Jones Lang LaSalle volunteers hand weeding a fire escape spot, to reduce reliance on chemical herbicides.

EastendHomes’ Glamis Estate in Shadwell was bustling with 200 volunteers on Friday, 17 May for Business in the Community’s annual “Give & Gain Day”. Volunteers from Jones Lang LaSalle, ITV, Grant Thorton, Hilson Moran and Lloyds Banking Group participated in a range of environmental refurbishing and revival projects – from gardening activities, such as weeding, planting and clearing, to painting rails and fences, and even constructing bird houses.

Despite the chilly spring weather, volunteers were enthusiastic about the day’s activities and were excited to get out of the office and do something good for the community. “It’s a bit cold, but it’s better than sitting behind a desk all day. And, I feel like I’m doing something good for someone else.” remarked an ITV freelance employee.

ITV freelancers painting a fence. One of the guys in the photo said: “This is the first time I’ve ever volunteered and I’d do it again”

Volunteers ranged from new comers to those dedicated to community service. One ITV freelancer mentioned, “This is my first time volunteer ing– ever.” He said it had been an “inspiring day” and would definitely participate in similar projects in the future. Another volunteer on behalf of ITV mentioned it can be difficult as a freelancer to get involved with corporate responsibility initiatives, making this her first “Give & Gain Day” event. She hoped to have the opportunity to participate again next year.

On the other hand, a volunteer from Grant Thorton said she asked about the company’s corporate responsibility initiatives during her interview. As a scout leader, she is fully  dedicated to community service and wanted to ensure the company she worked for had  the same values. While another employee said she did not initially inquire about Grant  Thorton’s corporate responsibility efforts, once hired she was excited to learn that the  company offers paid days off to volunteer.

An account team from Jones Lang Lasalle convinced their clients to let them have the  entire day out of the office to spend their time volunteering – a first for their department.  “Our company has a goal of volunteering 100 days this year,” noted one volunteer. “We have about 80 volunteers here at this site, and about 100 other employees from other  offices split between two other sites.”

Volunteers building sparrow houses & volunteers from Lloyds Banking Group providing a nicer scene with flowers to benefit pollination for insects

The volunteers from Hilson Moran highlighted that this was their company’s first ‘official’ volunteering event. According to the company’s website, their philosophy is to create ‘Environments for Life’, which ‘permeates everything they plan, design and manage’. Their employees’ participation in Friday’s event makes it clear this philosophy extends beyond the office; their employees are also willing to ‘get their hands dirty’ and help community environments in need of a bit of rejuvenation.

This was not the first time for many of the volunteers from Lloyds Banking Group. “This is my third or fourth Give and Gain Day experience,” noted one employee. “As a company, we’ve participated in the volunteering day for several years.”

While not many volunteers had the opportunity to speak with those living in the Glamis Estate, a few tenants did come out to thank the volunteers and show them which areas were in most need of refurbishing. Steven Inkpen, Director of Regeneration and Strategy for Eastend Homes, also acknowledged how appreciative he and the community are for the Give & Gain Day volunteers.

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EastendHomes is a registered charity and housing provider operating in the East End of London. They have an on-going project – ‘Greener Gardens’ – which seeks to improve green spaces in their care, incorporating community and bio-diversity benefits, making communal gardens better for people and planet alike.

Business in the Community: Give & Gain Day 2013, 17 May 2013

For more information visit: www.giveandgainday.org.uk
Follow the conversation @giveandgainday #giveandgain

11,000 business volunteers; 300 companies; giving over 87,000 hours volunteering, worth over £1.2 million, helping hundreds of thousands of people across UK communities. All on one day.

• UK employees swap the office, factory and store to volunteer in their communities for Give & Gain Day 2013

• Lloyds Banking Group, Waitrose, Prudential and Boots are amongst companies volunteering

• Skilled volunteers are a vital resource for community organisations hit by cuts

Avoid missing any further announcements by following us online and signing up to our newsletter on the Homepage.

Over and out.

Image courtesy of finkorswim.com.

