NEWS: Brightwayz finalist in UK Social Enterprise Awards

Brightwayz has today [23 August 2021] been unveiled as a finalist in the UK Social Enterprise Awards' hotly contended Environmental category.

Our founder Alison Holland commented: “This is incredible news and, with the UK set to host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow later this year, we are particularly proud to be a finalist in the environment category.

“Transport is the largest source of carbon emissions in the UK and addressing this by helping people adapt their daily travel habits is so important. Almost 500 social enterprises were considered by the judges, so we are over the moon to be unveiled as a finalist for the first time.“

Social enterprises are businesses which trade for a social or environmental purpose. There are 100,000 social enterprises in the UK contributing £60bn to the UK economy, each one being set up to tackle some of the biggest challenges we face from homelessness to the climate emergency.

The UK Social Enterprise Awards run by Social Enterprise UK, the national membership body for social enterprises, recognise the nation’s most pioneering social enterprises.

We will be joining other shortlisted organisations at the prestigious awards ceremony held at London’s iconic Guildhall on 8 December.

We were originally launched as Brightkidz in 2004 after founder Alison Holland set up a ‘walking bus’ scheme at her son’s school and realised there was a need for information and resources to support walk to school schemes.

Brightwayz, as well as running projects and programmes, has a range of active travel campaign resources - including walk to school banners and stickers. 100% of profits are used to enable this social enterprise to carry out its work with schools, businesses, and organisations across the UK.

Another side of the organisation is brandmythingy.com, which sells customised promotional products to UK businesses. All the profits from this commercial arm of the organisation are fed back into supporting Brightwayz.

Commenting on the Awards, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise UK Peter Holbrook said: “The UK Social Enterprise Awards are back, bigger and better than ever before. We have had a record number of applications this year, all of which have showcased the strength, dynamism and resilience of the social enterprise community through what’s been an incredibly difficult and uncertain period.

“Over the course of the pandemic social enterprises have been going above and beyond the call of duty to support their teams, the individuals, and communities they work with, showing the grit, determination and innovation so inherent to this sector. They’ve been operating directly on the frontline of the crisis, launching new products and pivoting their business models to meet the needs of communities and society as a whole.

“The Awards are all about celebrating the achievements of the UK’s social enterprise movement, which is showing us that another way of doing business is possible - one which has never been more important as we look to build back better and address the climate emergency.”