Social Enterprise Conversations

Here is an exclusive preview of good stories, the latest KPN podcast. Launching on Monday 23rd of October, we share the stories of real people in Glasgow and the West of Scotland, harking back to the oral storytelling traditions of old and recording these every day tales from every day people.

All of our good stories podcasts take place in the Bletherbooth at our new store good based in Glasgow’s Buchanan Galleries. For more information go to www.good.scot.

Everyone likes a good story. From those family members with the seemingly innate skill of injecting life into a party through a well told anecdote, to the easy Scots charm of Iain Banks’ fiction. Whether it’s the Big Yin’s fanciful yet all too real tales of comedy found in the mundane, or the easily accessible drama of River City, a good story brings us together.

Scotland has a rich history of oral storytelling, and we thought it was about time to bring it into the modern age. Every week we invite guests into our Bletherbooth to talk about their lives in Glasgow and the West of Scotland.

Every community has its own unique perspective on the world and we think it’s time to share ours. Every month good stories will have a different theme which will influence the stories we share.

This, is good stories from KPN, the Kibble Podcast Network.

To kick things off, the theme for the first month’s programming is friendship, and I thought, what better way to get things going by bringing in a friend of mine to talk about some of the friendships that shaped his life.

Gary Cairns is a visual artist based in Airdrie, which for those of you who don’t know, is a small town just outside Glasgow. We’ve been through a lot together over the years, but as we sat down to have this conversation we ended up talking about his life growing up in rural Dumfries, the friendships he won and lost along the way, and how those friendships help shaped his life for years to come.

Our backgrounds are very similar, we both got into music as teenagers. This is his story about how that came around, what he learned, and how age has taught us both to value the company of like minded people.

Thank you to Gary for lending me his time, and thanks to you, dear listener, for tuning in.

We’d really love it if you could help get this podcast off on the right foot by giving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And do remember to subscribe for future episodes as we bring your more stories from people in the West of Scotland. You can find out more about good over at www.good.scot.

 

 

 

Transform Creative is a social enterprise which was formed by Transform Scotland. Over the years, Transform Scotland has developed a diverse and extensive network of transport operators, businesses, local authorities and third sector groups.  It works with them to promote sustainable transport solutions across the country. Indeed, their national alliance has around sixty different organisations as members, including the likes of Caledonian MacBrayne, the WWF, Abellio, Virgin Trains, ScotRail, First Group, and many, many more.

Transform Creative makes use of this extensive network, and channels the research and experience gained through years of running different campaigns in partnership with their members, into offering Scotland’s third sector quality, creative design work. The aim is to leverage this kind of invaluable experience to offer robust, professional creative skills to all third sector organisations.

The Transform Creative team consists of a number of experienced professionals who have worked with some of the country’s biggest charities and social enterprises, covering everything from graphic design and digital communications, to campaign management and photography.

On this episode I interview Ana Soldatenko, the Head of Design at Transform Creative. A graduate from Gray’s School of Art, Ana has been with the organisation from the beginning, and she goes into a lot of detail about her social enterprise journey, the formation of Transform Creative and so much more.

Links

Transform Creative website

Transform Creative on Twitter

Transform Scotland website

You may remember one of my very first interviews on this podcast was with Neil McLean of the Social Enterprise Academy (SEA). Well, since his appearance on the show, Neil and his team have been busy expanding the SEA model across the globe.

Recently we were graced with the presence of two of the people involved in running the Australian Social Enterprise Academy: Matt Pfahlert and Peter Sacco from the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship. The organisation seeks to help young people in rural communities by igniting their entrepreneurial spirit to better enrich their lives and communities.

They popped into The Experience, (one of Kibble’s social enterprises), with Neil. Together with Graham Bell and Lesley Fuller, (who you should remember from our extensive interviews on the history of Kibble), we sat down over coffee to discuss the differences between social enterprise in the UK and Australia, the work they’ve been doing, and just exactly how good the coffee is in The Refuel Café!

It’s a veritable plethora of contrasting opinions and ideas on social enterprise in wildly different, but not entirely dissimilar, countries. Graham took the lead on this conversation and the result is, I think, very good indeed. As we were in the café at the time, there’s a little background noise but it all adds to the ambiance of the conversation.

I hope you enjoy.

Links

ACRE Website

ACRE Twitter

ACRE Facebook

Social Enterprise Academy Australia website

You may remember one of my very first interviews on this podcast was with Neil McLean of the Social Enterprise Academy (SEA). Well, since his appearance on the show, Neil and his team have been busy expanding the SEA model across the globe.

Recently we were graced with the presence of two of the people involved in running the Australian Social Enterprise Academy: Matt Pfahlert and Peter Sacco from the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship. The organisation seeks to help young people in rural communities by igniting their entrepreneurial spirit to better enrich their lives and communities.

They popped into The Experience, (one of Kibble’s social enterprises), with Neil. Together with Graham Bell and Lesley Fuller, (who you should remember from our extensive interviews on the history of Kibble), we sat down over coffee to discuss the differences between social enterprise in the UK and Australia, the work they’ve been doing, and just exactly how good the coffee is in The Refuel Café!

