Could Co-Operatives Make Sustainbility More Accessible?

Published on Wednesday, 27 April 2011 13:28

By Miles Hadfield

 

The financial squeeze has caused problems for organisations in all sectors, including science and technology, with government spending cuts falling on university research and the private sector still recovering from the recession.

But it is also offering new opportunities by creating the need for innovation. And this applies not just to developing new technologies: it is also creating space for alternative business structures in the technology sector – notably the co-operative model, which has found itself in the spotlight under the Coalition Government’s controversial Big Society agenda.

And this co-operative structure, its supporters argue, has the crucial added benefit of offering organisations a more dynamic creative process. Co-ops working in the science and technology sector, especially in renewable and sustainable development, argue that their way of working helps them to generate ideas and in developing closer ties with customers and other businesses.

One co-op which says it enjoys a more flexible creative approach is Leeds Environmental Design Associates (LEDA), a design team which offers sustainable, environmentally friendly buildings, relying on natural light and ventilation to cut energy use.

Consulting engineer Matthew Hill says the co-operative management structure offers “an integrated approach, with team members working alongside each other rather than in a sequential fashion. That approach to design is very critical in terms of creating sustainable function.”

He adds: “Often, design follows a hierarchical pattern – under which the architect dictates terms that they would like - rather than a collaborative approach.”

 

This traditional approach, he argues, is counter-productive for a business working on sustainable design.

“We work in a more supportive atmosphere as colleagues, rather than people working against each other. When you’re working on cutting-edge stuff you need to have group support.”

Working as a co-operative also helps businesses work more closely with their customers, says Val Tobiass of Community Renewable Energy (CoRE).

“The idea is that we work in partnership with communities and they have a stake in the profits that the project generates. They take a share, we take a share and we then plough that back into other projects.”

CoRE is currently working with clients on a number of projects in Cumbria. It is starting up a new co-operative with farmers in the region to create an anaerobic digester to generate electricity from farm waste.

“It’s still in the development stage,” she says, “but we’re looking at starting up an energy company, generating energy and selling it to the grid. We haven’t worked out the details yet but we’re looking to give customers a good competitive price.”

This flexible, innovative model for research and development has attracted the attention of regional consumer co-operative societies, which are investing in renewable to reduce the carbon footprints of their operations.

The Midcounties Co-operative Society, for instance, is building on initial moves to purchase its electricity through renewable sources by setting up its own generating projects.

The society’s Energy and Environment Officer, Mike Pickering, says the co-operative model can make the purchase of renewable electricity more cost-effective.

“It works out only very slightly more expensive because we work with other co-operative organisations and buy together. Because we buy in bulk, we get a better deal. If we did it on our own, it would be more. That’s one way co-operation can help, if we get together, we get a better deal.”

Since 2008, the society has been working on generating its own power, beginning with the installation of photo voltaic cells to its offices in Oxford. Mr Pickering says the society has saved nine tonnes of carbon dioxide from using solar-powered lighting at its Cainscross Food store and 11 tonnes from the use of solar panels at its old head office in Oxford.

And Midcounties’ ambitions go further than that. In 2009, the society put up a test mast in Oxfordshire to carry out a feasibility study for a wind turbine, with the results due soon.

In 2012, the hydro turbine project Midcounties is constructing on the River Lyd, in Gloucestershire, will come on line to power its Co-operative Store in Lydney. Carbon dioxide savings from this scheme are projected at 28 tonnes per annum.

If the co-operative model offers a beneficial creative environment within an organisation, and closer links with clients, it also offers scope for collaboration between organisations. And if the co-operative model is having an impact on the development of technology, it works both ways – technological change is itself influencing the structure of business organisations, and could encourage them to behave in a more co-operative manner.

In his report, “Co-operation in the Age of Google” Robin Murray argues that while the revolution in information technology has created a challenge for traditional industries, it offers opportunities for creative workers, including those in the science and technology sector.

“The information and communications revolution,” he says in the report, “has created a virtual economy that sits in cyberspace above the material economy of goods and services. It is connected by airwaves and spectrums rather than roads and railways. It sends messages by satellite and ethernets and uses cloud computing. Like the sky its horizons seem to stretch to infinity.”

If this process has sped the downfall of traditional industries, others are taking their place, including, data processing, scientific research, software and computer systems.

The effect of this information revolution, he argues, is a decentralization of the economy, which calls for a more co-operative approach.

“One common pattern across the economy is the return of the micro,” he says. “The technological icons are no longer huge factories and power stations but the computer, the iPhone and the solar panel. It is as if a flower pod has burst open and scattered its seeds and new micro technologies have followed.”

Taken to its logical extent, he adds, this has led to the development of open-source software, such as Linux and Mozilla, and an open creative environment where citizens: “share advice and experience and work together on developing ideas and projects”.

Technology, then is shaping the culture in which research and development will be carried out, and Murray looks to Europe for the pattern British organisations should follow.

“Continental small firm and co-operative districts have developed their own institutions for innovation: intermediaries that link the needs of small firms and with university research capacity; specialist research co-ops; innovation consortia; technology scouts; and subsidised design programmes.”

One example he suggests for Britain to follow is the German Steinbeis Foundation which is aimed at creating links between the scientific academia and business.

And, if his calls for increased levels of international co-operation, for instance among organisations developing the micro technologies of local food systems, are a sign of things to come, co-operation may be taking on a more global flavour.

Relevant Links

Community Renewable Energy (CoRE)

Leeds Environmental Design Associates (LEDA)

The Co-Operative