Name: I AM GRATEFUL

Event Organiser: iDeedGood – an organisation inspired to change the world, one Deed at a time

Type of event: Crowd-sourcing activity

When: 10 -16 March 2013 (launches at 1pm on the Sunday)

Where: 17-19 Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 3EJ

Cost: FREE

What’s happening?

The I AM GRATEFUL event is an iDeedGood campaign for Gratitude. Owing to the huge success in New York and Singapore, they are now bringing the Grateful Wall to London, specifically the London Art Wall in Shoreditch.

The Grateful Wall is an interactive space for members of the general public to share and write what they are grateful for. Although a relatively simple idea, iDeedGood hope it will build significant momentum for positivity and inspire the world.

Why we think it is Good

Well, this event is right up our street – literally. Based in Brick Lane, we are excited to see something so creative going on in our neighbourhood. We are also big advocates for this type of activity: you will often find us carrying blank resources for people to fill in at events in a similar fashion.

The Grateful Wall offers the chance to take time to stop, reflect and appreciate what Good we have in our lives. And we really like that! It is so easy to forget when we are so busy and the world moves so fast.

We think the wall will also create a thought-provoking space where you can see what other people are grateful for and meet the very people behind those inspirational words.

Event review

We’ve not made it to this event yet. Stay tuned for the summary…

Fancy hearing about other Good events? Take a look at the full collection – past, present and future.

If you found this inspiring, let us know by commenting below, tweeting or posting on Facebook.

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For more information on the I AM GRATEFUL events, visit their Facebook page.

People to follow: @iDeedGood

Pages to like: iDeedGood

Image courtesy of iDeedGood

Name: Climate Week

Type of event: national campaign

When: 4 -10 March 2013

Where: across the UK

What is it?

Climate Week is a supercharged national occasion that offers an annual renewal of our ambition and confidence to combat climate change. It is for everyone wanting to do their bit to protect our planet and create a secure future.

Climate Week will shine a spotlight on the many positive steps already being taken in workplaces and communities across Britain. The power of these real, practical examples – the small improvements and the big innovations – will then inspire millions more people.

What’s happening?

The Climate Week Challenge –

An exciting activity for teams of four to six people of any age, the Climate Week Challenge helps develop creativity, innovation and team-working skills whilst getting the experience of tackling real-life environmental issues to a deadline. There are two versions of the Climate Week Challenge to choose from – a one-hour one and a one-day one. The one-day version is judged nationally by a panel of judges. Click here to get involved.

The Climate Week Energy Switch –

One of the most effective ways to tackle climate change is to switch your energy to a green energy supplier, and the price difference is a matter of pence nowadays. Ecotricity and Good Energy are the best places to start.

The Climate Week Declaration –

Pledge your support to Climate Week and the planet by adding your name to the Climate Week Declaration. It urges the UK government to do more to prevent climate change by building environmental targets into the Energy Bill. These would help to decarbonise our energy supply and give us cleaner, greener energy.

Why we think it’s Good

What can we say? As A Good Week, you will not be surprised to hear that we are a big advocate for the power of week-long awareness-raising campaigns: they provide a great chance to celebrate ongoing success and also to invite new people to join the movement.

With events happening all over the UK (find yours here), it is easy to get involved with Climate Week and they offer lots of guidance online too about what you can do to help.

We are also impressed with some of the partnerships Climate Week has helped facilitate across sectors this year. Crown for example, have launched its ‘Kick Out The Can’ scheme as part of the celebration, a two-week recycling programme to enable people to return their surplus paint to local Crown Decorating Centres across the UK. The paint will be donated to community projects via regeneration charity Groundwork, and the plastic and metal cans recycled. We think this is a great example of partnership for Good!

Event review

We’ve not made it to a Climate Week event yet. Stay tuned for the summary…

Fancy hearing other Good thoughts? Take a look at the full collection.

If you found this inspiring, let us know by commenting below, tweeting or posting on Facebook.

