An electric cooperative in New York has helped state and local officials keep more than 1,000 jobs in an area ravaged by storms and flooding last fall. The co-op will use low-cost hydroelectric power to serve a new industrial account that will triple its overall commercial and industrial load. We were ground zero for Hurricane […]
Keeping Water Flowing in Chile
Fresh, clean, affordable water. It is difficult to imagine anything more important. Throughout rural Chile small cooperatives manage regional sanitation. Driving through the countryside, one sees occasional lagoons and water tanks glinting in the distance. Dedicated community members maintain these reservoirs and the pipes and drainage systems that keep them functioning. However, groups often work […]
Electricity a catalyst for development
It may be the national day and offices across the country are closed, but that doesn’t mean you won’t find Jim Ford at his desk. The development expert who has worked in the field for NRECA International in the United States for decades, spent many years in Bangladesh directing technical assistance projects in support of […]
Metal Working in the Austrian Alps
Surrounded by jagged snow-capped peaks year-round, the Stubai Valley in the Austrian Alps is known for skiing, hikingand steel manufacturing. Starting in the 14th century, iron ore deposits were mined here, sparking the valleys nascent iron production and manufacturing industry. Now, the valley, which has a population of just 14,000, processes several thousand tons of […]
CIC KENYA pays claims relating to post-election violence
Kenyan cooperative insurer, CIC Insurance Group, took a clear stand to pay claims resulting from losses due to political violence, unlike some insurance companies that have attached conditions to honoring such claims. Post-election related claims paid by the company amounted to about Kshs. 100 million (USD 1.2 million), mainly from small businesses owned by members […]
Youngest cooperative in Lower-Austria supports members and the region
Nearly every tourist who visits Lower Austria stops for a pleasant stay in Wachau. The unique cultural landscape around the Danube is characterized by steep vineyards, which are edged from natural stone walls and bordered by apricot trees. Wachaus wine is famous all around the world. The apricot trees excite visitors in the springtime with […]
Out of crisis rises P&V
When the P&V cooperative insurance group decided to double in size through the purchase of the brokers channel of INGs Belgium operations, it didn’t realise the Global Financial Crisis was about to descend upon it. If anything demonstrates the resilience of the cooperative insurance model, that moment was it. It took place on the eve […]
SSVMN has it covered in Costa Rica
It was a rural schoolteacher, Alejandro Rodríguez, who first raised the idea of a social institution in Costa Rica. The year was 1920 and the country was fresh from the unhappy reign of military dictator General Federico Tinoco Granados. After Granados was overthrown, the unpopularity of his regime led to a considerable decline in the […]
Patti Carpenter on the Value of Women in Cooperatives
With her keen sense of Western consumer preferences, Patti Carpenter, president and creative director of New York Citys Continuum Home, Inc./Carpenter + Company, works with artisans in emerging markets to design products that can be produced using indigenous forms and methods, and then she pitches them to such well-known retailers as Bloomingdales. Through organizations like […]
Clean Water, Cooperative Principles
Rapid urbanization around the world is greatly increasing pressure on public water utilities, meaning that getting clean drinking water and safely disposing of waste can be some of the biggest problems facing city-dwellers in developing countries. One Bolivian success story has shown how cooperatives might provide an alternative way for urban communities to get clean […]