©Centre for Sustainable Action introduces investment opportunities for a sustainable future

©Centre for Sustainable Action is a cooperative created to support small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to embed sustainability within their business plans. 

We aim to support the wellbeing of entrepreneurs and business leaders to help achieve profitability and a social purpose through the development of products and services that are inherently sustainable. As a cooperative, we have the ability to raise £10 million in funding but we cannot do this alone we need the help of brilliant minds to make our mission possible. 

Join our #brilliant minds campaign at the Centre for Action to learn more register for the event by clicking on the link below.

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An uncommon thing about common safety

During the past few months the safety profession in the UK has been challenged to adopt a “common sense approach” to the management of health and safety. Lord Young’s report “Common Sense, Common Safety” focussed mainly in his view on “non hazardous” businesses and occupations such as offices and shops. The interpretation of administrative and point of sale occupations as being “non hazardous” is myopic and fails to grasp the effects of stress on individual well being – the much neglected health side of the health and safety equation. The report sadly has created a perception that safety has spawned its own unique form of bureaucracy which is stifling economic growth and productivity.

Philosophically common sense is defined as “the basic level of practical knowledge and judgment that we all need to help us live in a reasonable and safe way”. This attempt to encapsulate our understanding of this catch all phrase leaves the concept of what is “reasonable and safe” open to interpretation which raises the following key issue:

The understanding of what is “reasonable and safe” is not homogenous within any society.

The inability of ”reasonable” people to unanimously agree on what is safe or even right makes law and best practice a requirement to ensure the safety of individuals civil society. The challenge of the health and safety profession is to expound the uncommon nature of safety by focusing on the need for a careful understanding and management of risk in traditional high risk occupations and sectors such as oil & gas but also in new “green“ jobs such as recycling, an ageing workforce and the rise in obesity giving due regard to the impact of stress on the working, family and social lives of individuals in “non hazardous” occupations. It is this holistic view that practitioners must adopt if the profession is to help its stakeholders make the connection between a healthy, sustainable lifestyles and safety at work which will hopefully cynical myths of ‘elf n safety’.

To learn more about quality, safety and environmental management visit www.sustainabiliycsr.com 

UK Employer Charter... A sword of Damocles?

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This week during my daily commute to work I could not help over hearing a lively discussion as to the looming redundancies in the UK public sector. One of my fellow commuters was experiencing some anxiety as to her future in regards to possible redundancies at her workplace which hung over her head like the mythical sword of Damocles. 
Into this atmosphere of anxiety the UK Government launched its Employer Charter  along with other proposals such as the extension of the period from one year to two years within which an employee is entitled to bring an unfair dismissal claim. The Employer Charter and other government proposals are based on the assumption that there currently exists an imbalance in the relationship between the employee and the employer.
This perception is not borne by the following facts: 
Health and Safety

• 152 people were killed in the UK workplace in 2009/2010 
• In 2009/2010 28.5 million workdays were lost to workplace injury or ill health  
• 1.3 million people who worked in 2009/2010 reported illnesses or injuries caused as a result of their current or past work; of this figure 550000 are "fresh" cases
• The UK is yet to convict a CEO/Director for Corporate Manslaughter
• The UK does not explicitly include health and safety as part of a Directors duties

Labour Laws
The plight of agency workers within the UK employment contractual framework is illustrated by the situation of agency workers at the Amazon, Inverclyde facility in Scotland whose work and pay was stopped mid shift leaving agency workers stranded overnight at the site awaiting public transport which resumed the following morning.


Before the UK seeks to develop another charter or one of our banks develops another customer charter should we be implementing the EU Social Charter?
The EU Social Charter adopts a broader social view of the impact of work life on the sustainable development of society. Specifically it enshrines the following following principles that are in direct contradiction to the Employer Charter:

• The Right of the Family to Social & Legal Protection Article 16
• The Right of mothers and children to Social & Legal Protection Article 17

Both articles 16 and 17 are crucial in an socio-economic environment where:

• 60% of men and 40% of women aged between 20 and 24 in England still live with their parents - a catalyst for more student protests as household incomes are strained
• 23% households in the UK are single parent households 
• 50% of single parent families in the UK are classed as poor

Based on the Employers Charter should a single parent or a working parents of households living on the poverty line decide to strike, request flexi-time or holiday due to family obligations the profit imperative of business is the only criteria which matters all other social issues such as the care and welfare of children are irrelevant externalities - primacy of family life is just mere collateral damage. 
The analogy of the Sword of Damocles is apt in this instance as legend states Dionysius a 4th Century BC tyrant seemed to have all the trappings of wealth and luxury, having been ingratiated for his wealth and power by one of his servants Damocles. Dionysius challenged Damocles to live his life for a day to which Damocles readily agreed. Damocles immediately began feasting and enjoying the trappings of power and wealth when suddenly he noticed a sword hanging over his head by a horse's hair. To which Dionysius explained this was what a king's life was like.
For many vulnerable adults single mothers, children and senior citizens who work the Employers Charter will hang like a sword of Damocles over their heads. My advice to supporters of the Employers Charter is to be a single working parent or working parent from a household living on the poverty line for a day and survive by a "horse's hair" from pay check to pay check... above all lets not forget with Valentine's Day just around the corner that Britannia is a woman.

Big Society or Self Preservation Society

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As I discuss with my colleague the collection of funds for Help for Heroes a popular UK charity, I briefly reflect on the potential demise of the " Big Society". Prime Minister David Cameron announced on the 16th July 2010 the beginning of a new era in the social contract between the UK government and its citizens the "Big Society". In his Big Society speech Mr. Cameron envisaged the empowerment of charities, citizens, private businesses and community organisations to innovate, manage and deliver public services. Community empowerment, social action and public service reform underpin the philosophy of the Big Society. David Cameron fully understands that economic stability can only be sustained by social stability so he issued a clarion call for the creation of a new approach to national development the "Big Society".
In the eight months since that famous speech why is the Big Society failing? It is failing in the three main galvanizing areas which the Prime Minister outlined in his Big Society speech Decentralization, Transparency and Financing. 


Decentralization
The Big Society has its own peer Lord Wei ex-McKinsey consultant and Oxford graduate with a desire to finance social change using bonds and mutual funds. The Big Society has its own government office - the Office for Civil Society... herein lies a recipe for red tape.

Transparency
In its inception the Office for Civil Society issued a press release outlining its contribution to the government austerity measures by cutting its budget to the voluntary sector and social enterprises by £11 million. However this openness does not extend to disclosure of operating costs and budgets for either the Big Society project or the Office for Civil Society.

Financing
With government contributions to the voluntary sector falling victim to budgetary cuts; the severity of these measures has as affected some Local Authorities disproportionately one such local authority Liverpool City Council has lost £100 million in area based grants has opted out of the Big Society pilot program and has joined instead the "self preservation society". There is always the option of using Lord Wei's model of  raising bonds and other financial instruments to support financial capital with free social capital or was it the the other way around.

In contrast Help for Heroes a grassroots charity that was established by a HM forces veteran and his wife to provide support to servicemen and women wounded since 9/11 is committed to transparency its financial performance is available on the website's homepage and sustainable financing without exploiting its social capital - a vast network of volunteers which includes celebrities such as David Beckham and Jeremy Clarkson. Help for Heroes is an example of the "Big Society" in action without being political... surprisingly they are not affected by budget cuts.