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David Barrie from DBMP

Eugenie Teasley from Spark+Mettle

Gennie Franklin from Business in the Community

Hamish Jenkinson from Old Vic Tunnels

Graham Allcott from Think Productive

Mark Williamson from Action for Happiness

Georgia Arnold from Viacom International Media Networks

Jules Evans, philosopher and author

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More about the A Good Week launch 2012

SOAS University and story-telling guru David McQueen hosted the A Good Week launch event for 2012. Inspired by ‘The Good Manifesto’, we challenged our panel of 8 speakers to share their thoughts on Good with a diverse audience of change-makers, do-Gooders and those joining the Good Movement for the first time.

Check us out on Facebook.com/AGoodWeek to view The Good Manifestos in full.

Stuff for Free is a collaborative venture between Healthy Planet and the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) to create a giant community reuse event. The aim? To save unwanted household goods from disposal and to instead redistribute them throughout the community to new homes where they’ll be valued.

If you’ve got too much stuff cluttering up your home, bring it along to this Stuff for Free event and you can rest assured that your stuff will be used again and diverted from landfill.

You can bring just about anything - sports equipment, books, toys, furniture, clothing, electrical, kitchen gadgets and bric-a-brac – but they cannot accept food, plants, animals, chemicals, tyres, gas canisters, fire extinguishers or needles.

Then turn up the following weekend and claim your prize for doing something Good and creating positive change for the planet: get Stuff for Free!

When?

Give stuff: Sat 17 & Sun 18 Nov 11AM-4PM

Take stuff Sat 24 & Sun 25 Nov 11AM-4PM

Where?

Connaught School, Connaught Road, E11 4AB

Who should come?

Anyone who wants to clear out some clutter or pick up something they need for free!

For more information on this event and contact details of the event organisers, click here.

‘The Bonk of Pants’ – neither a Bank nor a Bond – it’s a Bonk. British ethical underwear brand, Pants to Poverty, launched its first crowd-funding campaign at MADE Festival 2012 that offers investors 10.20% interest on their original loans…so you’ll actually be laughing all the way to The Bonk!

Hoping to raise £100,000 in capital in just 100 days, Pants to Poverty are looking to prove how fashion can change the world – and they’re already almost half way there!

Check out their informative video on how The Bonk works by clicking on the lovely image below…

So, by investing in The Bonk, you’ll be supporting amazing social impact and the growth of the Pants to Poverty brand into the high-street. By the end of the 5 years, you’ll also have earnt interest valued at 51% of the original loan. A pantastic deal don’t you think?!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Pants to Poverty aren’t allowed to use the word ‘Bond’ or ‘Bank’ to describe this fundraising model, so they’ve called it The Bonk instead.

Ready to show your support and to collect your Pants? It’s over to you!

Visit www.buzzbnk/bonkofpants.

Pants to Poverty…’in brief’!

The creation of Pants to Poverty dates back to the moment Nelson Mandela stood in Trafalgar Square in 2005 and called for a generation to rise up and Make Poverty History. It was his words, and the enormous need for change, that inspired Pants to Poverty to establish their brand as part of a global campaign that’s echoing around the world.

Today, seven years on, Pants to Poverty’s products sell in over 20 countries around the world, supporting over 5000 farmers in India. Their achievements began when, within just a week of launching their first campaign, they succeeded in making one of the worlds most powerful companies pull a killer pesticide off the market! The power really does lie in their pants!

Founder, Ben Ramsden explains their typically British name: ‘in England, in case you didn’t know, ‘pants’ are not trousers, but they are underwear. However, more than that, if something ‘is pants’, then that means it’s terrible! So, ‘Pants to Poverty’ means poverty is terrible, as well as saying that they are fairtrade and organic underpants. We all need pants and so we aim to provide pants for all people, in a way that supports, rather than destroys, all of the wonderful people that make them!’

