What's the point?

Let's face it, sometimes when you're concentrating on the day to day side of your work it's hard to appreciate the bigger picture. It's in our nature to always try and tick off one more task before stepping back to survey the fruits of our labour.
But when we do these are the things that give us satisfaction:

• We admire the clients we work with and we love the fact that we're helping generate more income so they can continue with their essential work.
• We enjoy connecting creative, alternative and empowering organizations and brands with thousands of ethically-minded readers.
• We aim to do everything we can to lead more positive, sustainable lifestyles, and encourage and support others who are doing the same.

With this in mind, while we've never been wealthy enough to invest as individuals, back in 2015 we decided we could plan to take a chunk of EMSM turnover and invest in schemes that really make a difference. We moved fast, the plan came together and we started investing.

We're adding new investements each year and you can take a look at all the projects listed on this page. Any ideas for future schemes are always welcome. As relative newcomers to ethical investment, we've found both the Ethex and Abundance platforms easy to navigate and use. In fact, many of the investments listed in the column on the right are via these.

For the first few years of EMSM we posted fairly traded chocolate and a home made card to all our advertisers and clients for the festive season. Around 2019, we decided to donate the equivalent amount to charity instead. The charities include: Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Homeless Oxfordshire, Oxford Mutual Aid, Peru Support Group, Oxford Ramallah Friendship Association, and Medical Aid For Palestinians.

We also loan small amounts and have decided to help Bicycle Barns with their sustainable bike shelter project.

Ecossol PV - Solar
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DistGen Hinton - Wind
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Rumbling Bridge Community - Hydro
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Southill Community Energy - Solar
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Living Power - Bioliquid
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Atlantis - Tidal
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Mean Moor Wind Farm - Wind
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ILI Pump Storage - Hydro
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Orbital Marine Power (Orkney) - Tidal
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Oxford Low Carbon Hub - Mixed
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Iduna - Shared EV infrastructure
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UPP - Community Cinema
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Pedal and Post - Sustainable transport
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Big Solar Co-op - Solar
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We know we can't change the world on our own, but we want to be part of a world-changing network of organizations and individuals. This gives us purpose in life.

The point here, is to make environmental sense, business sense, social sense and common sense.

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