Co-operatives across the world are celebrating the World Environment Day by showing their support for protecting the ecosystem via the Alliance’s Co-ops for 2030 platform.
The website enables co-ops to pledge their support for the Sustainable Development Goals and say how they are working across different action areas such as eradication poverty, protecting the environment, building a more sustainable food system and improving access to basic goods and services.
Co-ops make a number of commitments, from protecting biodiversity, to reducing CO2 emissions, enhancing sustainable tourism or promoting environmental education.
In Canada the Coopérative d'habitation L'Îlot fleuri has pledged to increase the amount of consecutive hours of energy sufficiency to 72 for the year 2017, using its central energy network. And energy co-operative Alberta Solar Co-op undertook the task of creating the province’s first community owned solar farm by 2018.
Another co-operative, CoopeSoliDar from Costa Rica works to protect marine and coastal ecosystems by enabling communities to use co-operative models to advance conservation. Also from Costa Rica, Biklö co-operative pledges to reduce its emissions by 30% by 2030.
In Sri Lanka the Federation of Thrift and Credit Cooperative Societies (SANASA) pledged to develop 100 sustainable smart villages by 2020, which would be recognised by the country’s ministry for environment.
Also aiming to protect the environment, the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) pledges to implement afforestation projects on wastelands in 29,419 hectares, helping to also generate employment in rural areas.
Similarly, Bhutan’s Happy Green Cooperative used the Co-ops for 2030 platform to indicate it was working to eliminate household air pollution from cooking and heating fuel usage across the country by 2030.
In the United States the National Co-op Grocers association made various pledges to protecting the environment, including having all member co-ops integrating sustainability information into their reporting cycle and engaging in food waste reduction programmes.
To pledge your co-op’s support for the 2030 Sustainable Development agenda visit the Co-ops for 2030 website.
Photo: members of the Happy Green Cooperative in Bhutan
