Evergreen Initiative

Description

"The City of Cleveland has followed a pattern of decline typical among American post- industrial cities. Having lost roughly half its population since its golden age in the 50s, Cleveland has been hard-hit by the loss of heavy industries and middle-class flight to the suburbs (14). After the notorious Cayuga River fire in 1969, Cleveland has fought to shake its derisive nickname, “the mistake by the lake,” but downtown redevelopment and stadium building have not stemmed economic woes and outmigration. In 2009 Cleveland ranked second in lowest median income among American Cities, behind Detroit, Michigan (15).

Yet, despite these challenges, Cleveland’s University Circle area has continued to grow. Thirty minutes east of downtown, the University Circle is characterized by a concentration of major cultural, educational, and medical institutions.

As Cleveland’s largest employers, their billion-dollar facilities sit adjacent to some of the poorest neighborhoods in the City.

East Cleveland, Wade Park/Heritage Lane, Eastern Hough/Upper Chester, Eastern Fairfax, Buckeye/Shaker, and Little Italy have a combined median household income of $18,500 and a poverty rate of 30% (16).

During 2004-2006, the Cleveland Foundation convened leaders of University Circle anchor institutions in order to develop a strategy for neighborhood development. With support from the Democracy Collaborative, a non- profit at the University of Maryland, the foundation and institutions founded the Greater University Circle (GUC) Initiative. The GUC Initiative takes on collaborative projects and programs that address issues such as: transportation, housing, open space, and economic inclusion (17).

Within the realm of economic inclusion, the Evergreen Initiative (Evergreen) is striving to leverage institutional capacity to build community wealth via worker-cooperatives. By capturing billions of procurement dollars that would otherwise go to non-local firms, the Evergreen cooperatives direct institutional investment into surrounding neighborhoods.

Cooperative Firm Types

The first firm to open through the Evergreen Initiative was the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry. Opened in the fall of 2009, the laundry is the region’s first LEED certified industrial laundry facility (18). It has the capacity to meet the needs of medium to large institutions. In the first year, nursing homes made up a large share of clientele. The second cooperative, Ohio Solar, was launched a few months after the laundry. Ohio Solar installs solar panels onto the roofs of large institutions. The cooperative buys the panels, leases institutional roof space, and sells the energy back to institutions at a guaranteed rate. At the end of the lease period, the institution can opt to buy the solar panels. Ohio Solar also provides home weatherization services.

By the end of 2010, two more cooperatives will open. A five-acre hydroponic greenhouse will sell lettuce and herbs to food vendors that have contracts with large institutions. In addition, a bi-weekly community newspaper will report on hyper-local events around GUC.

Like Mondragon, the Evergreen Initiative is attempting to create a diverse network of firms that can share services and abide by mutual governance and operational agreements. However, it will likely take many years to build the network infrastructure for secondary cooperatives, spinoff firms, and cooperative groups. In the meantime, the Evergreen network relies on support from non-profits to deal with coordination, governance, finance, business development, and workforce training." (http://web.mit.edu/colab/pdf/papers/Sustainable_Economic_Democracy.pdf)

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