Real Ideas Organisation

Image by Ben Tallon/ www.benandink.co.uk

Money and Morals?

There was a fascinating feature in the Guardian Money on Saturday looking at ethical investment. It's been 25 years since Britain's first ethical fund was launched and today around £7 billion is under management in socially responsible, ethical and green funds in the UK. Now I don't know much about investment, to put it mildly, but what I did find interesting was the reaction of financiers when asked about ethical and socially responsible funds,with quote of the day going to Mark Dampier from investment advisers Hargreaves Lansdown for the gem, "why bother unless you are a paid-up member of the sandal brigade?"

This rang true of my experience familiarising myself with social enterprise over the last year. It seems that social enterprise has a similar stigma attached to it, with many people in the private sector still seeing it in 'a brown rice and sandals light' or not seeing it at all.

And yet all the social entreprises I have come into contact with, from One Water and Fifteen to Red Button Design and The Sofa Project are serious business professionals and not a dreadlock among them, committed to making profit but also committed topusing that profit to directly address social and environmental issues rather than line fat cats' pockets. The point for the social entrepreneurs that founded these businesses, and for the thousands of others across the UK, is that it doesn't have to be money or morals.

It's not a choice. It can be both.

Check out a feature I wrote recently about social enterprise as a new way to trade for Stranger magazine.

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