How did you develop a 'social' view of society?

I think I’ve always had this attitude. I’ve always been interested in social and environmental issues and in history and politics.

How did that lead into the position you're in now?

When I left the University of Manchester in 1977 with a degree in town and country planning, I only knew one thing for sure – I didn’t want to be a town planner. My main interest was in politics and I didn’t want to work for a commercial organisation, so I joined the civil service.

I was bored to tears, so after nine months I left to help set up the Student Community Action Resources Programme (SCARP), a project supporting student organisations working to involve students in community action and voluntary work.

SCARP went bust after a couple of years, but by then I knew I wanted to work in the voluntary sector. Eventually I took a job as the first, and at the time (1980) only, employee of what became Ealing Community Transport (ECT).

How does your business work?

Initially we thought that accessible passenger transport services would be the main area of growth, but in 1986, ECT won its first community wide contract, recycling collections in the London Borough of Hounslow, thus demonstrating the viability of all three aspects of our strategy: diversification, bidding for contracts, not grants; working outside of Ealing; and, looking at new areas of activity.

From there we’ve gone on to build a £50M turnover business through contract wins, acquisitions and further diversification.

We apply triple bottom line business objectives to a variety of activities. Recycling and waste is the largest part of the organisation, with around 85% of the turnover.

The greater part of our revenues is contract payments from local authorities and other public agencies, but the sale of recyclable material – principally paper, glass and cans is also a significant source of income.

What are your ambitions for the future?

To be bigger and better. One of the most straightforward and useful descriptions of social enterprise can be found on the FRC Group web site, it’s a quote from one of their drivers who, when asked to describe the organisation said “We do good things”. We do good things too, and if this is the case, the more we do, the more good we do, so we have a responsibility to develop the scale and range of our organisation to deliver more on our social and environmental objectives.

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

I had two ambitions: I wanted to be a civil engineer – Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a childhood hero of mine. But I also wanted to be a military officer, which clashed with my political views at the time. Despite that, I seriously considered joining the navy with a view to becoming a helicopter pilot, but ECT came along first.

What kind of person makes a good social entrepreneur?

It’s a difficult question because the term ‘social entrepreneur’ covers such a range of people – just look at the ambassadors for example. Everyone cares about social and environmental issues, but the most important thing is that you really have to want to do something about them.

That means you have to enjoy the process of developing ideas and delivering real results in the material world. I think social entrepreneurs are practical, can do, optimistic sorts of people – they always look on the upside, I certainly always do.

What other social entrepreneurs/businesses do you admire and why?

Iain Tuckett and Coin Street are usually top of my list. As a planning student, I remember reading about the campaign to save the Coin Street area for the community that lives there. I think it’s a fantastic achievement to have created a sustainable business that has helped transform the South Bank in such a positive way.

I’ve also got a lot of time for Tim Smit of Eden for similar reasons – it’s the scale of the ambition and the transformational character of enterprises that impresses me.

What advice would you give to budding social entrepreneurs?

Ask yourself “do I really want to do it?”, if you do, get on with it and don’t look down. Try and rise to the challenges and don’t blame other people, the system, lack of support or anything else for not trying. Real social entrepreneurship shouldn’t need government support or special help to succeed, it should achieve its objectives in spite of the obstacles.