As a result of the Vietnamese Cooperative Development Plan, which was signed during the closing ceremony of the regional conference on food security in Hanoi in March 2017 Agriterra was happy to welcome the delegation of Vietnamese Agriculture, Planning and Investment ministers, representatives of banks and our Vietnamese cooperative partners in the Netherlands. “We feel greatly […]
Runninghour Co-Operative Ltd
Singapore’s first sports co-operative to help people with special needs to stay active and social has been established. Runninghour Co-operative Limited (Runninghour Co-op), which started in April 2009 as an inclusive running club by a group of running enthusiasts, has leaped into the next lap as a registered co-operative, the only regulated form of social […]
Organic Food Co-op Going Solar with Innovative Nonprofit
The Outer Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco is an oasis. Nestled along the Pacific Ocean is this relaxing surfer town, with a tranquil neighborhood feel that’s unique in the city. For 40 years, a worker-owned cooperative grocery store called Other Avenues has been serving the Outer Sunset community with local, organic foods and sustainable lifestyle […]
The Jardins of Desjardins
Tomatoes on the roof, ferns on the walls… The Desjardins Group, Canada’s leading cooperative financial group and the fifth largest in the world, is taking the principle of sustainability to heart and introducing ground-breaking environmental initiatives at all levels – literally. The roof of a bank might be one of the last places you’d expect […]
Participation: The Glue That Binds
Every week, the members of the Shallalà Honey Producers cooperative in southern Ethiopia must walk seven or eight kilometres to attend their regular meeting. The Italian consumers’ cooperative Coop Adriatica has 1.16 million members, making an Annual General Meeting for all an impossibility. All over the world, cooperatives face different challenges in ensuring that their members can have their […]
Is Your Insurance Sustainable?
Sustainable design, sustainable agriculture, sustainable energy: all fairly familiar concepts these days. But what about sustainable insurance? The Co-operators Group, a Canadian-owned insurance and financial services organization, is at the forefront of bringing the principles of sustainability to financial products. “There is so much dialogue about sustainability around the globe,” explains Kathy Bardswick, the President […]
Those who love Mondays, a book of the General Confederation of Scop in France
In 2008, just as the financial crisis was revealing the weaknesses in the capitalist system, the Futurscope National Congress in Poitiers passed a resolution to use communication to modernize the image of the “Scop” in France. A Scop (société cooperative et participative) is a cooperative enterprise in which the employees hold the majority of the […]
The Bloom Becomes a Flower
In the late 1970s Martha Angélica Quezada died. A 17 year old Nicaraguan, Quezada was killed in the fight against the Samosa dictatorship. In 1979 a group of mothers, widowed in the revolution, formed a cooperative in an attempt to support their families. They named the cooperative in honor of the girl. More than thirty […]
The Consultant Squad
Like a team of super heroes, the members of the Lluke coop respond to the needs of communities and cooperatives throughout Chile. Each member of the consulting group offers their own individual expertise and creative problem solving skills. Their work focuses on energy saving and community improvement and results in job growth and more socially […]
Becoming a Coop
Dan Rosenberg and Addie Rose Holland are the proud owners of Real Pickles in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Real pickles produces raw naturally fermented pickles made from local, organic and sustainably farmed produce. Every year, Dan and Addie purchase about 100,000 pounds of certified organic vegetables within a 50 mile radius and transform it into six different […]