Our demand for more and more clothes is bad news for the planet. New, nature-derived materials promise a lighter footprint – but can they convince price-conscious shoppers, investors and retailers to take a leap into the unknown?
In 2024, Livv Housing Group launched Livv and Flourish, a £4.25m social impact investment fund for the Liverpool City Region. Blackburne House CEO Andrea Rushton shares the story of her charity’s social investment with Livv.
The transition to sustainable business models, if done properly, requires letting go of so much that it is actually a form of grief, writes Amina Ahmad. How, then, do we support business leaders through discomfort and loss?
When pandemic restrictions threatened disaster, Making a Mark contest winner Beyond Recovery turned adversity into opportunity – and its apprentices into its directors – to support people across the criminal justice system and beyond.
Independent review finds the social investor, which provides a mix of grants and loans to small charities and social enterprises in the UK, has had a major impact – but both its large legacy and its small team are under pressure.
Honours bestowed on Sara Llewellin, Vidhya Alakeson and Ceri Goddard among others, as new campaign calls for an end to the “colonial links” of their awards.
Eight years after it was created amid a buzz of optimism, the Global Social Entrepreneurship Network has shut for good. Its closure has stark lessons for those supporting social enterprises, writes GSEN co-founder Krisztina Tora.
“Everything starts with imagination,” the Nobel prize laureate says, calling on social entrepreneurs to follow the lead of science fiction creators – and advising budding intrapreneurs to be “outrageously bold” in their ideas.
Civil society minister Baroness Barran says support was “substantial” – but recognises many social enterprises wish government had done more, as business leaders tell of eating into their reserves in first evidence session.
