The UN Recognizes Co-ops as a Tool for Social and Economic Transformation

In 2002, four environmental activists founded SSG with a bold vision: to create a more just and sustainable world through climate action. In considering how to make this vision a reality, they chose to incorporate as a worker cooperative, ensuring the organizational structure reflected the very values they were striving to promote: equitable wealth distribution, transparent decision-making, and democratic participation.

Cooperatives may seem like “just” a business model in today’s market economy, but they offer a powerful shift in priorities—from profit to people. Guided by seven cooperative principles, co-ops place an emphasis on mutual benefit and shared responsibility. At their core, cooperatives are governed by a simple but transformative idea: one member, one vote. This means that every member of the cooperative has an equal say in shaping the organization’s direction and values. It’s a mindset that invites members to move from being passive recipients in an economy to active creators of one that serves their needs and that of others around the globe.

How Co-ops Build a Better World

In declaring 2025 the Year of the Cooperative, the UN is highlighting the transformative potential of the cooperative model in addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The impact of cooperatives goes beyond the products and services they provide. Cooperatives offer an alternative to profit-driven models that often leave communities behind by placing power back into the hands of the people who are directly affected by the products and services they provide.

Take Cooperative Home Care Associates, one of the largest worker-owned co-ops in the U.S. with over 1,600 staff. Based in the Bronx, the co-op offers above-industry wages for caregivers and reinvests in the community by providing free training to over 600 under-employed women.

SSG’s Cooperative Approach

At SSG, our cooperative structure is woven into everything we do. We embrace a decentralized decision-making process that invites different levels of participation based on expertise and the impact of the decision. Recently, we were recognized by the Canadian Worker Co-op Federation for our approach to developing an equitable worker compensation package.

To ensure that we are supporting each other in achieving our common objectives, we developed an Accountability Guidebook that set clear expectations around transparency, fairness, and respect. 

Our decision making and accountability practices not only strengthen our internal culture of shared responsibility but also help us in our work. We support municipalities and regional governments to navigate decisions that require balancing different perspectives. By fostering collaboration between individuals with diverse perspectives and experiences, we are working towards a future that is sustainable and equitable.

A Call to Build a Better Future Together

The experience of working in, buying from, or living within a cooperative community helps members develop vital skills in collaboration, conflict resolution, and collective problem-solving—skills that will be crucial as we make the necessary transition away from extraction and exploitation, to a future that can sustain life on this planet with finite resources. One that must be based on mutuality and more equitable benefits. 

We can not achieve a more just and resilient future by relying on business practices that exploit, extract, and disempower. 

The Year of the Co-op is an invitation to all of us—to reflect on how we can contribute to building an economy that values people and the planet over profit. By embracing cooperative models, we can work together to create a more just, resilient, and sustainable future for all of us.