Working with Social Enterprise Scotland

As part of our Local Hero series, we spoke to our Metering and Billing Adviser, Irene Mosota. Irene has worked at Business Stream for over a decade where she plays a key role within our Metering and Validations team. Outside of work, she is passionate about supporting social enterprises to thrive in Scotland - so much so that in June last year, she was appointed to the Social Enterprise Scotland Board.

“There are around 6,025 social enterprises in Scotland and Social Enterprise Scotland brings these businesses together and provides them with support, networking and resources to succeed in their goals. By joining the Board, I’ve been able to provide support to the team in my areas of experience, including sustainability, diversity and inclusion, and entrepreneurship.

“One of the great successes of Social Enterprise Scotland last year was the promotion of ‘ethical purchasing’ through a ‘Buy Social Scotland’ campaign in the last quarter of 2020. The campaign included a dedicated website and Christmas gift guide with ethical gift options from social enterprises all around Scotland.  By buying products from these retailers, purchasers helped to improve key social and environmental issues in their local communities. The campaign achieved over 4.8million social media impressions and resulted in almost 40% of the first 100 gifts listed selling out! Further to this, the campaign has also now been shortlisted in the Scottish Design Awards 2021. You can check the Buy Social Scotland website out here. And this is just a snapshot of what Social Enterprise Scotland do. The team have big plans for the future including launching corporate challenges to influence change plus launching a series of webinars to support social enterprise owners.

“I also have my own social enterprise, I’mPerfect Foods, which is committed to sparking a change in attitudes to food waste. Our mission is to innovatively and responsibly reduce waste in the food supply chain for enhanced societal, economic and environmental benefits. In the UK, the average family wastes over £60 per month on unused food. But it’s not just money that’s impacted, the disposable of this food has a knock-on impact to the environment too with excess methane being produced when food is taken to landfill sites.”

Here’s Irene’s top tips to help tackle food waste:

• plan your meals for the week ahead and take a shopping list of what you need,
• sometimes it’s as simple as taking a photo of what you have in the fridge and your cupboards before you go shopping so you know what you need to buy,
• don’t get sucked into the Buy One Get One Free offers, this is great if you are going to use it, but if it ends up getting thrown out then it is food waste and you’re better off saving your money,
• and if catering for any sort of event, plan ahead for what will happen to the food at the end; how can it be taken away and consumed and not sent to landfill.

If you would like to learn more about food waste initiatives in your area you can go online to: www.imperfectfoods.co.uk

You can also find out more about Social Enterprise Scotland by visiting https://socialenterprise.scot/.