Buying Social

We formalised our support for the social enterprise sector as part of our responsible procurement programme in 2016 as a founding member of the Buy Social Corporate Challenge (BSCC), a joint venture with Social Enterprise UK, the Cabinet Office and the business world. Its aim? To harness the spending power of business to realise greater social and environmental benefit. Buying from social enterprises empowers communities, creates opportunities for vulnerable people and supports our commitment to transition to a low carbon and circular economy, in line with our Purpose and our values. Since then, we’ve spent over £1 million annually with over 40 social enterprises.

Programmes

Social enterprises have formed a key pillar of our community programme for several years, and we’ve established a range of ways to ‘buy social’.

The Fire Station

We set up a social enterprise hub eight years ago at The Fire Station in London. It’s home to a number of important social enterprises, including the School for Social Entrepreneurs (an incubator and training ground for social enterprises) and Social Enterprise UK (the social enterprise trade association). We spend with both for training and marketing opportunities associated with social enterprise.

Brigade at the Fire Station

The Fire Station also houses Brigade, our social enterprise bistro and bar, which provides training and employment opportunities in food service for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. It’s delivered through the Beyond Food Community Interest Company (CIC), a unique collaboration between PwC, Beyond Food and WSH Restaurants. PwC is a key customer for Brigade, and regularly hosts corporate and employee events at the venue. 

Operational procurement

We procure goods and services from a variety of social enterprises to support our office operations, boost employee engagement and enhance our client marketing. Examples include:

• Mediorite is a creative agency that provides training and opportunities for often marginalised young people to gain experience in the creative industry. We’ve used Mediorite for a number of projects requiring photo and video services, including the video library on this website.
• The Soap Co. manufactures and sells toiletries and cleaning products, employing blind or people with other disabilities who cannot find opportunities in mainstream industry. We buy The Soap Co. products through our cleaning contractor for use in the washrooms in our offices.
• We continue to work with our corporate merchandise provider to offer an increasing number of social enterprise products. Now available are hand-made chocolates from Harry Specters, who provide employment opportunities for people on the autism spectrum; macaroons from Miss Macaroon, who train and employ young care leavers and ex-offenders; reusable notepads from Correctbooks, who send their wipeable stationary to children without education supplies in developing countries; and rucksacks from Madlug, who for every bag purchased give a backpack to a child in care. As approved suppliers to our corporate merchandise partner, these social enterprises now have access to a wider range of potential corporate customers.