• LinkedIn
  • Youtube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Contact us: 0345 504 6536
Social Enterprise Mark CIC
  • Accreditation
    • Aspiring Social Enterprises
      • Benefits
      • Qualification criteria
      • Application process
      • Aspiring social enterprise case studies
      • Register your interest
      • Annual licence fee
    • Social Enterprise Mark
      • Benefits
      • Qualification criteria
      • Application process
      • Do I qualify?
      • Register your interest
      • Annual licence fee
      • How is the Mark different?
    • Social Enterprise Gold Mark
      • Benefits
      • Gold Mark assessment framework
      • Application process
      • Register your interest
      • Annual licence fee
      • Gold Mark holder case studies
    • International accreditation
      • Application process
      • Register your interest
      • International Mark holders
      • International licence agreements
    • Social Enterprise Disability Employment Mark
    • Local Authority Disability Employment Mark
    • Key benefits of social enterprise accreditation
    • Supporting corporates to deliver social value
    • Which Mark should I apply for?
    • What makes us different?
    • Social enterprise in higher education
    • Social enterprise in health and social care
  • About
    • About Social Enterprise Mark CIC
      • Our team
      • Our Board
      • Certification panel
    • How are we different?
    • Speaker services
    • Our ambassadors
    • Our partners
    • Our awards
    • Our impact
    • Working with corporates
    • International consultancy
    • Testimonials
    • Frequently asked questions
    • Contact
    • Privacy policy
  • Impact Assessment
    • Social impact assessment
    • Social impact guidance
  • Directory
    • Directory of accredited social enterprises
    • Map of accredited social enterprises
  • News & resources
    • Our news
    • Newsletters
      • Sign up to newsletter
    • Mark holder news
      • Submit a news story
    • What is social enterprise?
    • Podcasts & videos
    • Resources for Mark Holders
      • Embedding the Social Enterprise Mark
    • Blog
      • Lucy Findlay’s blog
      • Guest blog
    • Events
      • Annual conference
      • Submit an event
      • Event calendar
    • Resources
      • Branding guide
      • Business advice & mentoring
      • Design thinking guide
      • How to set up a social enterprise
      • Social impact guidance
      • Taxes explained for social enterprises
  • Apply
    • Aspiring Social Enterprises
      • Register your interest
      • Application process
    • Social Enterprise Mark
      • Register your interest
      • How to apply
      • Application process
    • Social Enterprise Gold Mark
      • Register your interest
      • Application process
    • International applications
      • Register your interest
      • Application process
    • Which Mark should I apply for?
    • Renew your Social Enterprise Mark
    • Licence terms and conditions
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Contact us
    • Enquire about international partnerships
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
Blog - Latest News
You are here: Home1 / Blog2 / Lucy Findlay's Blog3 / Championing social enterprise on a global scale

Championing social enterprise on a global scale

September 5, 2016/in Lucy Findlay's Blog /by Sophie Short

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, we are experiencing an increasing interest in social enterprise accreditation at an international level. Since 2015, almost ¼ of all visits to our website have been from outside the UK, and we have recently awarded the fourth international Social Enterprise Mark to AUARA EMPRESA SOCIAL, a Spanish social enterprise investing profits from the sale of premium bottled water into social projects to provide clean water to people in need.

AuaraAUARA is the latest addition to our growing international network of accredited social enterprises, committed to trading for people and planet. Since C3 in UAE was approved as our first international Mark holder in April 2015, they have been joined by FLOCERT, the global certification body for Fairtrade labelled products, Northdoc, a GP out of hour’s service in Dublin, and now AUARA.

International applications are unavoidably more complex than applications from UK businesses, as we are unable to perform the usual verification actions involved in assessing applicants’ eligibility. Having said that, from our experience of assessing and accrediting the above organisations, we now have a tried and tested international assessment process that we are confident can be applied anywhere in the world.

It seems that the UK is considered something of a pioneer of social enterprise, and we at Social Enterprise Mark CIC are the world pioneers of social enterprise accreditation. As such, we are experiencing increasing demand from countries around the world wanting to learn about the UK experience, and, in particular, our experience of setting up an accreditation system for social enterprise.

Following a consultancy project with the Russian Foundation, Fund British Councilour Future, in 2015, which has led to more than 30 Russian social enterprises now holding their Social Enterprise Mark, we completed a similar piece of work for the British Council in China this year, advising on the development of a Chinese social enterprise accreditation system.

As a global champion of standards for social enterprise, and the body responsible for the only internationally available social enterprise accreditation, we are excited by these developments, and are proud to play a continuing role in influencing the destiny of social enterprise on a global scale.

