NCGA Launches New Program to Support Co-op Sustainability

George Carlin may have had it right. For billions of years, Earth has been resilient during an onslaught of asteroids, volcanoes, floods, droughts, ice ages, heat waves, overpopulations, extinctions, and more. The earth simply does not need us to “save” it. It will go on, with or without us. (Does that sound heretical? Stay with me!)

Organic food production, buying local, energy efficiency, and conservation are all still critical, and more so than ever before. But let’s clarify the beneficiary here. I’ll join Mr. Carlin in proposing that sustainability efforts are for the sake of humanity and our ability to not just survive but to thrive on this planet that we share. They are about creating a quality of life in which all 7.2 billion of us can live a safe and healthy existence, without running out of resources and without creating a catastrophic imbalance. That feels like a tall order as we experience year after year of record extremes in the weather, as the ocean ecosystem—protein source for most of the population—spirals into collapse, and as we lose biodiversity rapidly enough to be now considered in a period of mass extinction.

All hope is not lost, neither for the planet nor humanity. In fact, business, as an institution, holds incredible power to drive sustainability through society and culture. This work is not altruism, since there are real business benefits to be gained through transparency and accountability for our impacts to society, the natural world, and the economy. It is well documented that attention to this triple bottom line (people, profit, planet) helps businesses find efficiencies, increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, innovate, and outperform their competition.

This business opportunity is not lost on co-ops. In its “Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade,” the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) identified sustainability as one of five key priority areas, with the goal to “position co-operatives as builders of sustainability.” (Find the “Blueprint” at the ICA website: http://ica.coop/en/publications/blueprint-cooperative- decade.) More recently, ICA named sustainability as the theme for 2014’s International Cooperative Day.

ICA encourages co-ops to expand reporting beyond financial data; measure progress; share case studies; advocate to policy-makers, the broader public, and young people; develop technology; and adopt management practices that reflect the co-op model’s long-term horizon. Many co-ops are already working toward more sustainable operations and reaping the benefits.

Software provides common framework

NCGA has stepped up to support co-ops in becoming “builders of sustainability” through a new program called the Sustainability Impact Measurement Software (SIMS). SIMS provides a common framework for co-ops to measure their sustainability baseline, make strategic improvements, track progress, benchmark to other stores, and share their success with stakeholders. The rigorous, flexible framework includes impacts in each area of the triple bottom line.

Here’s how it works: SIMS simplifies the arduous task of collecting metrics by sending short, online web surveys directly to the user’s email inbox each month. The schedule guides co-ops through setting up a regular business process for sustainability tracking and reporting. After data is entered into the web forms, SIMS stores the records in a database where they’re available to the co-op’s users at any time. Analysis tools turn the raw data points into meaningful indicators, such as carbon footprints, energy use per square foot, or other benchmark comparisons, all visible on the user’s unique dashboard. Co-ops can use the ready-made reports and graphs to show progress in annual reports to boards, owners, and lenders; plan projects for future budget cycles; and differentiate themselves from local competitors.

SIMS went live on July 1, 2014, to the first enrollees, which included a diverse group of 19 co-ops, collectively operating 33 locations. Future enrollments are open quarterly until all NCGA co-ops are participating. As more coops begin to measure and manage their triple bottom line impacts using SIMS, the value of benchmarking and the capacity for best-practice sharing will expand.

Sustainability is a defining issue of our day, and co-ops can take a leading role in rapidly improving their social, environmental, and economic impacts. From start to finish, NCGA’s SIMS is designed to empower our member and associate co-ops to step into that leadership role and create measurable positive change that begins in their operations and ripples outward to their supply chains, communities, and the world. As the ICA put forth in their goal for this decade, co-ops are builders of sustainability, and we are stronger together.