Mapping the Big Green Challenge - The Skills & Learning ...

116 Chapter 7.7 – Low Carbon EnterprisesFor the purposes of this analysis a social enterprise is defined as an organisation or group withprimarily social objectives, funded mainly by trade rather than donations and grants, and whichreinvests any profits in the business or in furthering its social aims.All the proposals in this category, by definition, have aproduct or service element since this is what forms the basisof their carbon reduction goal. Over half also incorporate anelement of behavioural change (practice), for example byencouraging and enabling recycling or linking energy supplyto a wider carbon reduction message.Chart 81 - Low Carbon Enterprises,proportion of proposals involvingpractice (behaviour change) andproduct-only, 46 proposalsThe goals are much more focussed than most othercategories, reflecting the core business proposal, with a lessvaried set of carbon reduction measures. These goals arepredictable from the type of business, and so are notdetailed here. Energy supply enterprises aim to reducecarbon emissions from residential and non-residential energyuse, cycling services (training and bike loan) aim to changebehaviours to reduce car use, and so on.PracticeProduct54%Product46%Where they are systemic it is still within the context of a single business idea. Low Carbon Gap Years(641), for example, considers reduction measures running through the travel experience: transport,accommodation, and activities; here the level is the individual. Other Ideas have more verticalmeasures, considering the emissions of their suppliers and their customers as well as their ownbusiness processes. (To a certain degree all these Ideas are potentially systemic over the supplychain but this is not generally articulated in the application)There is an even split between Ideas staying within the carbon regime, and those moving out toniche areas, but again this is mostly dependent on the type of enterprise: energy supply is,obviously, based around renewable energy sources. Wider discussions about niche products suggestthey are likely to find it difficult to launch commercially within the dominant regime. The discussionin Section 2.3 suggested that one role that communityinnovators might play was to support nicheinnovations. However the advantages suggested therewere based on protection from the normal commercialcompetition and this condition may be at best onlypartially satisfied in a social enterprise.7.7.2 Challenger Group TypesOver half (55%) are already established socialenterprises (some with charitable status), eitherexpanding their product or introducing a new one. Ofthe rest, 20% are informal groups with no existingconstitution hoping to set up an enterprise, and therest are mostly charities not currently set up as socialenterprises, with only 4% active constituted communityConstitutedgroup4%Chart 82 – Low Carbon Enterprises,challenger group formality, 46proposalsUnconstitutedgroup20%Registeredcompany41%Charity35%Appleby Ltd July 2009