Elysia Commons

= first example of the Commons Corporation model

Description

Joshua Malkin:

"The Elysia Commons is the first example of this new economic model. It was developed around Rush Farm, a 190 acre biodynamic farm and Stockwood Business Park in Worcestershire in the UK. As well as the farm, it comprises a therapeutic health centre, a health charity, a trading company and a children’s nursery. It is currently in the process of seeking seed funding to operationalize the concept to scale, developing the economic development fund, recruiting new organisations to become members, putting in place legal governance structures that will allow expansion and investigating how tax structures might benefit companies and individuals who form its membership.

Its legal architecture was originally designed by Sebastian Parsons whose vision was further articulated by Joshua Malkin, Melanie Taylor of the Calyx Trust and Mark Drewell, Senior Partner of the Foresight Group." (https://www.commonssociety.org/blog/a-commons-corporation-harnessing-the-creativity-of-enterprise-and-private-ownership-for-the-common-good/)

Characteristics

Joshua Malkin:

"The commons corporation is a dynamic network that can reasonably be described as an economic ecosystem. It does not control any of the autonomous organisations that are contained within it. It is simply a structure that holds and protects companies – both for profit and not for profit – as well as educational, health, arts and environmental charities. The governance of the commons corporation manages the space in between its member organisations to protect their interdependence and maximize mutual benefit. It uses a combination of existing legal mechanisms to focus the energy of individual initiative and enterprise in building a stable self-regulating ‘domestic economy’ that may be local, national or international." (https://www.commonssociety.org/blog/a-commons-corporation-harnessing-the-creativity-of-enterprise-and-private-ownership-for-the-common-good/)