Owners benefit socially and financially.
They can help you do the same.

Coops less at risk from economic effects of climate changeA growing number of Maine businesses are moving away from single ownership and towards an employee-owned model, as seen at Rock City Coffee Roasters, an independent coffee shop in Rockland.

As the costs of warming increase their assault on the American economy, nurturing strong local businesses is a good way to strengthen your community and resist economic damage. Supporting solid worker cooperatives goes one step further in protecting jobs and economic activity during a downturn. With millennials particularly facing the consequences of inaction on climate change, employee-owners (often younger than average) could find that coops offer better security for their generation.

Why? Rock City illustrates some of the comparative strengths of companies owned by their employees, including greater entrepreneurial spirit, a lower likelihood that business will close because the owner retires or succumbs to financial pressures, and even the ability to raise capital from customers and sympathetic locals. Co-ops can often weather recessions when other companies can’t because employee/owners reduce layoffs by sharing sacrifices in hours and wages, and customer loyalty to the workers can help sustain revenues in bad times.

Consider supporting your local co-ops (identify them here) or starting a climate-proof co-op of your own.”