Can Social Enterprise Save the World?

Experience from a Decade of Research.”

Professor Ken Peattie BRASS Research Centre, &

Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff

More Localised More Gobalised

Unsustainable

Sustainable

You are Here (ish)

The Trajectory of Human Civilisation (Done with Lines and Arrows)

Social Enterprise and Environmental SustainabilityVirtually everything written about Social

Enterprise at some point refers to their ‘social and environmental value (or contribution)’ ….but…..

…the role of Social Enterprise in tackling environmental sustainability challenges is currently not unacknowledged, but certainly under-appreciated.

Any Evidence? A Quick Check on Google Scholar.

In The Top 200 Google Scholar Results about ‘Social Enterprise’

Plenty about SE forms, role, governance, management practices, social value & SRI, impact on health, poverty & employment, relationships to the public sector and country/region perspectives, but only ….

– One related to water;– One related to recycling;– One related to energy; – One about social forestry (Citation only);– One related to broad sustainability indicators;

Some Honourable Exceptions

Such as John Thompson & Bob Doherty’s "The diverse world of social enterprise: A collection of social enterprise stories", International Journal of Social Economics, 33 (5/6), 2006.

BRASS’s Background in Social Enterprise Research

1. Measuring Sustainability Impacts Of Social Enterprises / Sustainability Indicators (Newport and Newport Waste Savers);

2. SEs & Waste – seeking to develop the capacity of SEs in the UK to integrate with UK waste management infrastructure (Defra, Community Recycling Network, Cylch)

3. SEs as Alternative Business Models : The Case of One Water; Sustainable Local Food Enterprises & Food Hubs

Social Enterprise and Environmental SustainabilityThe role of Social Enterprise in tackling

environmental sustainability challenges is currently not unacknowledged, but is under-appreciated.

Why?‘Social’ is in the title;Emphasis on work integration (particularly Europe);Emphasis on ownership structure and approach to

governance;Strong connection with health sector in UK;Frequently operate as community enterprises;

Fair Trade – More than just ‘Fair’

The Five Core Objectives of FT Certification:1. ensure that producers receive prices that cover

their average costs of sustainable production;2. provide an additional Fairtrade Premium which can

be invested in projects that enhance social, economic and environmental development;

3. enable pre-financing for producers who require it;4. facilitate long-term trading partnerships and enable

greater producer control over the trading process;5. set clear core and development criteria to ensure

that the conditions of production and trade of all Fairtrade certified products are socially, economically fair and environmentally responsible.

Social Enterprises – Deceptively Innovative?SEs often referred to as ‘inherently innovative’ (e.g. Vega & Kidwell, 2007 or Perrini & Vurro, 2006) yet spend relatively little on R&D (Jones et al., 2007).

In practice they often acted as social innovators by creating new types of relationships or business models in fields like housing and recycling.

Sustainable Innovation & Social Enterprise: Still ‘Below the Radar’?When Entrepreneurship & Regional Development:

An International Journal, did a Special Issue on Innovation in Social Enterprise (2010) – how many papers related to any form of environmental sustainability orientated innovation?

Tourism – On the Front Line for Sustainability

Why?

1. Enlightened self-interest;

2. Tourism as a solution;

3. Tourism as an extractive industry.

Social Enterprise in Tourism: A Growing Momentum in Practice– In some countries such as Italy and Poland,

recent changes to laws have encouraged the creation of new social enterprise ventures in tourism and agri-tourism in particular.

– Emergence of agri-tourism cooperatives managed by women in Greece.

– Major ecological tourism project to foster appreciation for the natural and cultural heritage of the Aconcagua Valley, Chile.

– Growing number of museums established and run as social enterprises

Key Benefits of Social Enterprise as a Mechanism for Sustainable Community Tourism Projects– Vested interest in maintaining environmental

quality within the community area;– Proven ability to generate viable businesses

within disadvantaged communities;– Strong track record in public-private

partnership;– Lower profit threshold than

conventional businesses;– Tends towards a consultative

and democratic approach to governance;

– Involves many legal forms based around collective ownership;

Çirali Sustainable Tourism project in Turkey

Established as an alternative to intensive hotel development ‘to promote environmentally and socially sound development through integrated planning, traditional and alternative economic activities and biodiversity conservation’.

Awarded the 2002 UN Habitat

Dubai International Award for ‘Best Practices in Improving the Living Environment’ and featured in the book ‘The New Social Entrepreneurship’ (Perrini, 2006)

Kemer & Çirali

Twenty miles apart – but travelling very different paths

The Social Enterprise Potential

In the current (and foreseeable future) situation of economic and environmental challenges, SEs can play an important part as:

- Firms who can make a profit, but do not have to;

- Community focused employers & service/product providers as the economy rebalances from global to local;

- Cost-effective public service deliverers;

- Innovators in delivering low environmental impact solutions and services (such as lower carbon housing and distributed energy solutions);

Social Enterprise – Active Where it Counts

– 75-80 % of environmental impacts of household consumption relate to food, housing & home energy, and personal work/leisure transport (EIPRO study);

– Clothing and footwear, furniture, telecoms, healthcare and education accounted for much of the rest;

– A strong match between areas of greatest environmental impact and social enterprise activity;

Social Enterprise, A Potential Role in Developing More Sustainable Communities, Livelihoods and Businesses Through..

– more localised food systems;

– more affordable and less isolating housing;

– communal and lower carbon solutions for personal mobility and energy;

– retaining material value via supply ‘loops’ & networks;

– care for our aging population;

– greater global equity through international development and less ‘extractive’ tourism;

– a return to less ‘exciting’ financial services;

– useful work derived from our communities rather than global supply chains;

...... in other words – a more sustainable future.

Conclusions

We have a vital and explicit role for Social Enterprise in helping society to move towards (environmentally and socially) sustainable systems of production and consumption, livelihoods and ways of living.

We currently have a SE research agenda that is very inwardly focused and dominated by the social contributions that they make.

Unless we start to appreciate and research SE’s potential role in ‘saving the world’ more thoroughly, the opportunity for it to do so may be missed!