about us ...

About Us 

Who we are . . .

enviropool is a business run by pupils of Hunts Cross Primary School in South Liverpool which is dedicated to the collection and re-use of natural materials we see around us. Through our business we are encouraging everyone to go out and appreciate the wonderful natural spaces we have in and around Liverpool. 

All the money we make helps to support our sensory garden, our school and our local environment.


Background

We are the environment.

We are Liverpool.

We are enviropool.

Liverpool has an extraordinary and amazing natural environment as well as the well-known and well-publicised city buildings and man-made environment.

Schools, Early years teachers, Children's Centres and Childminders are encouraged to use natural materials wherever possible. There is a huge demand for natural raw materials and thing made from them.

We have found a way of meeting this demand and at the same time encouraging our children and their parents to go out and appreciate and use our wonderful natural environment.

We are enviropool.


Our Business

Our business is to collect, use and re-cycle natural materials we can find around Liverpool for the benefit of our school, our pupils, other schools and the wider community.


We have three main product areas, which are:

  1. Collect and provide a range of natural materials for schools e.g. acorns, conkers, shells, leaves, pebbles, cones, feathers, honey, beeswax, leather, slate, sticks, sand, seaweed, seeds vegetables, sponge, wheat, ferns, cotton, silk, plants and much more . . .
  2. Make and sell decorative items which are made from the materials we collect e.g. Christmas decorations, key rings, wreaths, painted pebbles etc, to sell at fairs, to parents and to the public.
  3. Make and sell a range of educational products made from natural materials e.g. bamboo pens and wooden boards, counting pebbles, number stepping stones etc. to sell to schools and from our website.

We have a dedicated business 'team' comprising

  • Managing Director,
  • Accountant,
  • Marketing Director,
  • Sales Director,
  • Product Manager,
  • Quality Manager


 

Our Business Aims:

  • To help us and our teachers to learn about running a business.
  • To raise money for our sensory garden, then grow things to re-use  in our business, so keep it going.
  • To raise money for our local community, including local environment and health-related charities e.g. British Heart Foundation.
  • To show off all the natural materials that can be found in and around Liverpool parks and coastline.
  • To encourage other schools to use natural materials instead of plastic and man-made materials.
  • To help all the children in our school learn about natural materials and where they come from.
  • To develop links with businesses in our area including Dobbies, Lilly, Littlewoods, Asda and others (we’ve started this already).
  • To develop links with schools in other parts of Liverpool, the UK and even further afield, while providing a service for them.
  • To re-cycle and help the environment by showing how natural materials can be used.
  • To get children and their parents to go to the parks and coastline in and around Liverpool and find out about natural materials you can find there.

 

    Unique Selling Point

    We think our business is unique because . . .

     

    • Some of the things we sell are really useful and clever and can't be bought anywhere else.
    • Things we make represent different cultures in Liverpool e.g. decorations made by parents from Estonia.
    • No one else is providing these products in this way.
    • No one else is using their business to encourage families to go to Liverpool’s parks and other natural spaces.
    • Best of all the business model allows and encourages everyone in and connected with the school to get involved , not just the business team.

    Also we think our business is really good because . . .

     

    • Teachers are busy and don't always have the time to collect natural materials for their class.
    • Because we are using common natural materials and re-cycling them, we don't have to pay for them, so we can make more money.
    • Some of the money we will make will be spent on our sensory garden – to grow things that will keep our business going in the future. We can also grow things which we can give to the church and to people in our community who need them.
    • We have lots of great ideas to find more customers and keep our business going in the future.
    Further Business Development

    We have LOTS of further ideas for new products and services to allow our business to continue throughout the year and be sustained into the future, including:

    We may offer ready-made 'packs' of materials and method sheets to make small items, to schools, nurseries and childminders.

    We may offer a service to schools to collect sets of natural materials to order.

    We may 'franchise' our idea to other schools by providing the raw materials and methods for making the decorative items. Those schools could then make our products and sell them at fairs and stalls in the same way that we do. This would become a steady way of making money for each school that took the franchise, and for us of course.

     

    Extra Services and Help we have Received

      • We have got help from many children and parents from our school in collecting natural materials, in giving us ideas and in making the products for us to sell.
      • We will have help from our choir and will sell at events when they sing at local businesses.
      • Our teacher has used the 'Get British Business On-line' website (www.gbbo.co.uk) to allow us to register the name enviropool.co.uk on the internet, to create our website using Yola, and to host our website, all for free for the first year.
      • We have also used Google Apps to create the e-mail address 'admin@enviropool.co.uk' for free, to take orders from our website.
      • We have also got help from teachers, teaching assistants and other staff at our school.

     Thanks to everyone who has given their time and effort in supporting our business so far. They included . . .

    • Art Club
    • School Choir
    • Parents
    • School Council
    • Teachers
    • Support Staff
    • Pupils