Promoting the cooperative economy

SundRoot works proactively, flexibly and through outreach to strengthen the cooperative economy. We are out in the world weaving threads together — we are the spider in the web. We weave together a support ecosystem that makes cooperative enterprise easier, we seek out opportunities and groups that could start or transition to a cooperative, and we follow up on those processes and stay available as support.

How we work

We seek out people, groups and opportunities that could form new cooperatives — and we are there as a support in the process, from first idea to working enterprise. Once a cooperative is up and running, we remain a natural part of the ecosystem: we facilitate contact between members, follow up on processes, and make sure experience spreads through the network.

We also build infrastructure for shared services such as bookkeeping, IT, marketing and sales — services that otherwise become a heavy burden for small and newly started enterprises. By sharing them, costs drop for everyone, while the cooperatives become part of a wider ecosystem.

The result is increased resource sharing, increased resilience and a higher survival rate for individual businesses — because they take part in a wider network with access to tools, services, resources and practical knowledge and experience.

Read more about the network at kooperativ.network.

The cooperative network in the Malmö region

Meet-ups are organised every month at one of the cooperatives in the network. The gatherings usually include food, mingling and a theme that we work through together. This creates room for learning, exchange and development — and an energising spirit so that new and established enterprises feel embraced by a strong ecosystem that helps each other.

This has created momentum for shared solutions that make cooperative enterprise easier: bookkeeping, IT, a shared marketing platform, and other forms of resource sharing and mutual uplift.

What we have started

SundRoot has taken an active part in initiating and running the cooperative network in the Malmö region.

SundRoot has started a process for forming a technology cooperative through outreach and proactive work with the tech space Lodis, bringing together 30 tech-enthusiasts.

SundRoot has started the process of founding a women’s cooperative based in Lindängen. The goal of the women’s cooperative is that women born abroad can create fair jobs for themselves and lift themselves, their families and their neighbourhoods.

Education and incubation

We want to see more courses and trainings that incubate cooperative ideas and their implementation — that, in collaboration with established cooperatives, folk high schools and study associations, as well as in cooperation with other established institutions such as polytechnics and academia to realise ideas in cooperative form.

A fund for a democratic economy

We want to see a fund for a democratic economy — a fund that invests in the entire cooperative ecosystem and supports both newly formed and established cooperatives.

The fund should also support the conversion of conventional businesses into cooperative forms of ownership. Many small and medium-sized businesses and industries face a generational shift, where the owners are retiring and there is no one to take over. Cooperative ownership — where the employees take over and carry the business forward — can save the businesses, the jobs and the local expertise, and ensure that the value stays in the local community.