Local Business & Finance

Local cooperatives and refugee solidarity in Lewiston, ME

USA

In opposition to a proposed highway through poor neighborhoods, residents of Lewiston, Maine instead developed a Peoples’ Downtown Master Plan that laid the groundwork for a renaissance of cooperative development and refugee solidarity. Today the city is home to a number of community organizations and cooperatives, including New Roots, Maine’s first immigrant-owned cooperative farm; the Healthy Neighborhoods Coalition, which promotes affordable housing and green space; the Good Food Council, which promotes healthy food systems; the Raise-Op Housing Cooperative; and six other cooperatives that provide childcare, herbal medicine, compost pickup, and food. Read the full story of Lewiston’s transformation here.

Localise West Midlands

UK

Localise West Midlands is a non-profit think tank, campaign group, and consultancy working towards “local supply chains, money flow, ownership and decision-making for a more just and sustainable economy.” From their headquarters in Birmingham, they work in many ways to catalyze systemic change in the West Midlands Region — from creating a local currency, to promoting the decentralization of democratic power, to supporting local businesses and farms. To learn more, visit http://www.localisewestmidlands.org.uk.

Photo by Robert Linsdell (CC BY 2.0)

http://www.localisewestmidlands.org.uk

Maine Harvest Federal Credit Union

USA

This credit union provides a range of loans exclusively for local farms and food businesses, financed through savings accounts and CDs. The idea emerged from the group Slow Money Maine in 2011, and was further developed over eight years of meetings with farmers, small business owners, existing credit unions, and other stakeholders and advisors. Today, it is the only federally-chartered, government-guaranteed financial institution dedicated to growing local food systems in Maine. Learn more on their website.

http://investinvermont.org/

Miner County “Buy Local” Campaign

USA

In 1995, a group of high school students in rural Miner County, South Dakota (USA) launched a campaign to “Keep Miner Dollars in Miner County”. In the following year, money spent locally had increased by more than US$15 million, nearly double their expectations. Read the story here.

https://www.cityofhoward.com/about

Port Townsend Local Investing Opportunities Network

USA

The first Local Investing Opportunities Network (LION) was started in Port Townsend, Washington in 2006, as a way to create connections between investors and local enterprises needing capital. Its members have collectively invested more than US$7 million in local businesses. The Economic Development Council of Jefferson County reviews opportunities submitted by local entrepreneurs, and circulates them to the group. Interested investors then meet with the entrepreneur and individually negotiate the terms. Often, the decision to support a business through a LION is based not just on a solid business plan and product, but also on trust and friendship that comes from years of living as neighbors. Today, LIONs exist throughout the USA. Read the story of the Port Townsend LION here, and learn more about the concept on this site.

Rizoma Cooperative

Portugal

Rizoma Cooperative is a multi-sector community grocery store in Lisbon, Portugal, working to create a cooperative local economy.

https://www.rizomacoop.pt/en/

Seneca Creek Joinery

USA

When woodworker Chris Holmgren learned that 3.8 billion board feet of usable wood is cut down and discarded annually in the US – equal to 1/3 of the country’s hardwood timber harvest – he knew he had to take action. He expanded his woodworking business, Seneca Creek Joinery, into a fully vertically-integrated, replicable, community-scale production facility that handles all aspects of wood processing, from dead tree removal to finished furniture. At his farm 25 miles northwest of Washington, DC, he works with the nearby city of Rockville and local tree removal companies to ensure that no local wood goes to waste. Read more about his business in our Medium article.

https://medium.com/local-futures/yard-to-table-building-a-local-wood-economy-151c45add548

The Brixton Pound

UK

The Brixton Pound, or “B£,” is a local currency in Brixton, London (UK), designed to circulate alongside the ordinary British pound. The Brixton Pound supports local, independent businesses by circulating only in the Brixton area, encouraging people to shop locally – thereby reducing carbon emissions from long-distance transportation of goods, maintaining the diversity of Brixton’s shops, and building a resilient economy that protects local livelihoods. To learn more, visit The Brixton Pound’s website.

http://brixtonpound.org/

The Carrot Project

USA

The Carrot Project works with family farms that use sustainable growing methods, as well as food businesses that sell their products locally and regionally — the kinds of endeavors that often have trouble finding startup capital and securing loans from conventional banks. They help these farmers and businesses to understand their financial picture, and, when appropriate, work with agricultural land trusts and others to apply for and manage financial capital. To learn more, visit The Carrot Project’s website.

Photo by Nick Harris (CC BY-ND 2.0)

http://www.thecarrotproject.org

The Catalan Integral Cooperative

Spain (Catalonia)

The Catalan Integral Cooperative is a financial co-op, a food pantry, a legal-aid desk, an open-source tool workshop, a local currency (the “eco”) and a bed-and-breakfast for tourists in a medieval watchtower, all rolled into one. Its goal is to create an ecosystem of alternative “post-capitalist” economic projects in Catalonia, to replace the dominant system. To learn more, visit their website (in Catalan) or read the P2P Foundation’s full report and summary of the cooperative’s structure and activities (in English).

https://cooperativa.cat/en/