FW: ESRC/Social Enterprise Strategic Partners Public Policy Seminar - 'Social Enterprise and the Environment', 23rd June 2009, London

[Adam Margetts]

---

Subject: ESRC/Social Enterprise Strategic Partners Public Policy Seminar - 'Social Enterprise and the Environment', 23rd June 2009, London
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 16:23:07 +0100
From: Kirsty....@esrc.ac.uk
To: Knowledg...@esrc.ac.uk

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

 

 

ESRC/DEFRA Social Enterprise Strategic Partners Public Policy Seminar ‘Social Enterprise and the Environment’

2.00pm – 5.00pm, Tuesday 23rd June 2009

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London, SW1P 3JR

 

 

Dear Colleague,

 

I am writing to invite you or a colleague to a seminar organised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the DEFRA Social Enterprise Strategic Partnership. This seminar is part of a series organised by the ESRC and the Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC).

 

The importance of the environment is recognised in ambitious UK governmental targets from policy makers, in public concern and in business as an economic sector with prospects for rapid development.

Environmental social enterprises operate businesses ranging from community renewable energy through re-use and recycling to environmental education.

Social enterprise models offer communities an opportunity to contribute to changing the economics of climate change as well as advocating and informing changes in individual behaviours. They frequently deliver environmental outcomes simultaneously to multiple social benefits, such as employment for those otherwise excluded from the labour market and new community assets. These models should present opportunities for environmental organisations to be more financially sustainable, for existing social enterprises to diversify and offer environmental services and additional means for policy makers to deliver their environmental objectives.

For us to address the huge challenges ahead, social enterprise will need to realise its potential for environmental change. To do this the sector will need to increase in scale dramatically and rapidly. This requires understanding what works, how community level enterprises can manage large contracts and competitors and how environmental markets take into account diverse structures and multiple benefits, including a just distribution of the social and economic costs and benefits that mitigating and adapting to climate change entail.

 

The purpose of the seminar is to investigate a number of questions including 'What are the best available and possible social enterprise models, especially in renewable energy and heat, energy and heat reduction and reducing resource consumption?  and 'If there is a “green new deal” how should it be applied to make environmental markets work? How can market structures and interventions enable full environmental, social and economic sustainability?'

 

The emphasis of the seminar will be on interaction, active learning and personal knowledge exchange. The seminar will not only provoke thought and discussion on the day, but provide a step towards establishing a fruitful discourse that can be continued after the event.

 

The seminar will take place at The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, London on Tuesday 23rd June 2009 from 2.00pm to 5.00pm, and will include a workshop session.

 

The seminar will be led by two leading figures in the field: Dr Mick Blowfield, Senior Research Fellow at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford and Dr Dan van der Horst, Lecturer at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of  Birmingham.  Also contributing to this seminar is Nigel Lowthrop, Founder and Director of Hill Holt Wood who will provide a social enterprise practitioner perspective.

 

A policy response will also be provided by  Jill Rutter, Director of Strategy and Sustainable Development, DEFRA followed by a workshop session and a plenary panel session at the end to continue the discussion. A briefing of the latest research will be published after the seminar series had been completed.

 

This seminar is the third in a series of four seminars addressing issues of importance to Social Enterprise. The aim of the seminar series is to bring the best social science concepts and evidence into the policy arena and to stimulate a discussion of how, in the light of these insights, policy can be developed. The goal is to encourage evidence-based policy through an exchange between researchers and policy makers on the changing circumstances of social enterprises.

 

The DEFRA Social Enterprise Strategic Partnership comprises Co-operatives UK, the Development Trust Association, the Plunkett Foundation, RISE and the Social Enterprise Coalition.

 

Places for this seminar are limited. I would therefore be grateful if you could e-mail your acceptance to the ESRC Knowledge Transfer Team (knowledg...@esrc.ac.uk) by 5.00pm Tuesday 16th June.

 

If you have any queries about this seminar please do not hesitate to contact me.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Kirsty Johnson 

 

Kirsty Johnson

Knowledge Transfer

Economic and Social Research Council

Polaris House

North Star Avenue

Swindon

SN2 1UJ

 

Email: kirsty....@esrc.ac.uk

 

www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk

 

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

 

______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email
______________________________________________________________________