It’s a veritable plethora of contrasting opinions and ideas on social enterprise in wildly different, but not entirely dissimilar, countries. Graham took the lead on this conversation and the result is, I think, very good indeed. As we were in the café at the time, there’s a little background noise but it all adds to the ambiance of the conversation.

I hope you enjoy.

Links

ACRE Website

ACRE Twitter

ACRE Facebook

Social Enterprise Academy Australia website

You may remember one of my very first interviews on this podcast was with Neil McLean of the Social Enterprise Academy (SEA). Well, since his appearance on the show, Neil and his team have been busy expanding the SEA model across the globe.

Recently we were graced with the presence of two of the people involved in running the Australian Social Enterprise Academy: Matt Pfahlert and Peter Sacco from the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship. The organisation seeks to help young people in rural communities by igniting their entrepreneurial spirit to better enrich their lives and communities.

They popped into The Experience, (one of Kibble’s social enterprises), with Neil. Together with Graham Bell and Lesley Fuller, (who you should remember from our extensive interviews on the history of Kibble), we sat down over coffee to discuss the differences between social enterprise in the UK and Australia, the work they’ve been doing, and just exactly how good the coffee is in The Refuel Café!

It’s a veritable plethora of contrasting opinions and ideas on social enterprise in wildly different, but not entirely dissimilar, countries. Graham took the lead on this conversation and the result is, I think, very good indeed. As we were in the café at the time, there’s a little background noise but it all adds to the ambiance of the conversation.

I hope you enjoy.

Links

ACRE Website

ACRE Twitter

ACRE Facebook

Social Enterprise Academy Australia website

It’s always a delight, and a surprise, when an interview goes on for longer than expected. As you may have noticed, I generally like to keep interviews to between 20 and 30 minutes, but sometimes the guest just has a bit more to say. In the instance, I was happy to keep talking to Scott.

In some ways it’s not entirely surprising that this interview went on a little longer. LEAP offers a few different services, all of which are tied together under the environmental and energy banners. Their goal of making the villages that they cover sustainable is a wonderful one, and the real evidence of this drive goes beyond trying to advise individuals to change energy suppliers in order to save money, or to offer advice on renewable energy regeneration – they also offer practical advice on insulation, draft proofing, heating and more.

The proof of this is, as they say, in the pudding as LEAP offers residents within their catchment area free home energy checks, free draught testing and free thermal imaging. These three things alone are some of the biggest contributors to the causes of household energy loss, and fixing these issues can be done in inexpensive ways. Their commitment to helping people save money by offering these free services is a good example of what makes LEAP such a great project.

I hope you enjoy the second part of this conversation with Scott, as we talk more about LEAP and their social enterprise journey.

Links

LEAP website

LEAP on Facebook

LEAP on Twitter

The sheer diversity of social enterprises out there continues to take me aback. Recently I had a lengthy conversation with Scott Duncan, Project Manager of Local Energy Action Plan Renfrewshire (or LEAP), and was impressed by the work that they do.

Put simply, LEAP is an organisation which offers a range of free, impartial services to individuals and businesses in the communities of Lochwinnoch, Kilbarchan, Howwood and Bridge of Weir in Renfrewshire. Their goal is to help people in the communities, both residents and businesses, to save energy and money. They do this by offering advice on everything from insulation and heating, to grants, renewable energy and draught proofing. Basically, anything to do with saving energy! They offer advice both to encourage the usage of renewable energy sources, and to protect the environment.

In addition, they also run three car clubs and a food cooperative, all existing to lower the carbon footprint of people in Renfrewshire. Furthermore, they have a dedicated team who provide local organisations with commercial energy supply services, helping these businesses to lower their   environmental work.

LEAP also encourage people in these communities to act on their environmental impact, and actively engage people in helping them contribute to environmental improvement.

Such highly focused environmental work is funded, in part, by the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund, and their car club is supported by CarPlus.

All this work has led to recognition by the Scottish Government Greener Scotland Initiative.

Scott and I had a really engaging conversation about LEAP, social enterprise, the successes and challenges LEAP has faced, the environment and so much more. I hope you enjoy this interview.

Links

LEAP website

LEAP on Facebook

LEAP on Twitter

Fashion is big business, and with such big business comes a litany of environmental, social and ethical issues. The industry itself is often seen as being cut throat, with profit margins so tight, that sweatshop labour may be employed when it comes to the production of clothes. There are sceptics out there who claim that changing the behaviour of fashion companies is not possible because doing so isn’t profitable, but this argument is a lot less compelling than it once was.

Indeed, a 2016 report by Ashoka and the C&A Foundation found that financial uncertainty is a key factor in why the fashion industry is not edging towards being a more values-driven business. Many companies simply believe that pouring cash into the research and creation of sustainable clothing alternatives is too costly and risky. What’s more, there are some who believe that there is no guarantee that the demand for “ethical goods” will continue to grow. Frankly, it seems that many fashion companies would rather not take the risk.

