Why We Need You to Become an Owner

For an update from December 2023 with progress on our co-op initiatives, see Our Progress at the end of this blogpost.

We’re settling into being a cooperative. At our meeting in July, we adopted our bylaws, elected officers and authorized the issuance of common stock. At our meeting in August, we accepted 18 new co-op owners. In September, we accepted 8 more owners and got clearer on the responsibilities of the Board and how communication will flow from owners to representatives to officers.

Now our work begins to explain to the community why the co-op needs more owners.

In order to move the business in the direction it needs to go, we need more capital. The prices we charge for our composting services cover our operating costs including payroll and employee benefits. These include: health insurance, paid time off, holiday pay, floating holidays (instituted when Juneteenth became a national holiday) 3% match retirement savings and most recently, the opportunity to be an owner.

We’d like to make our assets more sustainable.

Electrifying Our Fleet

At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, supply chain issues made it impossible to purchase new trucks. Because of that we needed to rent trucks to help move the 40 tons a week that we divert from the landfill. This expense is one we are eager to be done with.

We’d like to lower our gasoline usage by 25% by purchasing 2 electric cargo vans. We appreciate that a grant from the Sustain Evanston grant program will help us with a portion of those down payments. We’re looking for other opportunities to receive grant funding. 

Solar Panels on Our Roof

In January, we purchased a building so that we now have two adjacent garage spaces to work in. We’d like to put solar panels on the roof and install vehicle charging stations.

How Consumer-Owners Help the Co-op

The more consumer-owners there are, the better it is for the co-op. Consumers pay the co-op for their composting service which is income to the co-op. Under co-op tax guidelines, if the consumer is an owner, the co-op does not need to pay tax on the profit from that income. That money becomes eligible for distribution to the owners. The money that the co-op would have paid in taxes instead contributes to the overall financial health of the co-op.

The money you pay for your composting service helps mitigate climate change and supports a values-driven, democratic business model that addresses inequality and keeps wealth in the local economy. In effect, your money can do more.

What Is In It for You

You can have certainty in what your investment is supporting. Though your share will not gain value, it will not lose value. You’re also eligible to share in the profit.

Addressing Inequality

You probably already know that this business was founded by a woman, so we’ve always been able to check that box when filling out grant applications. Most recently, we’ve been able to also check the African-American–owned and Hispanic-owned boxes as well. We’re thrilled about the diversity in our ownership.

Nearly all of the employees who qualify have opted to become owners.

Our Interpretation of the Seven Cooperative Principles

There are seven cooperative principles as adopted by The International Co-Operative Alliance that are guidelines for co-ops to follow. We’ve listed these on our website. Here’s how we are interpreting them for our co-op:

Voluntary and Open Membership

The steering committee thought long and hard about the best way to help our employees to become owners. The cooperative is gifting a large portion of each employee share based on hours worked in the past year. The rest of the cost of the share is taken out of employee checks at whatever amount feels comfortable to the employee. Employees are not obligated to become owners and are not penalized for not becoming owners. Customers are also not obligated to become owners. Any U.S. citizen can be an owner. There is a scholarship fund for employees who want to be owners but need help.

Democratic Member Control

The cooperative structure has opened up more pathways of communication with the introduction of employee and consumer representatives.

Members’ Economic Participation

The revenue that shares bring in helps to grow the business.

Autonomy and Independence

We have never been a franchise or part of a larger corporation. This ensures that we won’t be.

Cooperation among Cooperatives

To date, we have mostly been on the receiving end and have had so much help from our friends at Chicago Market and other cooperatives. We’ve begun sharing our experience with other small businesses interested in exploring this option.

Concern for Community

Building community around sustainability is in our mission statement and is very important to us.     

As I write this, I’m reminded of David Attenborough’s documentary A Life on This Planet. He describes it as his “witness statement and his vision for the future.” The ending really stuck with me because it was a solution to climate change that I’d not previously considered. His last image is of gymnasts creating a tower of humans. The gist of it was that if we raise the standard of living of those at the bottom, we all do better. That’s why we have to address environmental injustice and it is why becoming a co-op aligns with this.

Are You In?

If you’re ready to own the solution with us, you can do all this from the Become an Owner page on our website: read the co-op bylaws, read and sign the ownership agreements and buy shares.

Our progress 

We’re happy to report an update since we first posted this at the end of September 2023. We’ve been able to eliminate the rental of two Penske trucks by buying two used box trucks. This is saving us money. In November 2023, with the help of a Sustain Evanston grant, additional co-op owners and their share purchases and some financing, we were able to purchase our first two electric cargo vans! We’re excited to begin using these on residential routes. Now, we’re shifting our focus and resources to repairing the roof on the building we purchased in January for garage space, in preparation for the installation of solar panels.