“The crafting world is full of the idea that more is better. We want to change that, showing that higher quality is better, preloved is better, re used and repaired is better” (Jan, co owner of The Snail of Happiness)…
Read More The Snail of Happiness: Circular Crafting and Community Wellbeing in Rural Wales
“The only way to be successful for the long haul is by doing business in a way that considers the needs of all our partpners – our customers, our squad, our communities and, of course, our environment” (Butternut Box). Butternut…
The magnificent Cutlers' Hall in Sheffield provided a deeply symbolic backdrop for sharing our Harmonious Entrepreneurship research. This grand Victorian building, home to the Company of Cutlers since 1832, tells its own story of business evolution and social and environmental…
Read More Cutting Through Convention: Welsh Harmonious Enterprises Challenge Business Inequality
“Our ambition is to create a world where the value of a company is measured by the good that it does, as much as the profit it makes”. (Will and Nick, Co-founders of Ocean Bottle). Ocean Bottle is a business…
Read More Ocean Bottle: Tackling Ocean Plastic and Empowering Coastal Communities
“We believe that planet, people and profit are all equal when it comes to how we run our business” - Coaltown Coffee The former mining town of Ammanford in South Wales, population circa 5500, is probably the last place in…
Read More Grounds for Success: Coaltown Coffee’s Journey from Garage to Global
“I started Beauty Kitchen to use business as a force for good with an equal weighting on the community, the environment and profit in every decision we make” (Jo-Anne Chidley) In 1995 Jo-Anne Chidley, the co-founder of Beauty Kitchen, graduated…
Read More Beauty with Purpose: Beauty Kitchen & Reposit Leading the Way in Sustainable Skincare
“In our everyday deliberations, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations” (The Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy). Seventh Generation is an American Company that sells eco-friendly cleaning, paper and personal care products. It was…
Read More Seventh Generation: Leading Sustainability and Innovation with Biobased Stain Fighters
“The very people growing rice are the ones left behind by the industry and society" (Lincoln Lee) It is not just in the rice production sector that the planet and its people are exploited. In the drive to make as…
Read More Rice Inc: Empowering Farmers, Transforming the Rice Industry
“We don’t always want to be about the bottom line" - George Bennell Founded in 1991 as The Fresh Olive Company, Belazu, a Chef-grade Ingredient company, is the brainchild of two lifelong school friends, George Bennell and Adam Wells. On…
Read More The Belazu Ingredient Company: Where Passion Meets Purpose
“One person can’t change the world but together we can all make our own tiny difference” (Rachel Watkyn). Rachel Watkyn OBE is a Business Studies graduate of De Montfort University in the UK, a serial entrepreneur, and one of the…
As a modern business, it is our duty to stand for more than just profit...We're dedicated to helping people, protecting the planet and working together - Greggs. Greggs is a national UK bakery retail business that had, in 2023, a…
Read More Sausage rolls and social goals – Greggs Winning Hearts
Our mission is to help local communities to discover their own natural and cultural heritage treasures…put them into action using sustainable tourism practices in order to gain financial and psychological benefits - Ahmed Yehia The small River Nile island of…
Read More Sustainable Revival: Eco Nubia’s Cultural Renaissance
Sustainability is about the balance of looking after ourselves, our planet and each other – wherever possible, minimising harm and leaving the world and its people in a better position than I found them - Amber Jones Amber Jones is…
“I wanted people to have a safe space where they could come and tell stories and where they could integrate into the wider community’ - Reynette Roberts Oasis Cardiff aims to facilitate the integration of refugees and asylum seekers into…
Read More Oasis Cardiff: Championing Entrepreneurial Spirit for Refugees in Wales
#IWD24 ##InspireInclusion “Business can and does give back and it only takes one small gesture, like offering someone a job, to make such a massive difference” - Donna Griffiths, Business Development Manager, Bouygues UK International Women's Day is a chance…
Read More Refuge to Revolution: Thrive Group Wales Empowering Women with Enterprise
“I knew my startup idea couldn’t just be another commercial money spinning operation…It also had to in some way help people and also a cause that was far bigger than me” (Deepak Ravindran) In 2016, Deepak Ravindran, an MBA graduate,…
We pour our heart and soul into our work and believe that the greatest achievements are driven by Passion. - Donna Turner-Not, n-ergy I am immensely proud of our caring, inclusive culture, where we set the highest standards and expectations…
