Social enterprises account for 5% of all businesses with employees and contribute £8.4 billion per year. They are the new business opportunity and they are worth getting involved with.

As a nation, we care about others and expect companies to do the same, particularly when they are raking in high profits and sharing them between a small number of people.

Traditional businesses are usually pretty savvy - they know that CSR makes sense. It pleases staff and clients, and customers are increasingly holding companies to account on the ethical and social principles. But traditional businesses can do a lot more when it comes to connecting with social businesses.

The social enterprise ambassadors want companies to think and be creative about how they can work with social enterprises on a day-to-day level, as well as offering financial investment or affordable business services, if appropriate.

Banks

A number of mainstream banks, including RBS, Natwest and Co-op are already supporting social enterprises. And, outside of finance, there are also a growing number of partnerships demonstrating how traditional business and social business can work together.

For example, when HSBC moved 8,500 staff to its HQ in Canary Wharf a couple of years ago, it passed its old office furniture – 7,000 desks and workstations - to community re-use company Green-Works.

The equipment could have gone to landfill, but the company managed to avoid contributing to the waste crisis, as well as helping to provide vital furniture for less well-off groups and organisations, in one fell swoop.

Sears has proved to private businesses that social enterprise cuts the mustard.

Joining up

ECT, the transport, recycling and health social enterprise, run by ambassador Stephen Sears, works with private company Aylesford Newsprint. The enterprise passes on good quality used paper from its recycling collections to the company, which turns the material into newspaper.

ECT’s working methods and the fact that it doesn’t have shareholders meant it was able offer a very competitive price, and a high volume of good quality paper. This is because it is a trusted recycling operator, paid by local councils to service a number of areas with separate paper collections.

Employers’ Group

Coin Street Community Builders, a social enterprise involved in regenerating the South Bank in London, has been supported by companies like Shell. The oil giant is a member of the South Bank Employers’ Group and commits staff and financial resources to support specific projects and initiatives in the area.

Start looking at how your business can be more community focused, or work with a social enterprise, at the Business in the Community website.

And to get matched up to social business, you could also contact the Community Action Network at www.can-online.org.

Working with social enterprises is a fantastic way to add diversity and richness to a business, as well as new contacts. It can help companies rocket in the ethical stakes, often creating higher financial and branding returns in the process.