website is backed up with a great team and customer experience.
As the award was decided by nominations from customers, we’d like to
add to Good Energy’s words by thanking all those customers who voted
for the site.”

PICTURE
CAPTION: From Left to Right: Lucy Siegle, The Observer’s ethical living
columnist; Barney Rhys Jones, Good Energy MD; Colin Firth, actor, Oxfam
Ambassador and director of Fairtrade coffee shop chain
Progresso and Sophy Fearnley-Whittingstall, Head of PR and
Communication for Good Energy.

During July we were given our ISO-14001 accreditation for our Environmental Management System:
“After two years of hard graft and the training of four of our five
employees, we have now (last Tuesday in fact) been given our ISO-14001
accreditation.This is culmination of a huge amount of work and
drive by Matt and Jonny and singles us out as the only graphic design
studio in the South West (and maybe the country) that has achieved this
prestigious recognition.
The 14001 accreditation is concerned with
Leap’s environmental management system and calls for a measurable
reduction in all of its outputs year on year.”

Also in July Leap, in association with the Lost Gardens of Heligan won a gold medal at the Hampton Court Flower Show:

PICTURE CAPTION: From Left to Right: Lorna and Sarah with Claire England, Designer for Leap.

PICTURE CAPTION: From Left to Right: Sarah and Lorna Tremayne, Marketing and Media Manager from Heligan.

Last month we received confirmation that 

Leap had achieved the Ethical Company Organisation’s Ethical Award:

Two of our best combinations we have created this week
     1. 100% cashmere Bra Dress for House of Cashmere. Burlington 
          Arcade, London
     2. A golden, sparkly sleeveless Bra Dress for T4 presenter

FURTHER NEWS:

• Our debut collection for online retailer ASOS will be launched at the end of this month

• Goodone will be exhibiting again at Estethica during London Fashion Week Spring Summer 2010

• Andwe are currently being followedby a Japanese film crew ‘NHK’ documenting our Goodlife!

• Lastly there will bea studio sample sale happening in the next couple
  of weeks! The perfect time to pick up a bargin, and the opportunity to
  pick out your own colour combination for whatever design you
  like…watch this space.

 www.goodone.co.uk

EcoChic collection-Short Film
 
Short and sweet, but we were delighted with our first short film recently shown at the Sussex Innovation Awards, discussing ethical and fair trade fashion, which we will launch shortly online to you.

EcoChic Collection & the Green Party

We were
thrilled to be asked to collaborate recently to launch a campaign for
Brighton to become an ethical centre for jewellery. Our campaign was
featured  this week in the Sussex Argus Newspaper

   
“Congratulations to the Green Party for spearheading such an important
campaign for Brighton. EcoChic Collection is delighted to be
collaborating on this vital issue and supports the work of the work of
ARM (Association For Responsible Mining) who alongside CRED jewellery
have worked tirelessly to promote this issue.”

Read more here: A Green Collaboration

EcoChic Collection live on Brighton Radio 

Much
fun was had alongside Alex Phillips from the Green Party at radio
reverb this week when we discussed the possibility of  an ethical
jewellery centre for Brighton.

EcoChic Collection partners with Ethical Weddings

And
finally, we’re delighted to announce that we are now official partners
with the inspirational Ethical Weddings. We’ll be working together to
spread the word about ethical weddings and eco chic style far and wide.
Look out for joint special offers and promotions coming soon.

Latest Offers
Win 1 of 4 pieces of La jewellery worth over £20.00 including cufflinks and earrings.
 
Enter the draw to win one of four jewellery pieces by La Jewellery, previously presented to HRH Camilla. Just spend over £40.00 (to include jewellery) and we’ll enter you in the draw.
 
These beautiful pieces have been kindly donated by our friends at La Jewellery. La design and handcraft their exceptional jewellery range in Wales by local silversmiths who use responsibly sourced silver. The La social business model is also an inspiration with valuable charity work and enabling their employees to work from home, promoting the work-life balance.
 
La Jewellery is inspired by nature and is truly unique and beautiful.
 
View our La range here: EcoChic Collection La Range
 
This offer is being promoted on The Prize Finder
 

The
online ethical living magazine with real stories and real heart.

Full of fresh
and lively articles on ethical and fair trade fashion, cutting edge
green style, health and well being, ecology,world and community news
and bringing you the latest in ecological and health research, ethical
business stories and much more. Our online Magazine celebrates the
successes of individuals, communities, businesses, charities,
environmental groups and third sector organisations actively working to
make a difference in our world and includes features, interviews,
reviews and personal stories and digs deep into the issues.

We are thrilled to have some exceptional contributors on board and
welcome your views, news and stories.

Are you an ethical or fair trade business or third
sector organisation with strong ethical, social and
environmental credentials? Feature your business or organisation with
us.

 Option 1: Directory Feature:  Click Here:
EcoChic Magazine Directory Listing

EcoChic Magazine, Annual Directory Listing £55.00.

Your Business Profile up to 200 words and 468 x 60
banner.

