BUY SOCIAL CANADA – WHAT IS IT?

jacob Stories

Reposted from Common Good Solutions

In April 2015, Common Good Solutions, with Accelerating Social Enterprise CCC Ltd., Open Door Ventures and Realize Co-op launched Buy Social Canada, a marketing brand to help buyers to identify legitimate social enterprises and social purpose businesses and accordingly make purchases that benefit our local communities.  Read on for more info about social purchasing, and how you can get involved in Buy Social.

What is Social Purchasing?

Social purchasing is simply adding a social value to your current purchasing. Social purchasing doesn’t sacrifice competitive pricing or quality products and services; it enhances purchasing by adding a social value as well.

Social purchasing happens whenever we leverage a social value with our purchasing, whether that is by buying local, assuring living wages, or purchasing from fair trade suppliers, ethical supply chains and other similar models.

Besides getting your needed products or services, buying from a social enterprise can create employment opportunities for youth, jobs for persons with barriers, provide community inclusion for isolated community members, promote cultural diversity, meet environmental challenges, respond to health or education needs, and much more.

Social enterprises are also addressing a spectrum of social issues. Scan some of the stories from the last year here

Buy Social Canada

Buy Social Canada focuses on purchasing from social enterprises as the path to creating social value.

To facilitate and enable the potential opportunities of social purchasing, we are launching Buy Social Canada. The Buy Social program has two key purposes:

  • Encourage social value purchasing across the community, private and public sectors; and
  • Provide an external social enterprise certification program.

Buy Social was originally launched by Social Enterprise UK in 2013. Our Canadian affiliated program was initiated in 2014, and was officially launched across Canada on April 23, 2015 at the Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise.

Shop Buy Social Canada

Social enterprises are filling every kind of business need — from manufacturing to retail, home repairs, business services, couriers, caterers, cleaners, builders, recyclers and more. Take a look at some examples here

Get Certified!

Get certified today!  The application process for both buyers and suppliers is simple and, for a limited time, the first 100 suppliers who sign up in Atlantic Canada are for free. Sign up on http://buysocialcanada.ca