"Buy Social": £1bn challenge to big business

Responsible Business Week, sponsored by Business in the Community, kicked off at 11 Downing Street with the launch of the £1bn Buy Social Corporate Challenge, an effort to encourage big businesses to procure goods and services from the UK’s social enterprise sector. Social Enterprise UK and the Cabinet Office will work with a number of large corporations including RBS Group, Johnson & Johnson, PwC, Santander, Wates, Zurich, and Interserve in training their procurement teams on how to source and buy from social enterprises, and the benefits to be achieved. They will also receive advice on measuring the impact of their spend with social enterprises, and how to use the data in sustainability reporting and bid writing.