Sustainable Thinking
Manifesto of the Avocado Co-op
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Living more sustainably should be easier.
This belief led a group of friends to found the Avocado Co-op. Over the last two years, with a diverse group of Trailblazers, we launched our first service, the Care Package. The Care Package delivers sustainable versions of household goods–from toilet paper to light bulbs–to your door or a convenient pickup location. Over two hundred Care Packages have been delivered over the last 18 months!
Avocado is a retail co-operative — meaning it is owned by and accountable to you, our members. Our bottom line is making it easier for our members to live more sustainably. This direct responsibility to our members rather than to the business frees us to think long-term, creatively, and sustainably.
The household products we sell are curated and tested. As we grow what we have learned will be made available to the curious. There will be only a few, strong options for any given product — with clear distinctions made between products of the same type. As new ideas and products are developed we will work to ensure you can get them as soon as possible. Most importantly the co-op will meet you where you’re at. You decide which changes you want to make to live more sustainably, our job is to support you every step of the way.
We believe that the co-op model enables an organization to be able to build a community and to be a partner in living more sustainably. Co-ops are mission driven, the earnings are either reinvested or shared, and the control is democratic. If we ever go astray you can help set us back on the right path. A $10 membership share gives you equal ownership in the co-op for life!
Values
At Avocado Co-op we start with sustainability. Sustainable thinking can be applied everywhere, from transportation to our homes to our toilet paper. We believe continuous incremental improvement with the direction guided by sustainable thinking is the key. Starting with what toilet paper is made from to how it is transported and packaged. As a community, we have a unique opportunity to accelerate the shift towards sustainable thinking.
As a co-op, our values are very important to help set your expectations and to help us make decisions about what we are and what we aren’t as we grow. All co-ops share the 7 Principles of Co-operation:
- Voluntary And Open Membership
- Democratic Member Control
- Member Economic Participation
- Autonomy and Independence
- Education, Training And Information
- Co-operation Among Co-operatives
- Concern for Community
On that foundation we add our five Avocado values:
Sharing was the most common word to come up when the founders discussed our values. It came up in multiple contexts, from sharing our research with our members, to helping members share information with each other, to sharing what we learn with other co-ops. As a business, it can be impractical to share absolutely everything, but valuing sharing means sharing is the default.
Capacity encapsulates incremental improvement and long-term thinking. It is easy to just react to issues and accept existing processes. Building capacity means challenging ourselves to incrementally improve all of our processes and investing in long-term plans even if it is at the expense of short-term gains.
Practicality means optimizing for aggregate impact over our entire community. It is easy to get overwhelmed when thinking about absolute sustainability. Our focus instead, is supporting any incremental change as long as it has an impact. Changes which are easier for more people to make will have a greater aggregate impact than a change which has a large impact but only a limited number of people are able to make.
Inclusiveness means we will meet you where you are at. If you want to make a change to live more sustainably, or make a many changes, we want to be there to help. Which changes you want to make are entirely up to you and each change, however small, is awesome!
Finally, the Experience we create is as important as the underlying goals. If we can make it easier and remarkable to live more sustainably than not, we will be able to grow our community and have a much bigger impact.
That’s it, That’s the whole idea. A retail co-op which makes it easier to live more sustainably. Not only can it make your life a bit easier, but you can have equal ownership of the co-op to help make sure we get it right. Join today!
If you are in Waterloo Region become a Community Member to get our great Care Package service and keep your home stocked with toilet paper made from the paper in your blue box.