BrightKidz Celebrates Five Years Keeping Children Safe

Social enterprise BrightKidz celebrated its fifth anniversary this week
with gifts of soft toys kitted out in mini fluorescent jackets for
children at Park Junior School, Kettering.

Brightkidz founder Alison Holland said, ‘To mark our fifth anniversary
of trading we presented children from Park Junior School with toy high
vis puppies, reflectors and pencils. The ten children who received the
puppies had been chosen by the school because they have made really
special efforts to promote walking and road safety so it was also a
reward for their efforts’.

The school was also presented with a ‘high vis teddy mascot’ which will be cared for by whichever class has the most children walking to school.

BrightKidz was set up by Mrs Holland after she started a ‘Walking Bus’ scheme at her children’s school in Geddington and found it hard to find attractive fluorescent, reflective jackets in children’s sizes. She realised ‘high vis’ jackets would be a great way to help keep all children safe on their way to and from school or when cycling. She set up BrightKidz as a social enterprise and with her team of nine staff now sells a wide range of fluorescent, reflective clothing and accessories for children and adults across the UK and abroad.

She says, ‘As a business we are all really pleased we have reached the five year landmark. Park Junior School was actually our very first customer so we are delighted   they are part of our celebrations.

I think our success is due to the fun way we make it safer and more attractive for parents to let their children walk and cycle, which is good for everyone. Also, most of our products are UK-made and people now recognise the importance of ‘buying local’.  We hope the next five years will bring us even more success.

For more information about walking to school schemes and BrightKidz products visit  www.brightkidz.co.uk.

 ENDS

Notes for Editors
More details, interviews and photo available on request

Contact:  Alison Holland, BrightKidz
Tel: 01536 526461 (office)        
Tel: 01536 741193 (home – please note answerphone not working properly)
Email: alison@brightkidz.co.uk
Web (sales and info): www.brightkidz.co.uk

BrightKidz is an official brand sponsor of the Department for Transport’s Think campaign, see www.dft.gov.uk/think/focusareas/children/childpedestrians?page=Partners&whoareyou_id= >

Want to pledge your love to something that really deserves it this valentine’s day? Then take the Copenhagen pledge and show the planet you really care.

Rhian Beynon, campaigns manager for Christian Aid, says: ‘2009 is a crucial year for making real progress on climate change. World leaders will meet in Copenhagen at the end of this year to negotiate an international climate change deal. 

‘We are calling for industrialised countries to pledge to reduce their CO2 emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. Without this commitment it’s impossible to keep the global temperature rise below 2˚C and prevent climate catastrophe. As a result, 30 million more people could go hungry, 18 per cent of Bangladesh will be underwater and up to 3 billion people could face acute water shortages.’

Taking the Copenhagen pledge includes a commitment to:

• Reducing your personal carbon footprint through recycling, reusing and reducing consumption
• Writing to the Prime Minister and speaking to your local MP to let them know you expect the UK Government and other world leaders like Obama to work for a new international climate change agreement that is fair to poorer countries
• Encouraging friends and family to sign up to the pledge

Take the pledge > > >

For more information contact Emma Wigley ewigley@christian-aid.org or call 020 7523 2452

New Ownership for One of the Country’s Best Backpackers Hostels

Deepdale Backpackers and Camping, the multi award winning backpackers hostel and campsite at Burnham Deepdale on the north Norfolk coast, will have new owners on 23rd February.

Louise Smith and Andrea Bramhall are relocating from the North West to Norfolk to follow a dream and have a complete change of lifestyle.  Gone are the days of office jobs, instead they’ll be welcoming guests to the hostels and campsite, and enjoying the open spaces and opportunities of the north Norfolk coast.

Louise – “I always loved the outdoor life and to run a campsite had
always been a dream – so when the opportunity at Deepdale came up it
was everything I could wish for and more.”

 Andrea – “There are moments in life where you look about you and you
feel like you have just come home.  This was how we felt the first time
we came to Deepdale.  This is a wonderfully exciting once in a lifetime
adventure that I can’t wait to begin!”

Louise and Andrea take over the business from Alister and Jason
Borthwick, father and son partnership, who built and managed the
business from a small campsite only open in August to a tourism
business that accommodated over 31,000 bed nights in 2008.

