Age Concern Enterprises (Scotland) makes the mark with ethical business award
04 February 2010
Age Concern Enterprises (Scotland) Ltd has joined an elite group of Scottish businesses to be awarded the Social Enterprise Mark, which identifies them as trading for social and environmental purposes.
The Social Enterprise Mark was officially launched nationally on February 1 at the Social Enterprise Coalition's national conference in Cardiff, Wales. The Mark identifies businesses which meet defined criteria for social enterprise and consumers will recognise those businesses displaying the Mark as trading for the benefit of people and the planet.
Social enterprises are working to make a difference across the UK and beyond but not enough people know what they are or how they work. The Social Enterprise Mark aims to raise the profile of social enterprises, help bring the sector together and provide recognition for individual organisations and the contribution they make both to individuals and society.
Age Concern Scotland and Help the Aged in Scotland joined together to form a single new charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people in Scotland to be known as Age Scotland. Its enterprise arm offers a range of products and services tailored specifically for over 50s including energy services, home and travel insurance as well as other services such as funeral plans. All profits from these services are gift-aided to the charity in Scotland.
Logan Steele (left), General Manager of Age Concern Enterprises (Scotland) Limited said, "We're over the moon to be one of the very few organisations in Scotland to have been awarded the Social Enterprise Mark. This will hopefully make more of the public aware of the wider social benefits that our products and services offer.
"Age Concern Enterprises doesn't just offer the right products and services, designed specifically with the needs of people in later life in mind, at the right price; it also ploughs back any profits into supporting the Charity's activities at local, regional and national levels, thus facilitating its work towards a Scotland in which people in later life flourish as valued and equal citizens."
Age Concern Enterprises (Scotland) Ltd, joins other Scottish mark holders such The Wise Group, Recycle Fife and, in England, the Eden Project and the Co-operative Group South & West.
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