Social Enterprise
Evergreen Brick Works is a social enterprise. Your support—buying plants, paying activity fees or feeding the parking meter—helps us deliver accessible and inclusive community programs that bring nature back to cities.
Operating income will be generated from office space and event rentals; Evergreen Gardens, a mission-driven retail space; a café, summer camps; parking and other revenue-generating activity. At the same time, Evergreen Brick Works will provide a social and environmental return to the community in the form of new programs and services that improve environmental quality and promote health and wellness. As a result we will demonstrate environmental, social and economic sustainability.
In 2001, Evergreen responded to a business plan competition for charities issued by Bill Young, President of Social Capital Partners. Bill Young was asking charities to think of new and unique ways to deliver their mission that could involve revenue generation to help cover the costs of the program.
The competition inspired Evergreen board and staff to develop plans for a native plant nursery – a retail facility selling native plants and offering educational programs on ecological gardening to the general public. That idea evolved to become the more fully developed plan for Evergreen Brick Works that we see today.
For more information on social enterprise, visit these websites:
Social Capital Partners
Enterprising Non-profits
B.C. Centre for Social Enterprise
