If you know GiGL, you probably know us as the go-to source for environmental data in London. You’ve likely engaged with us to share records, used our data holdings on green spaces, wildlife, and habitats, or seen our insights informing local planning decisions and conservation efforts. But what you might not know is that GiGL isn’t just a data provider – we’re a social enterprise!
Being a social enterprise is at the heart of how we operate and why we do what we do. It shapes our values, our business model, and the impact we have on London’s environment and communities. So, what does that actually mean? Let’s take a closer look at how GiGL’s status as a social enterprise sets us apart and why it matters.
GiGL is registered and certified with Social Enterprise UK, and has also been a community interest company since 2013. By operating under both of these structures, it further reinforces GiGL’s commitment to benefiting the community. In 2023, GiGL also received accreditation from Good Market and was verified as a People and Planet First social enterprise by Social Enterprise World Forum, to demonstrate we meet good practice standards as a social enterprise.
What it means to be a social enterprise
A social enterprise is a business with a social or environmental mission at its core. Unlike traditional businesses that focus on maximising profits for shareholders, social enterprises reinvest or donate at least 50% of their profits to further their mission.
For GiGL, this means that the profit we make is channelled into improving the quality of our data, developing new tools and services, and offering free services to the community to ensure they can access the information they need to understand, protect or enhance their local environment.
Social enterprises are part of a growing movement in the UK and they’re having a big impact:
- Social enterprises generate over £60 billion in GDP annually.
- GiGL is part of a nationwide network of 131,000 social enterprises that are changing the way business works – putting people and planet before profit.
- They provide employment for 2.3 million people.
In other words, GiGL isn’t just delivering data, we’re using business as a force for good!
How GiGL delivers social impact
Our stakeholders work with us for a range of reasons, from complying with relevant legislation, policy and guidance, through to improving their physical and mental health. Our work benefits the natural environment as well as everyone that lives in or visits Greater London. We invest our profits into enhancing data stewardship and developing our services to provide access to data, information, and advisory services that help our stakeholders make informed decisions.
Our social impact can be direct, for example by enabling our community and professional networks to factor nature into their decisions and activities, or indirect, for example through the positive impact that same work by our networks has on their own stakeholders.
We have numerous examples of how we deliver social impact, and we’ll explore this aspect of GiGL’s work in more detail in an upcoming article.
Our social impact wouldn’t be possible without the support and collaboration from our professional and community networks, as well as our dedicated team of nature and data enthusiasts who work hard to cater to our stakeholders’ needs. Get in touch to find out how GiGL’s data and expertise can support your work – and help you support the community too!