 “The new energy and ideas that Louise and Andrea bring to Deepdale will
be great for the business.  We had incredible interest from potential
tenants, over 150 enquiries, and Louise and Andrea fought off stiff
competition to become our preferred tenants.  They take on a strong
business, which we all hope they can continue to strengthen.  I now get
the chance to spend a lot more time with my wife and the ever
increasing number of grandchildren,” said Alister Borthwick.

Initially Louise and Andrea look forward to running the business along
the same lines, “why fix what isn’t broken”, and then put their mark on
the place by developing writers workshops, singles walking and biking
weeks, artists and photographers weeks and many other winter
activities.  They look forward to working with the local businesses in
the area, especially the businesses at Dalegate Market, another
development by Alister and Jason.

“There are many opportunities for us to look at.  We’re looking forward
to the challenges this first season will throw at us, but relish the
opportunity to take up the reins.  Lonely Planet already describes
Deepdale as one of the country’s best backpackers hostels and we plan
to keep it that way,” said Louise.

“Do you believe in love at first sight?  Well I do now!  Deepdale is a
beautiful and charming place; every visit has been an adventure for us,
and our two dogs, who have discovered the pure unadulterated joy of
chasing waves!” said Andrea.

As Louise and Andrea take the reins, Alister Borthwick will take a step
towards retirement and Jason Borthwick will look for the next
opportunity for the family business to invest in.  Hostels elsewhere in
the East of England are high on the list and he’s developing his
consultancy business, Earthly Ideas.  “I’m always on the look out for
suitable locations for hostels.  Backpackers love the East of England,
but are seldom catered for.  We know we have a successful formula at
Deepdale, which will only benefit from feeder hostels around the
region, so watch this space,” said Jason.

Louise and Andrea look forward to welcoming guests all year round in
the backpackers hostel, campsite, tipis, group hostel and visitor
information centre – www.deepdalebackpackers.co.uk

Collaboration: an essential for sustainable practices?
London, 12th February, 14:00 – 17:30

What are the recent experiences and best practices from public and private sectors?
How can organisations collaborate for greater impact?

There is a dramatic increase in attempts (and directives) to collaborate – both internally as well as externally. Open Minds has undertaken research in relation to this theme to establish, from people’s real experiences, insights and guiding principles that might help in ensuring the best possibility of collaborative efforts being successful.

Examples from UK public and private sectors as well as from India are
showing that collaboration, rather than competition, is proving to be a
far more effective strategy than competition.

Effective collaboration is going to be essential in helping address
some of the more complex challenges both within and between
organisations as well as in the broader sustainability field. We are
also keen to see how complexity science principles might help underpin
such attempts.

ASP collaborates with Open Minds and The Environment Council to run a half-day workshop in London on February 12th

Contributors (speakers)
Simon Hamilton, Director and Founder of Three Hands
Mike Jones, Director Learning & Leadership, Open Minds
Mark Lawrence, Head of UK Operations (logistics), Marks & Spencer
Sian Peake-Jones, Director and Founder Open Minds

Objectives
Identify the growing need for more successful forms of collaboration
Explore Open Minds’ research findings
Share participants’ own learnings and experiences
Understand the Open Minds’ Learning Network
Create connections

Outcomes
Participants will:
Understand how sustainability practices are inherently dependent upon new collaborative models
Learn about the research open Minds has undertaken collaboration:
The importance of Context
Logic as an inhibitor
The role of relationships and connectivity (and the strength of ‘weak’ ties)
Bounded freedom – unleashing the magic of self-organisation
Uncertainty as a given – ‘Black Swans’ (and staying open to surprises)
Edge effects – interfaces and boundaries as source of innovation and breakthroughs
Patterns and success indicators – recognising what’s in the process of breaking down as well what is breaking through
Share their experiences and learn collectively from others
Understand the distinctions between collaborations in different sectors  

Participants will be:
CSR and sustainability practitioners
Stakeholder engagement and communications practitioners
Academics working on related topics

Click here to find out more > > >

Several million ethical consumers offer two ways to boost your business prosperity…

There is a new Ethical Junction member company going live very soon. It is called Your Ethical Startup (YES Club) and will be encouraging people to set up their own ethical businesses. Don’t worry! – rather than creating competition for existing Ethical Junction members, it will be focused on increasing awareness among consumers of the need to spend their budgets more thoughtfully from now on. In this way, YES Club is intended to create MORE business for existing ethical traders. It is also designed to enable more mutual support between ethical enterprises, this will be facilitated by the YES Forum, to be launched at the same time as YES Club.