Obviously, this growing interest in accreditation stems from an increased global awareness of the social enterprise business model and how it can play an important part in driving sustainable economic and social development. I was recently reminded of the 2015 ‘Think Global, Trade Social’ report from British Council and Social Enterprise UK, which made the case for the role social enterprise can play in addressing social and environmental challenges. In this report, it was particularly interesting to see a challenge to the common criticism of social enterprise – that it is too small and niche to make a significant difference at a national or global scale – a misconception that I have often
sought to correct.

Scale of social enterprise

Global scale of social enterprise

As highlighted in the report, there is considerable evidence that social enterprise contributes significantly to economic development – for example, the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce reports that “Social sector organisations already account for more than 5% of GDP in several countries, including Canada, Germany, the UK and the US”.

The challenge is to raise the profile of social enterprise as a mainstream business model, and not just in the UK but on a global scale – this is something that we continually strive to achieve through our international work. Through our international consultancy services, we aim to support other countries to encourage the development of social enterprise and influence the conditions in which it can flourish.

A comment from our 2015 stakeholder survey jumped out at me – “(SEMCIC) needs to push the international dimension more – be the global centre of social enterprise.” It occurred to me then that we could better promote the international aspect of our work, not just by attracting more international applicants, but by championing the global standard for social enterprise through consultancy for our global counterparts.

I think we have made significant progress with this over the last year – both Richard and I have travelled to Asia (China and Taiwan respectively) to share our experience of setting up a social enterprise accreditation scheme, and we have had several other countries express an interest in our consultancy services. We have also doubled our network of international Mark holders, and have another in the pipeline, which we hope to announce soon!

Please click here to find out more about our work as a global champion of social enterprise.

Tags: international social enterprise accreditation, Lucy Findlay, Social Enterprise, Social Enterprise Mark
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Share on Vk
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
https://www.socialenterprisemark.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Lucy-global.jpg 545 476 Sophie Short https://www.socialenterprisemark.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/SEMCIC-logo-300x143.jpg Sophie Short2016-09-05 08:31:252016-09-05 08:31:25Championing social enterprise on a global scale
You might also like
Lucy Findlay Profiteering from the sick and dying…chapter 2
Social Enterprise NatWest SE100 Business Awards 2016/17
Liverpool Social Economy Panel welcomes Minister for Civil Society
Global champion of standards for social enterprise Expanding our international network of social enterprises
Student Satisfaction at Social Enterprise Universities
Response to Big Lottery Fund Consultation
WISE100 launch Lucy Findlay named among top women in social enterprise
WISE100 launch Roots HR launch free HR advice line for NCVO members

Quick Links

  • What is the Aspiring Social Enterprise accreditation?
  • What is the Social Enterprise Mark?
  • What is the Social Enterprise Gold Mark?
  • What is the Social Enterprise Disability Employment Mark?
  • Register your interest
  • Key benefits of accreditation
  • Resources
  • Find a social enterprise
  • News and events
  • Contact us
  • Privacy policy
  • Certification Panel forum

About us

Social Enterprise Mark CIC is the social enterprise accreditation authority, which provides clear standards to assure the business model remains ethical, credible and commercial.

Accreditations/Awards

Living Wage Employer
SE100 finalist badge
1000 Green Businesses

Partners/Members of


Enhance SE member badge
Social Value UK
UKSSD
CSR Accreditation
Tweets by SE_Mark



Social Enterprise Mark
SE100 WISE100

Social Audit Network
Good Market
tiscreport

Newsletters

January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020

Sign up for our newsletter

Upcoming events

  1. Environment Talks: How Your Pounds Can Protect Our Planet

    January 28 @ 17:30 - 18:30

View All Events





Disability Confident Employer

Social Enterprise Futures Roll of Honour Venus Awards
IoD SW Awards
IoD SW Awards






Wellbeing Economy Alliance

Gender Equality Collective

NIBE
© Social Enterprise Mark CIC 2019. All rights reserved. - Enfold Child Theme by Kriesi
  • LinkedIn
  • Youtube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Expanding our international network of social enterprises Global champion of standards for social enterprise Growing consumer appetite for brands with social purpose

We use certain approved third parties for functional, analytical and tracking cookies (or similar technologies) in order to provide you with the best possible experience.

 

By clicking accept, or by continuing to use our site, you agree to our Privacy Policy. You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Change Location
Find awesome listings near you!
Social Enterprise Mark CIC
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

Scroll to top