A study of the attitudes of worker co-op members towards sustainability was presented at the Co-operative Research and Education Conference in Manchester.
Janette Hurst, a senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, is still at the research stage of the PhD study but shared her initial findings with delegates.
She is looking at whether co-operative business models are actually more sustainable, and interviewed 10 members of small worker co-ops.
The interviews revealed a close identification between members and their businesses, where are tied into their personal values. One respondent said his entire lifestyle was based around working for the co-op. .
Half the respondents said they joined the co-op because they were attracted to the business model, the other half said they only applied for the job but ended up falling in love with it.
“They all have their own drive that allows them to be in a co-op,” said Ms Hurst, adding that some respondents found that being involved in the business enabled them to make a difference.
The interviews highlighted close links betweent the members’ personal values and the co-operative values and principles of their organisations.
“They see them as real to them, but they are a guide. They don’t have a tick-box mentality,” said Ms Hurst, adding that some members were interested in veganism and food politics, while others supported localism, cycling and looking after people and the environment.
The members also saw a relationship between co-operatives and sustainability, due to the long-term approach of the business model.
The research also revealed some paradoxes, such as a lack of enforcement within co-ops. For example, one co-op was transporting food produced sustainably by using diesel trucks, contradicting its green policy.
Another issue was the lack of benchmarks. The individual members and their co-ops were guided by the co-operative values and principles but they failed to enforce external benchmarks, which made it difficult to make a case for co-ops to the outside world.
“There is a nuanced understanding of co-ops and sustainability among respondents – we cannot see an organisation as an entity, we need to dwell on the level of individual actors,” said Ms Hurst.
She concluded that the workforce was another important pillar of sustainability. The next stage of her research will focus on how co-operatives are putting values and principles in practice.
