Good Green Fun
An environmentally responsible CIC helping local families to recycle and purchase affordable children’s items.
Good Green Fun is a great example of a local organisation with a positive local impact – it aims to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill in the Forth Valley area every year by providing the means to reuse and recycle second hand children’s items such as toys, clothes, books, buggies and cots. These items are sold at affordable prices through an outlet in central Stirling, giving, for example, lower income families the opportunity to better support their children’s development and also enabling other families to help the environment by reducing wastage of resources. Any profits that are not needed to cover the costs of running and developing the organisation are donated to local children’s charities.
“All donated items we receive are thoroughly checked and cleaned in accordance with Trading Standards guidelines before making their way to the shop floor,” says Lucie Southern, Good Green Fun’s managing director. It’s through the reselling of these items – anything from prams, cots, toys, clothes, books and much more – that Good Green Fun has diverted 87.8 tonnes of waste from landfill since opening. “We aim to divert waste from landfill and provide a low cost source of children’s items, helping local families to support themselves.”
“The organisation started out as a CIC from day one,” says Southern. “We felt that we would have more control over the day to day running of the business and a lot less red tape – no board of trustees to check every decision. I also needed to pay myself a small wage and that wouldn’t have been possible as a registered charity. On top of that, the local community feels good donating to us, knowing that we donate any excess profit to charities, spreading the profits around local causes, which wouldn’t happen if we were a private company – we wouldn’t win that trust.”
Southern is proud that Good Green Fun is now a sustainable company that is showing healthy growth. “We no longer need grants,” she says. “We’ve become self-sufficient quite quickly. We’re secure, self-sustaining and here for the community.”
And Good Green Fun’s plans for the next five years? “To keep doing what we’ve been doing!” Southern says with a laugh. “It’s to keep our head above the water and to just keep growing organically so we can create more local jobs and voluntary positions, and perhaps move into a bigger premises.
| Name | Good Green Fun |
| Location | Sterling, Scotland |
| Company structure | CIC limited by guarantee |
| Founded | March 2007 |
| Community interest statement | To reduce the number of children’s items going into landfill in the Forth Valley area, whilst providing the local community with an affordable source of good quality, second hand children’s toys, clothes and equipment. |
Find out more about Good Green Fun