social enterprise

Well the votes are in and I start my challenge on Sunday 1st November. For 30 days I will be exclusively purchasing from social enterprises. I have spent most of my time worrying about transport and how to get everywhere without being able to turn up at the bus stop or at the train station and buy a ticket, as well as the possibility of running out of petrol nowhere near a co-op or Waitrose Petrol Station. So I have taken a couple of steps to hopefully avoid being stranded. I am having my bike serviced on Saturday at the Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative which has a local branch in Chapel Allerton and so I will be going to most meetings in Leeds on my bike, maybe further afield once I get my bike legs!

I have printed a list of co-op petrol stations in Yorkshire which is surprisingly large and may need testing as I am not confident they all exist. Energy supply is another difficult area and I am transferring to EBICO who from what I can tell is the only social enterprise energy supplier and I have found it very easy to transfer so far.

I have had a few e-mails from people offering me services or goods to buy; so if I do buy something from you then you will be feature in this online diary of my 30 day adventure and maybe comment a little about your organisation or the product, although I am not sure I will list every single item on my grocery shop at the co-op unless you really want me too!

I am not taking a ground zero approach, so things I have already bought and own will be used. All new purchases will be from social enterprises and I will be trying to buy from as wide a range of enterprises as possible, including getting all my Christmas presents from Social Enterprises in November. I will also write about any challenges, difficulties or great experiences I have.

This challenge is partly about social enterprises and partly about consumerism, but also what we buy and the power of the individual consumer in our economy. I am going to be reading some books to help me think about what I am doing, these will be:

- Tescopoly by Andrew Simms
- All Consuming by Neal Lawson
- The first Robert Owen biography that I receive from whichever one of those generous people who keep offering to lend me Robert Owen biographies