YES has something you might find extremely
interesting: access to several million ethical consumers. If you would
like to attract some of these to your business as paying customers via
the new company, you might wish to consider the following:

1. Offering a discount to YES Club and YES
   Forum members. A discount offered at the YES launch could win you many
   new customers who will stay with you for years to come.
2. Running an event – perhaps a seminar,
   workshop or conference – during Spring or Summer of 2009. Again, YES
   members would need to be offered a discount. If you can trade it, you
   can teach it – why not open up a whole new revenue stream? And if
   you’re already running courses or other events, then this is your
   chance to promote them to several million new ethically-aware customers.
   

Please let us know as soon as possible if you
are interested in participating – the YES website launches shortly and
we would like to include as many special discounts and events as
possible.

Please contact YES here: info@ecobloomfield.com

Social Enterprise Coalition
International Conference Centre, Birmingham
10 -11 February 2009

Now in its fifth year, Voice09 is the Social Enterprise Coalition’s annual conference for the social enterprise movement in the UK. This year’s event will focus on pushing the frontiers of where and how social enterprise does business, exploring new business models and ways of working.

This event will be the largest conference for social enterprise in the UK, high profile speakers from government and the sector are expected to speak alongside an agenda of workshops and seminars to help further the sector.

Voice09 promises to be our biggest and best conference yet! With
over 1,000 delegates and 80 exhibitors, Voice09 will be the world’s
largest ever social enterprise event, where you’ll hear from inspiring
social enterprise leaders, senior members of Government, and a wide
range of social enterprise experts. 

So who will be attending…?

• Managers, employees and board members of social enterprises
• Social entrepreneurs thinking of considering a new venture
• Social enterprise specialist support bodies
• Members and officers from local authorities
• Board members and staff from Regional Development Agencies
• Politicians and officials from government departments and devolved administrations
• Housing associations
• Voluntary organisations, charities and community organisations seeking to engage in enterprise activity
• Business advisors, Business Links
• Banks, CDFIs and other financial institutions
  

Voice09 will provide your business with…

• Plenty of time within the programme for delegates to visit stands
• A unique national platform to exhibit your services
• Fantastic networking opportunities with people from across the movement
• A chance to interact with your competitors and other sector representatives
  

Exhibition Stand Fees:

Corporate Rate  £1,499.00 + VAT
Government Support Body Rate  £1,249.00 + VAT
Reduced rate (Charities, Voluntary sector & Academic)   £899.00 + VAT
Social Enterprise rate  £699.00 + VAT
Supported rate – (This fee applies to direct members of the Social Enterprise Coalition only)  £649.00 + VAT
Space only stands (4m x 3m)  £2,000.00 + VAT

Please follow the link to take a look at the floor plan for the
conference  http://www.tcp-events.co.uk/voice09/exhibitionfloorplan.html

And to book your stand
http://www.tcp-events.co.uk/voice09/exhibitorregistration.html please
note space is limited so register early to avoid disappointment.

For more information or if you have any queries about  booking, please
contact me or the Voice09 Conference team on Tel: 01323 637714, Fax:
01323 637777,

Email: voice09@confpeople.co.uk  website: www.voice09.org We want to
make Voice09 the most educational, innovative and inspiring exhibition
experience for all.

Rescheduled for 5  March 2009

The Association for Sustainability Practitioners (ASP) are pleased to announce a new collaboration with University of West England (UWE) in Bristol.

The relationship will be between ASP’s “Learning Events” activities and UWE’s “Bristol Centre for Leadership and Organisational Ethics” a new initiative in the Business School, led by Prof. Peter Case, Dr Peter Simpson and Dr Robert French of the Department of Organisation Studies.

ASP Learning Events are highly interactive workshops and enquiries, based on collaboration, sharing and learning, on topics aimed at business leaders and sustainability practitioners.