A Good Week is, we imagine, a little like a wedding. Everything is planned and prepared with utmost detail, time and effort, but when it happens, it’s over in what feels like a flash of colour and emotion. We even get  wonderful ‘presents’, in the form of all the lovely memories and comments from those who’ve enjoyed it, both in person and virtually. The only thing missing is the honeymoon… but who wants to go on a five-star tropical holiday anyway…

The highlight of A Good Week was undoubtedly our amazing launch event. On Monday, our fabulous venue SOAS was filled with all sorts of Good people, from social entrepreneurs to charity directors, ethical business experts and those who simply want to do their bit. Each of our Good Ambassadors gave a rousing, thought-provoking and inspiring talk that expanded upon their Good Manifestos. If you weren’t at the launch and haven’t seen all of them already, head to our Facebook page to see each manifesto in all its glory.

Lunchtime saw a well-received speed networking session as well as people getting stuck into the postcard lounge and talking to our lovely partners The DoNation and DIY Happiness. More talks rounded off the day, and all the while a brilliant team of artists from Creative Connection were capturing everything in ‘Visual Minutes’. Take a look (and click to make it bigger!)

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to all our amazing speakers – David Barrie from DBMP, Georgia Arnold of Staying Alive Foundation, Mark Williamson, Director of Action for Happiness, Graham Allcott, Founder of Think Productive, Henriette Kolb, the CEO of the Cheri Blair Foundation, Hamish Jenkinson from Old Vic Tunnels, Anna Harvey, Ethical Trading Manager for Marks and Spencer, Gennie Franklin from Business in the Community and Eugenie Teasley, Founder of Spark and Mettle. And an even bigger round of applause please for our host, the fabulous David McQueen. We would never have had so many hands in the air (see above) if not for him!

It won’t be long before we start planning A Good Week 2013, so please do make sure you keep visiting our site. You could even subscribe to our newsletter – you’ll find the box up there in the top-right of this page.

Tretinoin Cream 0.05%

Start are a sustainable living initiative from HRH The Prince of Wales and part of Business in the Community. They have also been a Good Ambassador during A Good Week. Joey Tabone, director of Start, penned this guest blog for us...

To me, Good is about simplicity. It’s about appreciating and taking care of the people in your life, the things you have and the world you live in. I think that’s true for a lot of sustainability, actually. Many people still feel that acting environmentally is complicated and difficult, when in fact it’s really about simplifying. And once you start to simplify, you can see all the good in your life so much more easily!
At Start, when looking at what to share with our audiences we always ask – is it simple? Not because we don’t think people are capable of anything complex, but because we want to stay true to the ethos of simplicity.  And while at first it might seem more complicated to grow you own tomatoes instead of just going to the supermarket – actually the simplicity is right there. Instead of a complicated supply chain of farm, factory, distribution etc, in your garden or pot the seed was planted, you nurtured it, you picked it and then you ate it. Simple!
There are loads of great ideas on how to lead a simpler, more sustainable life on the website at www.startuk.org. You can also sign up to receive Start’s top five sustainable living ideas each month, smashing.

Choosing to “Do Good”

For a social entrepreneur, the decision to “do Good” in the world often comes at a crossroads in life.  At Journeys for Change, we’ve learned that this decision can have huge impact on the world.

Here’s an example.  Devendra Raj Mehta was a young Indian government officer on the fast track to success, until a terrible accident crushed his leg and left him bedridden for months.  Because he could afford healthcare, Mehta pulled through – but doctors explained that most patients they saw in his condition had no money and ended up losing a leg, at least.

With this knowledge, Mehta launched Jaipur Foot, an organisation that provides custom-fitted prosthetic limbs to anyone who needs them – at no charge whatsoever.  Since its founding in 1975, Jaipur Foot has helped more than a million people “reclaim their mobility, self-respect, and human dignity,” as stated in the organisation’s mission.  Not a single patient has had to pay for a prosthetic.

Not too long ago, we at Journeys for Change had the honour of bringing a group of international leaders to the main Jaipur Foot center in Rajasthan, India.  D. R. Mehta himself gave us a tour of the facilities.  He told us his story as he introduced us to people from all over India who were about to receive the prosthetics that would change their lives.

In the factory, we witnessed the Jaipur Foot production process firsthand.  Whereas in the U.K., it could cost more than £10,000 to produce a prosthetic foot, Jaipur Foot does it for about £20.  Several of the technicians working in the factory were amputees themselves.  They moved quickly and gracefully on their own prosthetic limbs.

