Last year I was asked to be a guest speaker at the launch of a Leicestershire-based charity, Giving World Online, who put businesses in the UK in touch with charities who can take their unwanted business surplus stock or equipment and redistribute it to those in need. The charity has been a fantastic success and the founders Rama and Sujata have just been given the Leicestershire Woman in the Community Award at the Leicestershire Women of Achievement Awards 2009 – well done Rama and Sujata! It was great to meet everyone and I was thrilled to be able to speak there and talk about how businesses can be more ethical in the products they well and how recycling can keep business waste out of landfill. It’s the first time I’ve spoken in front of so many people so I was a bit wobbly at first, but hopefully this video will interest you if you want to know about green business, or recycling!

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I’m very excited to announce that I’ve been asked to speak about sustainability and recycling at the launch event on the 2nd December in Leicester for a new charity website called GivingWorld organised by Konnect9. “Our new project www.givingworldonline.com will reach a UK wide audience; have a national impact on people in need; and has the potential to prevent thousands of tons going to landfill, whilst also ensuring the long term sustainability of our work through onsite corporate sponsorship and advertising”. Givingworld plans to put small businesses as well as large corporations in touch with charity at the touch of a button, so that new and nearly new products can be saved from landfill and given to people who really need them, for example. They plan to extend the project internationally.

Konnect9 have done some fantastic work helping underprivileged people in the UK and worldwide by saving items businesses would otherwise have sent to landfill. In 2007 they redistributed over £500,000 worth of business surplus, reaching out to many thousands of needy people and representing a staggering 70 tons of goods avoiding landfill.

They provided

• access to literacy and educational aids for disadvantaged children and disaffected young people with the provision of books, stationery and refurbished computers
• warmth to the homeless and elderly through the provision of clothing and blankets
• much-needed home comforts for women and children fleeing domestic violence through the provision of toys, clothes and furniture
• overseas aid to areas of Africa, India, and Eastern Europe; this support includes the provision of medical disposables and equipment which have saved lives.

I am very excited to be supporting this very deserving charity and will post news and photos to you about it on the blog.

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