These events will provide UWE with opportunities to exchange ideas
and knowledge between their faculty members, management and students
and ASP associates and the sustainability practitioners and business
leaders who attend the events. UWE will host and actively participate
in the Bristol-based ASP events.

The first event in this relationship will be the second in a series of
enquiries ASP is running called “Creating Futures, Beyond Profit” on
3rd February at UWE.

Confirmed contributors for Bristol:

Jenny Wardle – MD ChangeForum Ltd.

Dr. Martin Blake – Director CSR Royal Mail, Trustee Findhorn

David Bent – Head of Business Strategies, Forum For The Future

Prof. Richard Owen – University of Westminster

Jamie Walton – Independent Financial systems Researcher

Ian Chambers – Programme Director, Orange

Jim Roberts – Independent Consultant in Financial Services and Investment

Prof. Richard Owen – University of Westminster

Details for Bristol 5th March: programme

Register: registration

James Purnell, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to Launch a New Coffee Social Enterprise on 16th January 2009

The Lorna Young Foundation is hosting an event to launch a new social enterprise – a new brand of directly traded coffee by resident Oromo Ethiopians in Greater Manchester with smallholder coffee growers in Ethiopia.

With the support of the Lorna Young Foundation, Tameside Council and Bolling Coffee, this exciting social enterprise will assist the Oromo community into meaningful employment with all profits going to the community in Greater Manchester and ensuring an excellent price for the coffee growers in Ethiopia

On Friday 16th January in Stalybridge, James Purnell, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions will launch this exciting new business venture. The Bishop of Manchester and Afzal Khan, former Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester will also be attending and backing the initiative.

The Lorna Young Foundation has initiated this new ‘Beyond Fairtrade – community to community’ social enterprise, named ‘The Oromo Coffee Company’ which will cut out the middlemen in purchasing, importing, branding and selling a new Ethiopian coffee within the UK. The new company is owned by the Oromo community who are now in the process of creating and selling their own brand of roast and ground coffee, sourced directly from smallholders in Ethiopia. By shortening the supply chain involved in the sales and marketing of coffee, a greater level of profit – even than achieved by Fair Trade – will be generated for both the social enterprise in Greater Manchester and the coffee growers in Ethiopia.

The venture is being backed by Tameside Council, with commercial support coming from Bolling Coffee, West Yorkshire based coffee company who are experts in importing and roasting coffee from around the world; Bolling will assist the enterprise in importing and processing the new product.

Ian Agnew, Director of the Lorna Young Foundation said “This is a totally unique project. Fair Trade is a brilliant development and is now quite rightly, entering the mainstream. But Fair Trade prices are still limited for most growers. The Lorna Young Foundation wants to go beyond this and It’s excellent to see that the Government here recognise that this kind of initiative needs to be supported. We are so pleased that Bolling Coffee are lending us their assistance and we would like to invite other businesses to come forward to offer support, sponsorship or mentoring to help the enterprise to become a big success when we come to marketing the new coffee”.

The Rev Ian Stubbs, vicar of St George’s church, Stalybridge which has been instrumental in supporting the project idea said “Its been a real privilege to meet members of the Oromo community who came to Tameside as refugees and to see how they are willing to work together on this venture. By supporting this exciting initiative churches and faith groups will build even further on their excellent record in promoting Fairtrade. We hope that by producing a smashing cup of ‘Beyond Fairtrade’ coffee we can also educate people about the exploitation that all too often occurs in the supply chain of commodities that we buy from abroad”

Garedew Yadessa, one of the Oromo community members involved in setting up the enterprise said “It is very encouraging that local people are supporting us to set up this business. It’s important to us to be independent and it’s even better if we can help the coffee growers in Ethiopia to get a better deal because sadly, the coffee market has been famous for its exploitation of smallholder farmers in the past”.

Ian Bamforth, Managing Director of Bolling Coffee said; “Bolling Coffee were really impressed by this initiative. We take the issue of ethical trading very seriously and believe that we have a corporate responsibility to assist marginalised groups. This is an excellent way of doing both – helping out the communities here in the UK and also abroad – whilst providing a high quality cup of coffee”

About the Launch
Friday 16th January at 3pm at Stalybridge Civic Hall, Trinity St, Stalybridge, SK15 2BN. Food and drink will be available.

