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Toast, the beer brand that brews using surplus bread, is offering punters the chance toexperience the outdoors inside their local. The B-Corp certified brewery is treating selectedlucky pub-goers to a unique experience - with a pint poured from the world’s first “living”beer fount. HEINEKEN is supporting Toast in their mission, and as part of this commitment, they arecurrently trialling Toast beer at selected locations within their pub business, Star Pubs.Toast’s Rise Up Lager will be available on draught in select pubs from May. Toast is a craft brewery that uses surplus bakery bread to brew its beers, with all profitsgoing to environmental charities. Toast has been working with HEINEKEN since 2022 as astrategic investor, focussing on research and development, as part of HEINEKEN’s net zeroambitions. Lawson Mountstevens, Managing Director, Star Pubs says, “We are thrilled to partnerwith Toast, an innovative and exciting brand, to trial the 'living fount'. It is an eye-catchinginitiative that will get beer drinkers talking over their pint, and brings the topic ofsustainability literally to the bar. ” Rob Wilson, Co-founder of Toast says: “It symbolises our commitment to a greener,brighter future and is part of a campaign, "Nature's Taking Over" - merging the joy ofbeer-drinking with the call to environmental stewardship. We’re thrilled to announce thislong-awaited launch for Toast. Collaboration has always been key to our strategy forachieving change, and we’re excited to be able to scale our work with this launch into StarPubs.” About Toast Brewing Toast is a craft brewery that uses surplus bakery bread to brew itsbeers, with all profits going to environmental charities. Food production is the biggestcontributor to climate change and biodiversity loss but one third of all food is wasted.They’re here to change that. Toast is a social enterprise and a Certified B Corp.Toastbrewing.com | #RaiseAToast with @toastale on Twitter | @toast.brewing on Instagram |Facebook | LinkedIn

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Thousands of social enterprises may not survive the winter amid rising energy and operating costs and concerns over accessing contracts and funding, according to the findings of Social Enterprise UK’s latest Social Enterprise Barometer Report. Across the 222 respondents, the report highlighted signs of strain over the last quarter, with cashflow and reserves positions worsened, turnover and growth expectations down, and a decline in staff numbers. 3% of respondents said they expected to close in the next few months, which if applied to the 131,000 social enterprises the government estimates there to be in the UK, would mean around 4,000 social enterprises could be at risk of closure this winter[1] Many social enterprises are uncertain about their growth expectations, with nearly a third (30%) saying that growth is dependent on pending funding applications, income or contracts. In response to the cost-of-living crisis, nearly two-thirds of respondents (61%) said they are seeking new grant funding, half are reducing spend on non-essential inputs and services, more than a third (36%) said they have had to increase prices, and a third (30%) are reducing their profit margin. The main concerns identified by social enterprises within the next three-six months are accessing funding and finance (57%), costs related to staff (40%) and energy prices (35%). Over a third of respondents (35%) are concerned about reduced demand for their products/services and just over a quarter are concerned about capacity to meet increased demand (27%). Respondents were also asked what forms of support would help in the current economic climate. Among the top suggestions, a third of respondents said they would like support with cashflow and cuts to national insurance contributions, a quarter of respondents wanted better terms and conditions on public sector contracts, and around a fifth of respondents wanted support with energy bill payments and cuts in business rates. Peter Holbrook, Chief Executive of SEUK, said: “It’s clear from this report that the combined crises surrounding energy, inflation and recession have many social enterprises concerned for their future. “Our past research has shown that social enterprises prove more resilient to economic challenges than other businesses, so the degree of strain social enterprises are experiencing demonstrates the scale of the difficulties they are facing. “Most social enterprises work with people directly affected by the rising cost of living and they themselves need government support to brace the barrage of economic and financial instability. “Social Enterprise UK will closely monitor Government support announcements as it must enable social enterprises as they tackle the issues facing our communities and our planet. It is a matter of urgency.” The Social Enterprise Barometer report can be accessed through SEUK’s new Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre. Launched on 9th November, the Social Enterprise Knowledge Centre seeks to be the UK’s most comprehensive source of evidence on social enterprise. [1] Based on the new government estimate of 131,000 social enterprises in the UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1101560/Social_Enterprise_Market_Trends_2019_-_Middlesex_University.pdf

Social Enterprise UK is working in partnership with the University of Westminster on a programme of work focused on social enterprises and gender empowerment. Many social enterprises are working to tackle gender inequality – creating jobs, opening up opportunities and tackling entrenched social attitudes. This programme aims to work with social enterprises to help them embed gender empowerment into their work and day-to-day operations. Since November 2021 an expert team of academics from the university have been running a series of practical workshops with participating social enterprises to help them develop strategies to empower the women they employ or support. Early workshops took place online but have now moved to in person events, the latest of which looked at how the Theory of Change and Social Relations Approach can be used to develop gender empowerment strategies. Academics taking part in the programme are Dr Lilian Miles, Dr Maria Granados, Dr Vincent Rich and Dr Anastasia Alexeeva Why should I get involved and who can take part? The workshops are open to any Social Enterprise UK member interested in doing their part to create a gender equal world. Participating social enterprises do not need to have a primary social purpose of tackling gender inequality. The programme is a great way to provide your social enterprise with the organisational tools necessary to put in place systems which empower the women you work with and support, taking academic theory and putting it into practice. Workshops so have have looked in depth at areas such as creating a theory of change, design thinking and impact measurement. If you’re interested in taking part, please contact our membership team at membership@socialenterprise.org.uk Gender Empowerment Guide for Social Enterprises in the UK As part of this series of work the University of Westminster produced a Gender Empowerment Guide for use by social enterprises to empower the women they employ. Co-produced with social enterprises, the guide showcases best practice, potential challenges and how to address them, and provides clear indicators to measure the effectiveness and impact of gender empowerment practices. Click here to read the guide 

GLL case study is on its way...

Launched at the Social Value Leaders’ Summit on 18 May 2022, which brought together key stakeholders to explore the future of social value, this important report sets out a new vision for social value and explores how social value can be a tool to shape markets and organisational behaviour. As the UK Government looks to take forward its ‘levelling-up’ plans, the report identifies the benefits of creating an economy with social value at its heart and using existing public sector spending to reduce inequalities and transition to a green economy. The report also calls on the UK’s largest businesses to adopt a social value approach to working with the public sector. This new vision for social value focuses on how best to use procurement to drive improvement and greater sustainability in businesses and markets in the UK; transform public services and accelerate the drive to Net Zero. The report is authored by Professor Chris White – former Member of Parliament and author of the Social Value Act  Download the full report Download the summary We’ve also put together this two-pager which outlines the Social Value 2032 partnerships’ collective vision for the Social Value Economy.