Not on the Label

Having arrived at Not on the label after booking it on a whim, I was pleasantly surprised at the passion and content expressed in the talk. 

 

To kick it off, Andrew Reeves spoke a little about DMU’s sustainability initiatives (the university now has an electricity contract with a renewable energy company!) and its relation to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The whole talk focused around one step in particular: responsible consumption and production.

Leading the topic were Dr Claire Lepiniere and Emma Wood, explaining responsible consumption and production in textiles. After briefly explaining the differences between The Linear Model (make, take and dump) and The Circular Model (an initiative that the UN hopes to implement universally), they put us into small groups to undertake an activity. This was designed to show the water and energy consumption that goes into manufacturing certain materials found in our clothes.

Bringing the talk to a close was Amanda Berlan with a compelling insight into the cocoa industry, child labour and the fairtrade movement. Her passion for the subject served to incite passion in the rest of our group – who wouldn’t be interested in children’s rights, chocolate and equality?

After walking into the talk with little to no knowledge of its content, I found that my inner eco-warrior was crying to break free. I promptly signed up to hear more about DMU’s sustainability initiatives and hope to be more involved going forward into next year.

 

 

E.M. Williams

By the People, for the People

Social enterprise: I’d heard of the concept before before but never took the time to try and understand. So, in search of enlightenment, I joined the interactive talk on whether social enterprise could be the best alternative to capitalism.

This talk was led by a Dr Andrew Reeves, as part of the Green Light Festival, someone who showed great enthusiasm in bringing about social change to the UK.

For those of you who don’t know, a social enterprise is a business which trades for a social purpose. As clearly illustrated in the session, these businesses don’t follow the scheme of having all the profits go to the boss and the shareholders. Instead it goes to everyone who has a stake within the business, all the workers who managed it equally, and is used to sustain the enterprise indefinitely.

Dr Reeves even provided some examples of social enterprises such as AFC Wimbledon, a football team created and managed by the fans when their original team moved to Milton Keynes. Local shops and community centres have increasingly become controlled by the locals and by the community.

A good question which was presented was when social enterprise is appropriate and when is it not. It doesn’t solve every problem but at least it does solve problems.

The session was enough to plant the idea within me that perhaps social enterprise is the way forward. I wonder if you’ll think the same.


S.M. Knight