Option 2:
Single Feature:
 
Click Here: EcoChic
Magazine Single Feature

Your
article as a single feature £75.00.

Feature
in your chosen section of EcoChic Magazine as a permanent listing.

Send
us your article, up to 500 words and an image 350 x 350 pixels, for a
permanent feature. This includes a direct website link or the option
of a homepage banner 468 x 60.

Our site history

Online since
2007, our natural site rankings for fair trade and ethical fashion are
excellent, we are a growing brand with regular readership figures of
22,958 visits and 169,525 page views, with 67.26% new visits on our
site each month. We also have excellent links to our site and produce
a monthly newsletter, that we distribute to a wide audience. EcoChic
Collection has recently joined several affiliate programmes.
 
Our main
domain name is www.ecochiccollection.co.uk and is fed into via two
other domain names ecochicfairtrade.co.uk & ecochicmagazine.co.uk.
 
We work with an Ethical PR agency and a Search Engine Optimisation
Company to promote our work and have a growing number of partnerships
with ethical and fair trade businesses.
 

In accepting to feature with
us, you will automatically be accepting our terms and conditions,
please read these here:

 
EcoChic
Boutique & Magazine Terms & Conditions 
 

We look
forward to working with you and sharing your story.

Deborah,
Founder & Editor, EcoChic UK LLP

EcoChic UK LLP OC336932

www.ecochiccollection.co.uk

For email enquiries contact: hello@ecochiccollection.co.uk or  01273 24 55 33

Travel Angel makes scents for holiday
journeys

A new ingenious product for travel sickness.  The Travel
Angel is a natural way to get relief from car, plane, train or
seasickness. Containing essential oils of blended ginger, orange and
peppermint, it enables you to enjoy instant and natural relief from
travel sickness before, during and after a journey.

It’s
easy to use – simply open the band compartment and inhale
the essential oil aromas deeply, breathe out and relax. 

Special Offer of 15% discount in May, just enter ”Travel”
at the checkout.   

The
Travel Angel is available on-line at www.wristangel.co.uk

Imogen Stone, the online flower and gift store, has recently become a Fairtrade licensee

They became licensees to support the Fairtrade Foundation in their goal to transform trading structures and practices in favour of the poor and disadvantaged. You can support flower growers in the developing world this Valentine’s Day by purchasing flowers from Imogen Stone. Chocaid Fairtrade chocolates are also available with flowers for the perfect gift for your lover. Visit www.imogenstone.com

Go Eco Store has provided sponsorship to the Environmental Team at the University of Leicester (UoL) during their recycling campaign in early 2009.

UoL have a strong eco ethic and the Environment Team has an extensive list of issues that they intend to address covering all kinds of environmental impacts at the University. These range from the energy used and the things they buy, to how people get around the University sites and managing the estate to improve conditions for wildlife. It’s not just about how they manage their waste but anything that is of an important environmental concern.

Last year in 2008 UoL ran a Big Green Week and started their recycling scheme, both of which received “Green Apple Awards”, they also enlisted the help of the Carbon Trust to calculate their carbon footprint, and then implemented a carbon management plan with ways of reducing energy.

Some of the things events taking place during 2009 include a recycling campaign which consists of “Golden Bin Challenges” and a Fancy Dress competition evening where all students are required to dress up in “recycled” outfits. The best dressed students will win some eco products supplied by Go Eco Store which are intended to encourage students to adopt an eco lifestyle.

In 2008 the staff at Go Eco Store wanted to improve their lifestyle to be more Eco friendly and started to look at what was available in the high street. They struggled to find many suitable products so investigated the “independent” market. It became obvious that there were a great number of products available but it was difficult to tell which ones offered real value for money. So with this in mind they felt that there would also be many other people trying to do the same thing, and so Go Eco Store was born.

Go Eco Store is trying to help everyone to support their Eco lifestyle by offering a range of products which are not only better for our planet but also kinder on your pocket. We have spent a great deal of time evaluating many products that are eco friendly and have brought together a selection of products that in our opinion offer high quality and great value for money.

The eco qualities of each item have been assessed; their performance evaluated and then compared the cost of using these items to similar products available in the high street. You will find the value for money assessment against each product on the website with it being expressed in the following ways: cost per use, life cycle cost, equivalent cost or quality.

The eco products are energy saving, natural, organic or recycled products and all are intended to reduce the impact on the environment while supporting your Eco home, encouraging an Eco lifestyle….

Please click here to see the full article > > >

12 July 2009 

Find Your Feet is proud of its 10k running teams. Last year a team of 22 ran their way round London and raised a fantastic £5,287.43 for our important work.

The support of our runners has, for example, enabled us to continue working with 1,500 Adivasi women in Jharkhand, India. As a result they have improved their food security, gained access to proper health care and developed the confidence to make sure their voices are heard at a local and national level. Click here to find out more > > >

Do you want to work with us to end rural poverty too? Applications to join our 10k team 2009 are now open! This year’s run will take place on July 12th so, with any luck we will have lovely summer weather…and a post run celebratory picnic in the park!

Click here to find out more and download an application form > > >