The Cooperative City

The City of Vancouver is currently engaged in an unprecedented effort to make sustainability the driving force that will define what the city aspires to and how the city operates. This vision of sustainability has prompted the City to rise to the front rank of cities promoting sustainability and to declare that by the year 2020, Vancouver will be recognized as the world’s Greenest City. It is a bold and inspiring vision and one that rests, in large part, on the means by which the City engages its citizenry in realizing this ambitious goal.

This paper argues that a key element in making this vision a reality is the adoption of social technologies that both embody and advance the social values and relationships that are implicit in the City’s sustainability goals. It argues that co-operation is chief among these and central not only to making sustainability the foundation for the growth of key sectors and the provision of essential services, but also a key to greatly improving the quality of life in our cities. Sustainability is not just about the impact of our way of life on the carrying capacity of our ecosystems. It’s also about whether our social and economic institutions enable a life of dignity and worth for all our citizens.

It is also important to note that while the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City initiative has sparked the drafting of this paper and many of the examples cited relate to Vancouver, the arguments that are presented and the examples that are shown are equally applicable to other municipalities with an interest in exploring co-operative solutions that mobilize citizens around sustainability goals.

The co-operative movement has a long history in the effort to place economic goals within the larger frame of social values and collective benefit. This principle is at the heart of the sustainability idea. The co-op movement was founded on the principle that economics must serve social ends. This is one reason co-operatives have made a profound contribution to the advancement of sustainability goals in such areas as affordable housing, transportation, the development of clean energy, the promotion of arts and culture, the protection of local food systems, and the advancement of social inclusion for vulnerable and marginalized people. More than this, co-operatives provide an important means for municipalities to mobilize the communal values and aspirations of its citizens for the attainment of common goals. We argue that by so doing, the City not only encourages the participation of its citizenry in its sustainability vision, it also fosters the creation of lasting social institutions that can carry on this vision independently of the City itself.

In this paper, we propose a long-term partnership between the City of Vancouver and the co-operative and credit union sector for the support of the City’s sustainability agenda in a number of key areas:

a) Renewable Energy

b) Affordable Housing

c) Food Security and Local Food Systems

d) Arts & Culture

e) Social Inclusion

For each of these areas, the paper outlines specific examples of how the co-op model is being used in ways that complement the City’s own sustainability goals. In most cases, the models include a direct role for the municipality and the basis for a strategic partnership with the co-op sector.

The paper concludes with a series of recommendations on how the City of Vancouver might move forward in the exploration of these models adapted to the context of Vancouver.

Chief among the recommendations is the proposal that a formal partnership be established between the City of Vancouver and the co-op community for the advancement of the City’s sustainability goals as a legacy project for the UN International Year of Co-operatives in 2012.

We believe the time is right for co-ops and credit unions to mobilize their considerable expertise and resources for the realization of a vision that is in keeping with both the ideals and the practices of the co-operative movement in BC. Co-operatives and credit unions are major contributors to the unique quality of life in Vancouver, as they are in many other cities. In everything from environmental protection to affordable housing and ethical social investing, co-ops and credit unions have become national leaders in their fields. The Co-operative City project is a unique opportunity for both the City and the co-op movement to come together in the promotion of co-operation as a means for realizing a sustainability agenda that can be a world model for the engagement of citizens around a compelling vision that enriches us all.