I’m Rob Greenland - a serial social entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the world of social business.

I live in Leeds, and I’ve co-founded and run a number of successful social enterprises in the city. I’ve also got many years of experience supporting social entrepreneurs working in a broad range of sectors including social care, active travel, community-supported-agriculture and the circular economy.

So I understand what it’s like to try to build a business that’s aiming to change the world - and I know the kind of support people need to make that happen.

Some of the things I’ve done

I co-founded a social enterprise that runs a number of high impact projects - including Empty Homes Doctor and Leeds School Uniform Exchange.
I took the lead on developing and promoting Leeds Community Homes first community share offer - raising £360,000 from local people and social investors.
I co-founded Zero Waste Leeds - running a series of public engagement campaigns to involve local people in creating a more circular economy.
I worked alongside Hubbub and Leeds City Council to deliver the award-winning on-the-go recycling campaign Leeds By Example.
I was Director of Social Enterprise Leeds - providing support to the city’s emerging social enterprise sector.

I designed and delivered the Start-Up Scholarship Scheme at West Yorkshire Social Enterprise School - providing intensive support and start up funding for social entrepreneurs.
Working with the Adult Social Care team at Leeds City Council, I co-designed and delivered Ideas That Change Lives - a support programme for social enterprises working in social care.
I worked for an award-winning fairtrade co-operative - taking a lead on writing and promoting a community share offer which raised money from local people to fund expansion into new city-centre premises.
I currently work in a part-time role as an Enterprise Coach with Business For Good West Yorkshire.
You can find out more about my work on Linkedin.

Testimonials

"Rob is one of those people who just gets on and does stuff. But he sees the bigger picture too - and has always been one of the more thoughtful voices in the world of social business."

Liam Black, Impact Investor
"Rob is someone who is both visionary and makes things happen. He has been behind incredibly innovative and successful initiatives. He is utterly collaborative and mission driven."

Peg Alexander, Broadcaster, Presenter, Journalist

I write regularly about my work in my newsletter

Dreaming of better times by Rob Greenland

It's easy to forget that things could be better than they are. That's why imagination matters.

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I'd much rather be doing something else by Rob Greenland

It wasn't really the plan to end up focusing so much of my time trying to work out how to tackle the climate crisis. Yet here we are.

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Empty Homes Doctor — a success story ten years in the making by Rob Greenland

When, ten years ago, we first got involved in sorting out empty homes the truth is that we didn’t know much about empty homes.

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Changing places by Rob Greenland

How do you go about changing things where you live? Plus trams, bikes, compost and culture.

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Recent media appearances

I was interviewed for a BBC Look North story about our glass recycling campaign.

I was interviewed on BBC Look North about the Leeds By Example campaign.

Some of the things I’ve done

"Rob is one of those people who just gets on and does stuff. But he sees the bigger picture too - and has always been one of the more thoughtful voices in the world of social business."

"Rob is someone who is both visionary and makes things happen. He has been behind incredibly innovative and successful initiatives. He is utterly collaborative and mission driven."

I write regularly about my work in my newsletter

Recent media appearances