For many of us, the experience of just being there was transformational.

The power of perspective

In our minds, Good happens when interesting people step outside of their comfort zones and into new perspectives.  At Journeys for Change, we bring leaders from all over the world to India, where they connect face to face with the social entrepreneurs who are transforming society.

Our ‘learning journeys’ are immersive, intimate group travel experiences, offering participants from the private, public, and social sectors insight into how they can create greater impact in the world. Beyond inspiration, the experience yields learning, connections and opportunity for growth.

Each journey encompasses a series of site visits to a diverse group of social enterprises.  Through sessions with the social entrepreneur and personal interaction with the community engaged by the project, our participants get a comprehensive picture of what’s happening on the ground.

In the words of one of our alumni, the visits provide “living, breathing insights into leadership, creativity and the spirit of entrepreneurship.”

VisionSpring: Through new eyes

In Hyderabad, a site visit to VisionSpring offers insight into the power of entrepreneurship at the base of the pyramid.  This global social enterprise trains low-income villagers to become “Vision Entrepreneurs.”  The Vision Entrepreneurs run mobile Eye Camps in rural communities, where they offer eyesight screening and sell eyeglasses at prices villagers can afford.

Not only does this model spread access to eye care, it is a scalable way to create opportunities for income generation where few existed before.  Vision Entrepreneurs all over the world have sold a total of one million pairs of glasses.

When we take a group to visit VisionSpring, we’ll start at the company’s office in a bustling Hyderabad neighborhood.  After a behind-the-scenes session with the team, we’ll take jeeps into the countryside to see an Eye Camp in action.  There we’ll watch as Vision Entrepreneurs give villagers their first eyesight examinations (which are tailored to a low-literacy population).

Often, people who attend the Eye Camp have resigned to the fact that they will lose their eyesight eventually – and it’s moving to be there the moment when they put on their first pair of glasses and suddenly everything becomes clear again.

Our philosophy of travel

India offers a rich, diverse cultural heritage, and we believe that some of the most important learning on a journey happens outside of the site visits.   We strive to help our participants explore the local culture in ways that are meaningful and responsible.  For example, we prefer staying in boutique heritage hotels to big corporate chains.   We also encourage participants to shop at stores owned by the local community that sell eco-friendly goods.

There are many ways to soak up the culture on a journey.  After a site visit, you might sit cross-legged at a Sufi music concert, discover hidden alleyways on a walking tour, or eat with locals at an authentic restaurant.  Or maybe you’d choose to walk along the beach, by yourself or with a new friend, reflecting on all that you’d seen that day.

Join your journey of a lifetime!  Our next journeys are:

• Delhi and Rajasthan, 30 November – 8 December 2012
• Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, 22 February – 2 March 2013

Check out www.journeysforchange.org for more information.

This week we (Cafédirect) are encouraging you to use your consumer power to make a statement about where you want your coffee to come from – to think before you drink! We know that the best coffee starts with the best smallholder growers, whose pride and passion goes towards making exceptional tea, coffee and cocoa. So we source exclusively – and directly – from small growers who work in harmony with nature, with personal care and attention using skills passed down through generations. Supporting this way of doing business has a double benefit, because it means you will be getting better tasting coffee as well as empowering small growers, so we reckon it’s a pretty enjoyable challenge!
The trouble is that smallholder growers in remote communities are the least able to realise the benefits of their harvest, and most vulnerable to risks such as climate change. It’s difficult being a small fish in a big pond. That’s why we do things differently, and try to use business as a force for good by going beyond the traditional Fairtrade model to work in partnership with smallholder growers, to cut out the middleman, and give growers a greater share of the benefits – including reinvesting at least 30% of our profits back into their communities and businesses.
So, while drinking a cup of coffee – or tea –  or hot chocolate – might not seem like a big action, if you think before you drink, and make sure you are buying quality coffee direct from smallholder growers, then you really are making a huge difference.
We can vouch for the fact that Cafédirect products are as delicious to drink as they are Good to buy. So do give them a try next time you’re in the supermarket.