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Days 4-8 CUSEC TOUR

posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 08:56 PM

I left the interview with Chris Funnell inspired and encouraged to think further about an idea to set up a student cooperative in which students jointly organise their own education!

We then left Southampton and, several discussions later, arrived at Ottery St Mary in Devon for an afternoon interview with Julie Harris, CEO of RISE. RISE is a social enterprise support agency giving help and networking to social enterprises in the area. Seeing a girl there on her work experience showed how more and more young people are becoming engaged with the idea of social enterprise. It was great to hear how Julie become the CEO of RISE whilst heading a small social enterprise called COSMIC.

Some might consider a business park to be a less sexy social enterprise than most. However, what the concept may lack in sex appeal, the Wolsely Trust certainly makes up for in real positive social impact and engagement with the community. The Wolsely Trust, set up In Plymouth to provide local businesses with work units, also supports community projects and organisations by reinvesting its profits into the community. Peter Flukes, the chief executive, gave us a real insight into the impact such a development has on the community, though it didn’t take much for us to see this for ourselves: a community café at the heart of one of the sites served us hot jacket potatoes whilst we chatted with the managers of a community gym set up to encourage exercise and a healthy heart.

After lunch, we headed for St. Austell in Exeter for my second interview of the tour with Tim Smit, the founder of the Eden Project. The interview took place in a small boardroom in front of the backdrop of a huge painting of a biodome. We discussed a range of things from what it would take to truly tackle climate change to what the capacity of social enterprise was to deal with major social issues. It is safe to say that Tim Smit believes the potential of social enterprise is massive and sees no reason it should not compete with large corporations to operate public services such as the trains and our energy.

The following day we had a chance to visit the Eden project and look around this famous attraction for ourselves. The biodomes looked a bit like spaceships that have landed after sucking up every form of vegetation they could find. Their contents reflect the abundance in nature, its complexity and our place within it.

One great thing about the tour is the conversations we have had, usually in the minivan. Each interview stimulates new ideas and different perspectives for consideration and discussion, each of us coming from our own motivations. Topics of conversation range from what the right size for a social enterprise is, the pros and cons of organic food to the often random, but inevitable toilet–related ones!

On Sunday we had a day of rest, something much welcomed after an intense and, many times, stressful week.. That afternoon, however, we set off again, this time for Bristol where we planned to pick up two more members of the team whilst dropping off Kay and Josh. At this stage, I have got to say how thankful we are to Kay for driving all that way in the first week and being so patient in the mornings!

Monday morning we met Katie Alcott from Frank Water. This bottled water company sends 100% of its profits to clean water projects in India. The interview gave us more of an understanding about what it means to follow an idea and a passion. Stimulated by what she saw on her travels, Katie set-up Frank Water from scratch and tries to run it as ethically as possible. Katie underlined the contribution of dedicated, people driven by the company’s social values and something which may not be present within a traditional commercial business.

We had the final interview of the afternoon in Bristol with Marie Ware of Dance Voice…

Blog posted by Carla Jones

Comments

Miss Sustainability

Tuesday, July 31, 2007 02:05 PM

I am in awe at how much energy you seem to have! It was really good to meet you last week and I look forward to reading the next update.