social enterprise

I went to the Transitions North Conference today in Slaithwaite today sponsored by the Co-operative. When I arrived I met some young people from a new project called Young Ethical Enterprise from Huddersfield selling Oromo Coffee, Oromo is a social enterprise which undertakes direct community to community trading with small holder Kenyan coffee farmers. The business model reminds me of the initiative setup by Stan Thekaekara who hosted our group when I visited India with UnLtd in 2007 and setup a direct trading social enterprise called Just Change , direct trading is something just taking off and something I recommend retail social enterprises to look into.

The conference itself was excellent and truly thought provoking, transition is about the transition to a post fossil fuel based economy and the challenge of reaching peak oil. Highlights for me included Rob Hopkins, the co-founder of the Transition Town network, talking about the need to build resilience rather than sustainability in communities. By this he meant that if an event like the blockade of oil refineries happened and we couldn’t buy petrol that communities would be resilient to carry on using their own resources and ingenuity.  There are lessons here about resilience for Social Enterprises both internally and how they underpin communities. Christine Tacon, Managing Director of Co-operative Farms, told us that the farms business was the UKs largest farms business farming 50,000 acres and growing. We were also told that co-operatives internationally employ 10% more people than all the multi-national companies put together, which I found totally mind-blowing.

Yesterday Paul Bridges from the DTA told me about the Green Valley Grocer and Handmade Bakery who have been supported by the DTAs Cultivating Enterprise program for community owned social enterprises. I got some great bread baked fresh at the bakery and some English grown shallots, the work of both organizations underpins and supports the works of the local transition network.