Press releases and media information
As I got up this morning to find it snowing here in Cambridge, it seemed like a big hint for me to update the site to our winter theme. It certainly wasn't summer as I walked back from town at midnight, that's for sure!
We've finally put our summer colour scheme online (we didn't think there was a lot of point before now). Spring kind of got missed out we're afraid. Anyway, we hope you like the new look!
We're very pleased to announce that we've now formed a Community Interest Company (CIC) as the owner of Fridge Mountain. We've called it The Sustainable Connection CIC. A CIC is a company that is bound by law to serve the interests of its community. That means that we can't sell out, we can't have investors who just want to make big bucks, and we have to abide by what we said we'd do in our company formation:
Facilitating local re-use, re-giving and recycling.
Providing services that allow people to find like-minded people in their local community.
Promoting awareness of sustainable living and help communities to implement sustainable living schemes.
According to our terms, if we make any surplus, it will be used for:
Expanding the company activities for the benefit of the community, payment of dividends to shareholders subject to the restrictions of the Act and Regulations, and investment in a Community Land Trust.
In addition, the formation of a CIC requires to to state an asset locked body who will receive the assets of the business if we ever wind it up. We've chosen The Woodland Trust.
So what does this mean for our community?
In short, it means two things. One is that we are now legally bound to serve your interests. The other is that it will now be much easier for us to seek grant funding for the site, which means we'll be improving the service and spreading the word much further.
Why become a CIC instead of a charity?
The CIC structure allows us to run Fridge Mountain as an ordinary business, so it still allows us to seek outside investment, and have greater flexibility to serve our community than a charity would have. Although the structure does allow us to bring in shareholders, it caps the dividends we can pay to them, amoungst other restrictions.
We've done what we think is a world first - users of Fridge Mountain can now view their search results on a map!
For those people who tends to think "mmm.. I'd be happy to pick that up on the way back from work" or "shall I walk, cycle, get the bus, or take a car" then you can now see, to within a mile, what area items are in.
Just click on "show on a map" when you get through to the search results, and you'll be taken on a tour of you search results.
When we launched Fridge Mountain in Cambridge, we wanted time to develop the service, and iron out any wrinkles.
A few weeks ago, we decided that our ironing was complete, and it was now time to look at whether the site could cope with a large influx of new users.
We're happy to say that a few long nights later, the site was happily handling thousands of new visitors each minute, so we're now ready for the whole of the UK.
Edit your preferences to receive emails with only a sub-set of categories you're interested in (e.g. Furniture, Home and Kitchen)
A few examples of what our members have recently given each other:
Fran found a new home for some shelves, and unexpectedly rehomed a 6 foot high house plant too.
Rob shifted a big old chest of drawers he no longer wanted... it was picked up within a couple of hours of being posted on the site!
Lindsey found a wheel-barrow for her allotment.
23rd Nov, 2008
It snowed today, so we've gone wintry too
6th July, 2007
Fridge Mountain is now a CIC
6th April, 2007
We've put it on the map!
8th March, 2007
New feature -- choose the emails you want to receive
31st January, 2007
Fridge Mountain featured on BBC Radio