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se2 partnership - social enterprise south east

Real-Health Ventures

Real-Health Ventures...

• An integrated approach to museum, gardens, visitor attraction and conference venue.

• A living example of sustainability.

• Helping to transform a whole area through shared values and commercial success, in partnership with parish and district councils.

There can be few places more attuned to the concept of 'real health' than St Margaret's Bay, an idyllic corner of Kent nestled atop white cliffs overlooking the sea far below. There you will find the organically run six-acre Pines Garden, St Margaret's Museum, the Garden Cafe and the unique ecological conference centre Pines Calyx ('calyx ' refers to its protective, nurturing qualities). The underlying theme throughout is the exploration of old and new models for sustainable land management and sustainable living in general.

pines_calyx_exterior

Pines Calyx exterior

Real-Health Ventures is a social enterprise that supports the work of the Pines Calyx. Established in April 2006 as a Company Limited by Guarantee, its mission is to espouse the principles of what it calls 'real-health' for social and community benefits - recycling and ploughing back any profits that are made along the way. The ethos is about empowering people to live more natural, healthy and sustainable lives and enabling them to access their true potential. It's about demonstrating to people what can be done at grass-roots level. As founder Dr Nichol Clarke explains, “It's about show and tell”.

Real-Health Ventures is not simply concerned with mind, body and spirit, but also the environment, community and the buildings we live in. This is where the Pines Calyx comes in. Kent's first ecologically sustainable conference and training centre, this iconic building is said to be one of Europe's most 'healthy' structures.

It was built by Helionix Designs for £800,000, with chalk extracted from the site and literally rammed into place to create the walls. Natural ventilation, 'virtual daylight' lighting, a sustainable water management system using reed beds and solar thermal hot water means it needs only about five per cent of a normal building's energy requirements. Set within the beautiful Pines Garden, the Calyx not only acts as an inspirational sustainability reference point for delegates, but nurtures and keeps them healthy while they are working too. It is testament to the building's success that it has won five major awards including a 'Green Oscar' for its near zero-carbon design at the national 2007 Sustainable City awards.

While the project has had no specific financial support from local authorities, key to its success has been collaboration and building partnerships. Initial funding for Real-Health Ventures came from the Phoenix Fund and BIGinvest, part of the well-known social enterprise the Big Issue. Income for the Pines Calyx is derived from hiring out the centre for events, conferences and weddings, entrance fees for the Pines Garden and from the Garden Cafe. Plans are well advanced to have 'green' weddings at the Calyx in the future. Eventually, it is hoped to establish the whole of St Margaret's Bay as a model of sustainability and Real-Health Ventures are working closely with the Parish Council, the local community and Dover District Council to help make this a reality.

Real-Health Ventures is values-driven, and everything it does is geared to creating communities that are socially, environmentally and economically sustainable.

Dr Nichol Clarke is passionate and positive when advising anyone considering setting up a social enterprise: “You are unconstrained by other individuals' needs for personal profit. You can concentrate instead on trying to effect change. Operating as a social enterprise means you can engage with people on a different, more productive level, based on shared values. On a personal level, you need to know what gets you out of bed in the morning – motivation must come from the heart. But on a more practical level, any idea for a social enterprise has to make commercial sense. It's better to have a commercially-aware project than rely on hand-outs.” Finally, he advises to stick with it and be persistent: “Go with the flow. Obstacles are opportunities to learn!”