Read More n-ergy’s Impact: Education, Peace, and Reintegration
"Innovation and sustainability aren’t just about what we create, but how we create, and who gets to participate in the process." - Sarah and Julia, Co-founders of The Sustainable Studio In Cardiff, a transformative force is reshaping the creative landscape,…
Read More The Sustainable Studio: Empowering Creative Enterprise and Advancing SDG 16
“The business of business should not just be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not personal greed” (Dame Anita Roddick). Possibly the first example of a modern harmonious retail enterprise, The Body Shop…
Read More A Pioneer’s Rise and Ethical Dilemma: A Cautionary Tale of The Body Shop
“The world needs new models of agriculture: farms that are of course productive but also sustainable for many centuries to come; that are resilient—able to adjust to climate change, that are people-friendly, offering plenty of good jobs and supporting local…
Read More Cultivating the Future: Kindling Farm’s Vision for Sustainable, Community-Led Agriculture
“Access to safe water is a human right which almost a third of the planet is being denied. But cleaning polluted waterways requires energy, and we must ensure that our efforts to heal the planet don’t inadvertently create new harm"…
Read More Aquacycl’s Vision: Pioneering the Transformation of Water Treatment
bubbles: Sebastian Sørensen Porth is a town of some 6,000 people located in the Rhonda Valley, the former coal mining region of South Wales. In 1897, two local grocers, William Evans and William Thomas, opened a factory, the Welsh Hills…
“I promise to keep sustainability as a key part of our business strategy and to continually promote sustainability to our members, our partners, and our hoteliers. Through these means and through our future innovations, I think it is vital for…
Read More Sustainable Suitehearts: Mr & Mrs Smith Craft Luxury Hotels with a Conscience
“We’re surrounded by the systems of the natural world that, when left untouched, know exactly how to self-balance, self-regulate, self-cleanse and restore harmony” - 1st Hotels American billionaire Barry Sternlicht graduated in 1982 from Brown University and obtained an MBA from Harvard…
Read More From Wall Street to Green Street: The Evolution of 1st Hotels
“Our business is based on solid values: great products with good design, made ethically and sustainably without doing harm to others or our planet” - Lisa and Philip Ingram LittleLeaf Organic Cotton). Lisa Ingram has a DPhil, four young adult…
"At Bee1, we believe that the most sustainable solutions arise at the intersection of education, innovation, and social responsibility." - Bee1 Mark Douglas, former Director of NatWest Bank across Wales and the Chairman/Founder of NatWest Cymru, transitioned from shaping a…
Read More Bee1’s Trailblazing Path Fostering Climate Awareness in School
“We need to be more responsible about the environment, the economy, the people. Because now more than ever it is more than a necessity it is an emergency” - Dr.Carmen Hijosa In India, Fleather, a leather substitute, is being made…
I’m always intrigued by how creative the people are. When I go home and try to come up with my own designs, I can’t come even close. - Manar Moursi There are an estimated 20 million palm trees in Egypt.…
Read More Baladi Home and Studio Meem: promoting artisan entrepreneurship in Egypt
“You look at things you enjoy in your life, but much more important is what you can do to make the world a better place” - Paul Allen, 1953-2018 Located on a 2,000-metre-high ridge overlooking the Masai Mara national game…
“I always work with as many local producers as I can to source local, seasonal and organic produce. I am proud to call these suppliers my friends and love the opportunity to create exciting dishes with them” - Deri Reed…
Read More Deri Reed’s Culinary Journey for Community and Planet
"Having the mindset, ambition and motivation to be an entrepreneur is a gift, and it's important that gift is used in the right way" - Jacob Hill Jacob Hill, an award-winning serial entrepreneur and ex-offender, founded Offploy CIC in 2016.…
Read More Offploy CIC: Empowering Ex-Offenders for Better Futures
“I used to channel my energies into the wrong things. I was successful but now I know that if I had channelled my energies into something positive I could have succeeded there too”. (Cooper an ex-offender and Tap Social employee)…
Read More Tap Social: Brewing Change Through Beer, Baking & Second Chances
“The sustainable equilibrium of our planet is facing huge challenges. But at The Wellbeing Farm, we are working to create a solution, and to make our green story even greener”. (Celia Gaze) Who would have thought a wedding and corporate…
“We need a future for cocoa farming which is sustainable- not just for chocolate companies and chocolate lovers but for the people growing the crop” (Sophi Tranchell, MBE, Group CEO Divine Chocolate UK, 1999-2020) Each year, some $100 billion is…
