Co-op decisions impact the environment and are impacted by the environment. Does your co-op have an overall direction on how to sustainably approach its operations and long-term planning? Consider adopting a sustainability policy!

Sustainability can touch on almost all aspects of a co-op’s operations. More than with most policies, a sustainability policy sets out how a co-op’s concern about the environment and the broader community can impact and guide co-op decision-making.

Our Climate Emergency Task Force has developed a model that your co-op can build on.  This was inspired by the work of CHF Canada a few years ago.

CHF BC’s model allows an interested co-op to build on a foundation that offers broad principles and a general approach. You can tailor the language to suit your co-op’s needs and capacities. You can list more specific actions, or maintain flexibility, while embedding a consideration of the environment into all the things that you do.

Each co-op will find its own way to use its sustainability policy, but adoption should encourage members and boards to ask questions and include consideration of the environment in decision-making. Please let us know how you adapt this sample policy for your co-op! We look forward to sharing your successes to inspire others

Check out our model policy, along with other resources:

• CHF BC Sustainability Policy – v1.0 (2021-12-09) in Word
• CHF BC Sustainability Policy – Discussion Notes – v1.0 (2021-12-09) PDF