All in all, it makes for some depressing reading, however all is not without hope. There are several social enterprise clothing companies operating with the aim of creating wonderful, sustainable clothing and accessories, whilst also changing the lives of people and the world.

Hamilton Perkins Collection is one such brand. Based in Norfolk, Virginia, the company has gone from strength to strength in the American marketplace. Hamilton, the company’s CEO and namesake, created the business out of a simple necessity: the need for affordable designer bags that look great and make a difference to the world. To that end he and his team figured out how best to create sustainable fashion with excellent looks that is created by people in fair working conditions. The result was a line of bags made in collaboration with a fabric company called Thread, and together both companies are committed to sourcing the raw materials that make up HPC’s line of products.

Its bags and shirts are made from recycled plastic bottles, and the lining of the bags are made using recycled billboard vinyl that was destined for landfill. The results not only save water but also help the environment too. What’s more, the company is a registered B Corp, meaning it must measure and track its social impact and submit to third party review in order to ensure accuracy and accountability. Coming under such scrutiny means that its products must be top class, that its employees working conditions must be good, and all workers are paid a fair wage.

Hamilton and I had a lovely chat over Skype to discuss the genesis HPC, the difference between social enterprise in Britain and America, the company’s status as a B Corp, the importance of social enterprise and so much more.

I hope you enjoy our conversation.

He has also very kindly offered KPN listeners 10% off any purchases. To redeem it simply put the offer code ‘KPN’ in at the checkout to receive your discount.

 

This year marks the 10th anniversary of FreshSight. It seems somewhat improbable that a social enterprise consultancy run by students should exist for so long, and my guest on this week’s podcast was the first to mention this. But the fact is that it has existed for ten years, which clearly means that they’ve been doing something right.

In 2007 the company was founded as The Edinburgh Group, and its goal has remained the same ever since – to bring together forward-thinking students and socially conscious organisations. Over the course of 8 weeks students work with these organisations to help improve their social impact in a sustainable way. FreshSight attracts and encourages participation from students from all over Edinburgh regardless of their degree, offering training which will not only help them achieve great things for the agency’s clients, but also helps transform students into socially minded leaders.

As with any social enterprise all the profits go back into the business, thus increasing their own social impact in their community. To date their 400 strong alumni has worked with over 100 clients, including NHS Lothian and Edinburgh Zoo amongst many others, on a wide range of briefs. The key is very much to empower these students to be more socially conscious by involving them in actual, measurable work with some of the country’s biggest and most innovative organisations.

In this episode I had a chat with Andrew Bailie, a volunteer at FreshSight who was kind enough to pop through to Glasgow to have a chat about FreshSight, social enterprise, measuring social impact and much more. Have a listen and let me know what you think!

Links

FreshSight Website

FreshSight on Facebook

FreshSight on Twitter

Do we really have control over our data? In a time when hacking seems to be in the headlines on a regular basis, and where people have been asking serious questions about online privacy, it seems more important than ever to know the answer to this question. On a daily basis, we give multinational corporations access to some of our most personal information. We let the likes of Google and Facebook monitor our behaviour and track our movements online, but is this a good thing?

As someone who once worked in the IT sector, I find myself increasingly enamoured at how giving internet companies this data has made my life easier. Traffic updates, news suggestions, music preferences, the ease of which I can have any question I care to think of answered, has made my life much more streamlined. Google takes care of my calendar, my emails, my contacts, my shopping list and everything in between. I give them the data, their artificial intelligence makes sense of it, and it spews the data out to my phone in a way that I still find impressive every time I see it.

It’s alluring to me, but I realise I may be in the minority. I do think it makes our lives easier though. Can you imagine life without it?

I’m not alone, many, nay most of us do this, yet we are not fully aware of how much this data says about us, and more importantly, it is not entirely clear what it is used for. When you think about it, do you have control over your data if you’re unsure what it’s used for?

Many companies have tried to come up with a solution to this, but not many are social enterprises. That’s what makes mydex different both as a tech company and a social enterprise.

Put simply, mydex offers solutions for organisations and individuals to have complete control over their data and the way it is used. Its social purpose is straight forward: “to provide benefit to individuals (as consumers/citizens) seeking to better manage their personal data by helping them assert greater control over how this data is used by organisations and to realise the potential value this data.”

It offers tools for users to take control of the data they share and choose where and when it is used. On an individual level, this is done using a Personal Data Store (PDS). Each time you want to sign up to a new service online you must enter all the same information repeatedly. With mydex’s PDS you keep all this information on your own personal database, making it easier to fill in those forms when you sign up to new services or purchase things online. This even goes as far as storing things like your National Insurance number, your blood type and much more. This sits on its own individual server, accessible from any devices you use, and can be deployed at the touch of a button. This gives you the ability to see where your data is being used at any given time.

David Alexander is a co-founder and CEO of mydex, and in this interview, we chat at length about technology, the use of data online, what influenced the decision to start mydex, why it was so important that the company was a Community Interest Company (CIC) and social enterprise, and much much more. A thoroughly fascinating chat.

I hope you enjoy this interview.

Links

Mydex on Twitter

Mydex Website