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For the last Catalyst workshop of 2022 we spent 2 hours putting the world to rights with a fantastic group of social entrepreneurs.
We heard from partner Yasmin Waljee on her takeaways from COP26 and the need for a just transition. A just transition needs that recognises that 759m people still lack access to electricity. According to a 2020 report by the consultancy McKinsey, the average person in Mali uses less electricity in an entire year than a Londoner consumes just to boil their kettle. Engaging with communities and collaboration at a grass roots level is key and social entrepreneurs have an important role to play.
We also discussed our project with the Better Business Act campaign, a campaign to update s172 Companies Act 2006 to expand directors duties to support holistic decision making, taking into account all stakeholder considerations rather than just shareholder profit.
We then broke out into the advisory sessions so that small teams of volunteer lawyers were able to speak directly to a specific social entrepreneur in order to talk through any legal challenges. Lawyers from Hogan Lovells worked alongside volunteers from HSBC, Lloyds, Standard Chartered and Anglo American. They were joined by 6 social innovators tackling entrenched global issues such as biodiversity loss and racial discrimination. The social enterprises were:
Bright Tide: works with businesses to mobilise their power to address climate challenges, empowering employees to generate new solutions;
World Afro Day: has created a global awareness day of change, education and celebration of Afro Hair and identity;
Cocoon Kids: is a Community Interest Company which provides mental health support to children;
Feed Me Good: a health and wellbeing Community Interest Company which works with the housing and education sector, charities, National Lottery, and corporates to deliver bespoke health and wellbeing services;
Telescope Training Ltd: delivers training programmes and bespoke workshops to government departments and charities across different sectors;
Appt Health: works to make preventive healthcare more accessible for the public and more sustainable for NHS GP practices.