About the Oromo Ethiopians
The Oromo Ethiopians are a group of around 250 households living primarily in Manchester, Ashton under Lyne, Stalybridge, Bury, Bolton, Oldham, Sheffield, Stockport and Salford as legal refugees with full residential status. They were resettled in the UK during 2006/07 following persecution in Ethiopia.

How Can YOU Help?
The Lorna Young Foundation are looking for corporate sponsorship for the project, both prior to the coffee product being launched later on in 2009 and during its first year of operation. In particular we are seeking to work with businesses or community groups/ faith groups who can:
• Provide monetary donations to support the project
• Produce a design label in order to market the coffee
• Provide a premises or equipment to assist the initiative
• Consider placing an order with The Oromo Coffee Company
• Act as a sales point/ retail outlet for the coffee
• Provide business ‘mentoring’ for the company (i.e. marketing, sales, business planning, publicity etc)

If you feel that you can contribute in any way, please contact the Lorna Young Foundation (below)

—————————————————————————————————————————————-
About the Lorna Young Foundation (LYF)
The Lorna Young Foundation was set up in 2003 in memory of the late Lorna Young, a social entrepreneur and a pioneer of fair trade in the UK. As one of the founders of Cafédirect, Lorna was the first person to secure supermarket listing for their products thereby launching the brand from its niche market to the mainstream.

LYF is a UK registered education charity and NGO. Its aims are:
• To reduce poverty and assist sustainable livelihoods by providing business and marketing education for communities in the developing world
• To reduce supply chains and add value to products, enabling fairer competition for farmers in national and international markets places
• To work with communities in the UK and in developing countries in order to promote greater awareness of ethical trading and to empower groups to be able to carry out direct trading and ethical purchases

LYF currently carries out projects with smallholder farmers in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia and Palestine and with the Greater Manchester Ethiopian community. LYF’s ‘Entrepreneur’ programme matches successful businessmen and women with smallholder farming communities in order to share skills and to provide ongoing mentoring within developing countries. LYF is based in West Yorkshire.

—————————————————————————————————————–

The Lorna Young Foundation
47 Lea Lane, Netherton, Holmfirth, Hudds, HD4 7DP 

Christina Longden: 07951 362068 Ian Agnew: 07944 979721 Email – projectmanager@lyf.org.uk

Registered Charity No. 1112895 Registered Company No. 4788426 www.lyf.org.uk AND www.lyfe.ac

Image courtesy of nkzs 

“Your Calendar of Climate Change is unbelievably striking and poignant and His Royal Highness admires you more than he can possibly say for using your skills to communicate the message so brilliantly. Your support for the Prince’s Rainforests Project is utterly invaluable.”

Click here to get your friends, your family, your school or even yourself a copy of the 2009 Calendar of Climate Change with £2 off the RRP of £10.99. Truly a right royal bargain!

Set up in October 2007 by HRH The Prince of Wales, The Prince’s Rainforests Project recognises the global role played by the forests in both promoting and mitigating climate change, and the acute pressure put on the rainforests by the worldwide rises in commodity prices and soaring global demand for beef, soya and palm oil.

The Prince’s Rainforests Project works with governments, business, NGOs and individuals to increase global recognition of the contribution of tropical deforestation to climate change and to find ways to make the rainforests worth more alive than dead.

Currently The Prince’s Rainforests Project is developing educational resources so that teachers may engage and inspire the children in their care to consider the vital role played by the remaining rainforests on the planet, and to involve them as active stakeholders in a sustainable future. The 2009 Calendar of Climate Change was selected by the Project team as one of these resources.

Barchester Green Investment has published a 3 page article, Sustainable investment Fund Performance 2008, which is downloadable as a PDF.  

Extract: There was great excitement this time last year within the sustainable investment industry as the Investment Management Association (IMA) figures for 2008 announced record levels of new investment into socially responsible investment funds with the total in assets under management increasing to £8.9 billion. We also saw a number of new funds entering the market place and increased media interest in ethical and socially responsible investment.

Download the whole the article.