Social enterprise
Buy nothing day, buy nothing new month and now the compactors’ year long endeavour to buy nothing at all. But is ‘buying’ in itself all bad? When does our consumerism tip over into a self-fulfilling pursuit? And how can we wrest back buying power through our choices as consumers? Thankfully we do have options. From fair trade to sustainable, from social enterprise to shop local, there are a number of ways to think about how our money can make a difference.
A social enterprise combines two elements – society + business. Broadly speaking, society is us (you and me), and an enterprise is an entity that buys and sells. A social enterprise entails the buying and selling of stuff, to our (society’s) benefit. There are few who’d disagree we benefit from connectedness, security, opportunity, and a clean and unpolluted environment. In contrast to pure capitalism, which favours profit above all else, the social enterprise economy puts ethical concerns at the forefront.
Sourcing a product that fulfils one good can however impact the potential for another, so it pays to put your choices in perspective and ask: to what degree are your decisions actively pursuing an ethical aim? If your purchase supports a small producer community in Africa and is a vote of confidence in fair trade standards, you can’t obsess about its environmental impact in food miles. If you buy second-hand clothes, you breathe a second life into something headed for landfill and help fund a charitable organisation, so you can’t worry too much about how and where the clothes might have been made to begin with. If you do choose to buy nothing and live light – you should feel good about it, you can’t worry the economy will stagnate – it won’t.
Social enterprise exists to encourage better decisions, not to add to the anxiety of a global age of inequality.
Social enterprise can have a positive impact in myriad ways, with benefits coming directly or indirectly. Initiatives like ‘shop local’ aim to shape everyday behaviour and encourage people to support small business. Thriving local businesses enhance the general vibe of ‘community’ as well as providing jobs in that community. Sourcing local produce also decreases the environmental impact of what you buy. There’s a bigger dollar return from direct spending in the community at independent retailers – an economic theory known as the ‘multiplier effect’.
On a broader scale, buying Australian contributes to wider Australian society, and the iconic Australian Made label, which was introduced in 1999, helps consumers easily identify a local product. There’s a further push to clarify the discrepancy between Australian made, grown and owned products, with new labelling laws coming into effect this July, forcing greater transparency. But the advantages of social enterprise aren’t confined to Australia alone, as globalisation makes us part of a global community too.
After the disparity of the international coffee trade was exposed in the 2006 documentary film, Black Gold, it’s unsurprising that coffee has been the subject of ethical, experimental, economic improvements. The film’s trailer opens with the telling line ‘for a three dollar cup of coffee a farmer earns three cents’ – a sentiment that has motivated socially minded entrepreneurs from Australia to the UK to make a difference. London-based, Colombian Coffee Company looks ‘beyond fairtrade’ to support education and arts related projects in the areas of Colombia where they source their single origin beans. And Melbourne’s Wild Timor Coffee, have opted for a model of ‘100% direct trade’ which is committed to dealing direct with farmers and integrating the business with the community through employment and social projects.
The rewards of social enterprise are obvious. And since 2013, Social Traders has been awarding Australian Social Enterprises, both to support and to advance their cause. Social Traders is an organisation that builds ‘the trading capability and investment readiness of start-up and early stage enterprises along with growing the market for social enterprise products and services’. The 2015 winners include organisations that employ long-term disadvantaged and unemployed people, educate vulnerable communities about solar and fossil-fuel alternatives, and a commercial law firm that funnels profits into a free legal service for marginalised members of society.