image compiled from images from @ Phool.co FB “Sustainability goes across everything I do….For example, there’s no leather; it’s free from PVC. There are lots of woven materials, which means a lot less waste” (Stella McCartney, fashion designer). The global…
Read More Phool and Fleather: India’s transformative biomaterial company
In 2021, 30-year-old Vidyut Mohar, an India Engineering entrepreneur and Sustainability graduate of the Delft University of Technology, won the inaugural Earthshot prize with his business partner, Dr Kevin Kung, a biological engineering graduate of MIT. In 2015, they had…
“If everybody in the world consumed resources at the rate we do in the UK, we would need 3.5 planets to sustain us” This was the realisation that prompted three friends, Emma Shaw, Rebecca Trevalyan, and Sophia Wyatt to start…
“Beautiful things happen when you distance yourself from negativity” (Karina Sudenyte) Mother of twins, 22 year old Karina Sudenyte and her husband Maciek Kacprzyk were students at the University of South Wales in Cardiff when they set up “Get Wonky”…
“Every time I see an adult on a bicycle I no longer despair for the future of the human race” - H.G. Wells, 1866-1946 XO Bikes is not a business with a purpose it is a purpose with a business.…
"The problem is much worse than we think. We have to wake up" - Dr. Monika van den Bos Verma of Wageningen University, Netherlands Food waste is one of the major global sustainability problems. According to the UN Food and…
“Sustainability has 3 pillars – social justice, economic development and environmental protection – we are trying to contribute to each of these” - Vidhi Singhal Having read a report that a plastic bag had been found in the ocean at…
At a time when global food prices are rising higher and faster than at any time in the last decade, an estimated 1.6 billion tonnes of food is wasted each year. About one-third of the food produced globally contributes some 8…
“The best way to help a community is to give it the faith and knowledge to help itself” - New Scientist, 2nd August, 1962 Rosario, estimated population 1.7 million, is located 300kms (186 miles) North West of Buenos Aires, Argentina.…
Read More Rosario Garden Project: urban regeneration seeds hope
The world can be extremely cruel. While the planet is home to some 7.9 billion people, it can also cause considerable human suffering as can the human population itself. Not only do natural disasters bring suffering but so does man’s…
wastes pic: Bath.ac.uk While research is intended to identify solutions to problems, laboratory-based research can also contribute to them, in particular to the current sustainability challenge. Annually some 5.5 million tonnes of single-use plastic is produced by life sciences research…
Read More LabCycle – revolutionising the recycling of Laboratory Plastic Waste
“I would encourage every person, from every age, every colour, religion, gender, location to ask themselves ‘why you are here? Why do you exist?’ It is so important to know the answer to that question”. (Luke Young) Luke’s answer to…
Read More Ocean Ag startup ALORA unveils ‘the most salt-tolerant terrestrial plants on the planet’
Nuddy isn’t just a word, it’s a feeling. To feel free + vulnerable, yet empowered. Not just when you’re ‘in the nuddy’, but all day, everyday - Nuddy Nuddy is a female-led startup. It was founded in July 2018 by…
In 2013 Oxford languages graduate Aron Gelbard and Ben Stanway, a University of Bath Business Administration graduate, opened Bloom & Wild, an innovative online flower delivery business that sources flowers from the growers. By 2021, with sales of around £200…
"We believe the closer people are to nature, the more they will protect it" - Vivobarefoot Founded in 2012, Vivobarefoot is an innovative London-based shoe company whose pedigree dates back almost 200 years. In 1825 in the village of Street in…
“We care deeply about our people, our customers and our planet” (Baukjen de Swaan Arons). The House of Baukjen is a family-run women’s slow fashion business located in North West London. It comprises two branches, the core brand, Baukjen, and their…
"I want to see people feeling that they're proud of working for [Burns Pet Nutrition Ltd] and [for them to] put that bit extra in, in terms of the activities we're engaged in" - John Burns In the heart of rural…
“Young entrepreneurs and innovators are working hard to create a low carbon energy market” - Jeremiah Thoronka Mankind needs an alternative to fossil fuels. Solar, wind and water-generated energy are all possibilities, but with the present technology, they can be…
Humanity is the washerwoman of our society that wrings out its laundry in tears - Karl Klaus, 1874-1936 The handwashing of clothes is a simple but time-consuming and energy-sapping task that has been a significant source of invention for centuries.…
Kay Luan Tay, the recent Vice Chancellor of the International University Malaya-Wales and author of three book on Social and Business Sustainability has wide but unique experience in managing and delivering value across both commercial and non-commercial enterprise. A strong…
