The Cookie Project empowers people with disabilities by employing them for baking their products and allowing them to learn new skillsets. Seeing as current Statistics New Zealand figures show that the current employment rate is for disabled people is 22 percent, versus 70 percent for people without disabilities, this is a particularly poignant mission. Now, it has created New Zealand’s first traceable packaging with Quentosity to connect consumers to their bakers. By scanning a QR code with their smartphone, users can see who made their cookies, leave a message of encouragement, or request the person also create their next batch of cookies. The packaging is made from 100 percent recyclable material and has also nabbed a 2019 Best Awards nomination as a finalist in the public good category.
In an era where large-scale action is needed to address the looming environmental, social and economic challenges, business represents the single most potent, organised force for change on earth. This is the belief of Tickled Pink's Jerry Beale, who is a former social and cultural strategist at agency True and spearheads a business that helps to boost New Zealand companies' bottom line performance and staff engagement by helping them increase employee happiness, find their purpose and strengthen their workplace culture. Here, he has a chat about why we will see more brands like Patagonia that donate US$10 million to fight climate change, why business has become a forceful movement for change and how New Zealand businesses are doing when it comes to embracing audacious change.
The winner of Idealog's Most Innovative Companies in Social Enterprise/Charity is Squawk Squad. New Zealand's native birds are in a crisis. 80 percent of the country’s remaining endemic birds are threatened with extinction, with an estimated 25 million birds killed each year by introduced predators. Squawk Squad’s goal is to connect and engage Kiwis with the protection and growth of these native birds and to that, they’re applying start-up thinking to the conservation conversation.
Has corporate social responsibility been killed by the social enterprise model? Not so, says Step Changers general manager Rosie Collins, as not all businesses can operate under this model. Instead, she says it's about finding where companies fit on a spectrum of giving back.
Over the past month, there has been a lot of discussion in the media regarding social enterprises. CEO of the Ākina Foundation Louise Aitken clarifies the responsibilities of being a social enterprise, and what is ahead in the future for businesses operating in this sector.
Elisha Watson is the founder of Nisa, an underwear label based in Wellington that employs women from refugee backgrounds. She quit her job as a litigation lawyer a year ago to found the company after volunteering for the Red Cross and seeing refugees struggling to find work. Here, she reflects on the trials and tribulations of starting a social enterprise from the ground up.
Most people in the New Zealand business community can name at least one successful local social enterprise, but how do our talents in this area measure up on the world stage? Pretty well, actually. Courtney Ennor reports back from the 2018 Social Enterprise World Forum and finds New Zealand is one of the countries leading the way in the social enterprise sector.
Everybody Eats is a pay-as-you-feel restaurant that is geared towards serving people in need delicious, chef-cooked meals with food that otherwise would’ve gone to landfill. While originally a pop-up restaurant, it’s crowdfunding to find a permanent premises. We talk with founder Nick Loosley about the thinking behind this initiative.
You want to make a positive difference in the world. You have some money. So, how do you do the greatest amount of good with the money you have? Here are some options, even if we're about as qualified for giving financial advice as an actual kākāpō would be for coaching the All Blacks.
Wellington-based social enterprise Pomegranate Kitchen has been named as one of five top female-led Kiwi businesses by SheEO. So what comes next, and how do we help close the massive inequality gap when it comes to women-led businesses and venture capital funding? We're republishing this as part of our Poverty Week pop-up.
