(Lynn Ischay/The Plain Dealer) Starting next month, you could have some Cleveland winter lettuce with that sandwich. That's when Green City Growers Cooperative, a worker-owned business, expects to harvest its first crops from one of the largest urban greenhouses in the country, a 3 1/4-acre hydroponic operation off East 55th Street in the city's Central... Read more >
With the long decline in US manufacturing and today’s economic crisis, millions have been thrown out of work, and many are losing their homes. The usual economic solutions are not working, so some citizens and public officials are ready to think outside of the box. There is growing interest in firms that are owned and managed by their workers. Such firms tend to... Read more >
In a news article today from Triple Pundit, Andrew Newell describes her experiences from this month's conference of the Business Alliance of Local Living Economies (BALLE). One of the major highlights she notes: Medrick Addison and his presentation on Evergreen. In another news piece, this one from Small Business Survival, a different conference attendee walked... Read more >
The summer is shaping up to be a busy time here at Evergreen. This month we had visitors from Springfield, MA and Atlanta, GA visiting us. There are initiatives underway in both places based on our work here at Evergreen. Both the Wellspring Initiative in Springfield and the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative have projects underway and are reviewing potential... Read more >
This month we joined the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC), a national business organization working to create a more vibrant, just, and sustainable economy. With business supporters like Seventh Generation, Ben & Jerry's, Patagonia, Stonyfield Farm, Green Depot, New Resource Bank, Trillium Asset Management, Organic Valley, and others, Evergreen is... Read more >
A new preview has been released for an upcoming documentary on employee-owned companies like Evergreen. It's called Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work and will feature different businesses from across the country. It's also going to be the first time since 1980 that a documentary has featured the Mondragon Cooperatives in Spain, an inspiration to our... Read more >
This month we were visited by a group of almost 30 students from Elon University in North Carolina. It was the first time an entire class came to visit us from out of town. It was a great experience and it taught us the valuable lesson that young people are excited by Evergreen and that we should figure out a way to engage students and youth around the country. NPR... Read more >
We are happy to announce that we’ve been working with our partners at the Democracy Collaborative to advance community wealth building initiatives in other cities based off of Evergreen. Numerous organizations in Atlanta, GA have been working with us to assess the potential for launching an initiative similar to Evergreen down there. That’s not all either. We... Read more >
Federal Reserve Board Governor highlights Evergreen Cooperatives as “substantial, positive development in the local economy”
In a speech made today (3/23) to the National Community Reinvestment Coalition annual conference, Federal Reserve Board Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin highlighted the innovative work of the Evergreen Cooperatives: "Anchor institutions," such as hospitals and universities, which are firmly rooted in their locales, can also be powerful engines for job creation in their... Read more >