Read More GEW2021 interview: the mind behind the investing in others for sustainable futures
image credit: girl: I.am_nah Another Wales-based case study to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship 2021 #GEW2021 “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free”. ( Abraham Lincoln 1809-1865) While slavery was abolished in most countries 150 or more…
Read More Welsh Manumit Coffee Roasters – freedom through coffee
Bev is an experienced practitioner in enterprise, social enterprise, gender equality and rural development/community. She has been and continues to be instrumental in ensuring that the role of women in Wales is consistently enhanced and progressed. As a special GEW2021 deep-dive,…
Read More GEW2021 interview: the mind behind Women in Enterprise in Wales
The extraction of oil, coal, and minerals brought, and still brings, a cost to the environment -- Irish singer/songwriter, Bono, 1960 A HES case study based in Wales to celebrate #GEW2021. Wales, often referred to as “the land of song”…
The tragic scenes of refugees fleeing from war-torn Afghanistan bring home, all too vividly, the plight of the “barefoot entrepreneurs” – those people who live ”primarily in marginal, poor and excluded places and contexts” (Imas et al. 2012). While the problem is…
Antur Cymru (Welsh Adventure) is a social enterprise providing support for businesses in Wales. Owned by shareholders in the community who do not profit individually from their investment, they have agreed surpluses should be reinvested in the company. It was…
Read More “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world” (Margaret Mead)
Empowering women to work and have more freedom in how they dress is the aim of “Modest Trends”, a Cardiff-based clothing business stocking fashionable lines intended for generation M Muslim women, aged 16-35, who want to dress fashionably but in accordance…
Since Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020, The Harmonious Entrepreneurship Society has posted case examples of systemic, harmonious enterprises that have focused not just on “ making as much money as possible” (Friedman, 1970) but on Elkington’s (2004) Triple Bottom Line of Profit-People-Planet. Each…
Read More Harmony makes small things grow, lack of it makes great things decay (Sallust, 86-35BC)
Originating in the 16th century, but not becoming commonplace until after William Murdoch’s invention of the gaslight in 1802, street lights are now regarded as an essential feature of modern living. Not only do they aid security but they contribute…
Read More “May it be a light to you in dark places when all other lights go out” (J.R.R. Tolkein)
WaterLight (E-Dina) According to SDG 7, by 2030 the aim is to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”. The problem is that in 2021, only 9 years away, some 940 million people (13% of the…
For two student entrepreneurs, Josh Shefner and Claire Friona, long-established idioms are a living reality. Both are students of Engineering at Milwaukee School of Engineering, and both are passionate about poverty elimination and the eradication of waste. They are also…
Read More “Waste not want not” (1772, idiom) or “wilful waste makes woeful want” (1576, idom)
Outside of Wales few people know of Karen Davies but in South Wales, she does what Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank do in Bangladesh. Through her not-for-profit microfinance social enterprise, “Purple Shoots”, which she established in…
The trend to Fast Fashion, particularly among young people, is having a significant negative impact on the planet. While most of the garments produced are sourced internationally, particularly from low-income countries, and may appear, therefore, to be addressing SDG goals…
In the mid 19th century the Harmonious Entrepreneur Sir Titus Salt built Saltaire, a Yorkshire industrial village that is now a UNESCO world heritage site (harmonious-entrepreneurship.org). 166 years later, in 2016, Saltaire produced another harmonious enterprise. Dr Jackie Mulligan, a…
Located in the lush valley of the river Cych in rural mid-Wales, Caws Cenarth is one of the most renowned artisan cheese producers in the UK. Like so much entrepreneurship its origins were founded in adversity. In 1984, the European…
Globally tourism accounts for 10.3 per cent of GDP and some 330 million jobs. Thus, it contributes significantly to income generation and job creation and is set to grow further. Traditionally, however, it has not been eco-friendly. Apart from the…
Read More Harmonious Entrepreneurship and the Tourism Industry
Saltaire The concept of harmonious entrepreneurship is perhaps not entirely new. Possibly one of the earliest proponents of it is the industrial entrepreneur Sir Titus Salt (1803-1876) who, in 1851, built Saltaire, now a UNESCO World Heritage site in the…
Read More Saltaire, a 19th century manifestation of Harmonious Entrepreneurship?
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