Introducing ‘The Eco Five’ – an inspiring group of young adults from Southwark, Lambeth and other boroughs across south London selected to take part in Living Bankside‘s transformational Leaders’ Academy programme this summer.

The seven-week programme brought together five 16-19 years olds from various backgrounds to introduce them to the business world, under the overarching theme of Sustainability.

A host of local businesses participated in the programme alongside Fabrix, providing training sessions in their fields of expertise to help develop the group’s event management expertise and other important life skills. They included Hubbub, We Are Wiser, Live Group, Landsec, Shakespeare’s Globe, News UK, Veolia, GTT, Giff Gaff, LUSH, Borough Market, Kings College London, US Embassy, Walworth Garden, MACE, Natwest, WPP, Hilton Bankside, TP Bennett, Speaker’s Trust.

The programme culminated in an evening event hosted by WPP, which the young adults played a key role in organising, with individual presentations by The Eco Five, a screening of a short-film they’d produced and special guest performances to an invited audience of local businesses, families and friends.

We were delighted to be the Leaders’ Academy partner and watch The Eco Five flourish both as individuals and as a group. Our Binary building in Bankside was gifted to Living Bankside for the course of the programme and we introduced the young adults to careers in real estate though an interactive workshop and site tours of Roots in the Sky and 55 Great Suffolk Street.