China-UK Social Enterprise and Social Investment Publication

Belu bottles natural mineral water in the UK to help those living without access to clean water and also to produce water in an environmentally responsible way. The business gives all profits to WaterAid. It can be bought across the country in shops and restaurants and the business hopes to influence the wider market as well as succeed in its own right. Belu developed the first British water bottle made from 50% recycled plastic and a new lightweight glass bottle. Like many social enterprises, such as Divine Chocolate, Belu’s mission is not focused on its own success but on the impact it can have on influencing others businesses in the market.

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Bristol Together CIC aims to create full-time jobs for long-term unemployed people, particularly ex-offenders by buying and refurbishing empty properties. Triodos Bank helped Bristol Together raise an initial £600k through a bond and a further £1 million from a wider range of investors, principally trusts and foundations. The bond was structured to attract Community Investment Tax Relief (CITR) which can enhance returns for private investors. Bristol Together are now delivering against their ambitions, working in partnership with other local social enterprises. The model is now being replicated in the Midlands with the help of The Cabinet Office’s Investment and Contract Readiness Fund, and being considered in other areas.

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Canyou is one of the biggest social enterprises in China. It is dedicated to promoting the self-help and sustainable development of the disabled and other disadvantaged groups, employing more than 3,700 staff, most of whom have disabilities. In 2002, Canyou won the ‘International Social Enterprise of the Year’ award at the prestigious UK Social Enterprise Awards.

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According to statistics, there are 1.6 billion people around the world who do not have power supply. In addition, another 1 billion people do not have a stable electricity supply, most of which are in Africa and India. Many people live in darkness once the sun sets. Those who have the ability to buy lighting tools, often choose kerosene lamps, the cost of which accounts for 5% to 30% of their family income.

Therefore, several students studying in the Business College and Engineering College of Stanford University decided to design a kind of light that the poor can afford and have fewer requirements for supporting facilities.

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Data from the Office of the China National Committee on Aging shows that at the end of 2013, the proportion of residents over 60 years of age in the overall population was already at 15%, while the number reaches 25% in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. “Empty-nest” families account for 50% of all families, and exceed 75% in big cities.

China has not yet designed a sustainable senior care system to solve this unprecedented challenge. Within the next decade, the time bomb will go off when the first generation of parents of the one child policy are in need of senior care. Facing a race against time, Golden Sun has dedicated itself to launching an open and sustainable senior care system to deal with the challenge in China before the bomb explodes.

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HCT Group is a well-known social enterprise in the UK which delivers a range of transport services. It has doubled its turnover from around £20m following an investment from a social investor, Bridges Ventures, alongside others. The investment includes an innovative so-called “Social Loan” with returns linked to turnover, a bespoke investment created specifically to work for social enterprise. This has been an influential investment, which took time to put together, but which has also helped shape a new tax relief for social enterprise, SITR. 

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Launched in 2013, Hesheng Afforestation aims to rebuild and maintain a healthy and stable near-nature eco-system in a desertified area of 40,000 mu (about 26,666,667 m2) in Inner Mongolia within 30 years. Focusing on combating desertification in arid and semi-arid areas, Hesheng Afforestation is devoted to the protection and restoration of the ecosystem through eco-afforestation. By managing barren mountains, carbon sequestration afforestation and conducting consultations in related areas, the company has contributed much to the construction of the ecological shelter zone important to northern China.  

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The House of St. Barnabas was founded in the 1800s to support vulnerable homeless people. It has recently transformed its model to become a not-for-profit private members’ club existing alongside an integrated employment academy. The charity is based in a Grade 1 listed property in the heart of London. 

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The Link group is registered social landlord and social enterprise working to alleviate the problem of affordable housing in Scotland, providing housing for rent and for sale and building new homes. It is more than 50 years old and now delivers a diverse range of services to communities across the country.

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NAViGO is a Community Interest Company which ‘spun out’ of the public sector and which delivers mental health services in the north east of England. It is a large, multi-million pound business with an employment and training arm called Tukes which provides opportunities to people with mental health problems and little or no previous training, qualifications or work experience.

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PM Training helps young people, mainly without formal qualifications to train, follow apprenticeship schemes and find jobs. The organisation delivers a range of services to paying customers, through projects which offer opportunities to the young people, such as home or public realm improvements. The business has supported thousands of people into jobs, delivering social and economic value in Stoke and beyond. PM Training was acquired in 2008 by the Aspire Group, which has itself evolved from a housing association, and brings together a number of social enterprises in a group structure. The business is thriving, while conscious of future challenges, particularly around ongoing changes to national government policy which may impact on its business model.

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In just a few years, the Chinese chat app 'WeChat' has gained 1 billion users. Smartphones have thoroughly changed our life. However, for Cao Jun, the creator of mobile phones that can be used by the blind and a blind person himself, smartphones can and should change the lives of the blind as well. He taught himself computer technology and learned from his experience that computers can change his life. However, due to economic and technological limitations, few blind people can have computers. With the arrival of the smartphone era, Cao Jun sees an unprecedented opportunity. If blind people could use smartphones, they would be enabled to “see farther”. 

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Sandwell Community Caring Trust (SCCT) is a registered charity delivering care services to adults with physical and learning disabilities and elderly residents.  Created in 1997, it provides services in the Black Country in the West Midlands. The organisation delivers a range of services to support over 600 people in the area as well as providing NHS and social services in Torbay in the south west of England.

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Social adVentures is a social enterprise set up to address public health and health inequalities in Salford, Manchester. It was created as Healthy Living Centre and has since ‘spun-out’ of the public sector to become jointly owned as a mutual and social enterprise by service users, employees and the local community. Social adVentures delivers a public health contract and is now growing and diversifying, earning rental income, working with other social sector organisations and has even bought a garden centre and a children’s nursery. The business is one of a group of newly formed social enterprises which are now operating independently from the state, often led by inspirational leaders with a desire to be more innovative and entrepreneurial. 

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Like many other parents, Chen Jie could not find a good school for her child when she discovered that he had autism. She realised this was a widespread problem, and so established Xingbao Shangxue, or Star Camp, in Shanghai. 'Xingbao' means 'children from the stars', which refers to the autistic children, and 'Shangxue' means 'go to school', which is the simplest and most direct goal of the project.

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As the first private non-profit institution specialising in providing education services for autistic children and their families, Beijing Stars and Rain Education Institute for Autism (“Stars and Rain”) was started by the mother of an autistic child. In 1993, Tian Huiping left her job and established Beijing's first school for autistic children.

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In October 2011, after nearly two years of preparation, Thousand Trees Equal Education Partners (“Thousand Trees”) was established with a registered capital of RMB two million. As a social enterprise focusing on the development of equal children’s education, Thousand Trees aims to improve the quality of pre-school education of “left-behind children” in rural areas and migrant children in cities, as well as promoting the development of equal education.

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Westmill Solar is a community owned renewable energy project based in the south of England – the first of its kind in the UK. A local farmer – Adam Twine - and partners developed the project to build on the success of their earlier wind farm project. The solar farm is paid for the energy it creates and is owned as a co-operative following a community share issue. As well as aiming to produce local, reliable, clean energy, the project also seeks to get local people involved in energy production as well as demonstrating what is possible in order to inspire others.

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