Our cooperative actions for you to choose from

Join forces with other members of the Community to carry out a project that improves the current social and economic order, moving towards the Society of Agreement. Any member of the Community – including you! – can launch a project or join an existing one. This is what we call a Cooperators’ Project. The lessons learnt from Cooperators’ Projects are shared with everyone in the form of ‘how-to’ guides under a Creative Commons free licence, so that they can be improved and replicated.

Cooperators’ projects often – though not always – focus on the social and environmental sustainability of our consumption.

Examples of Cooperators’ Projects that we are currently considering or have already started. You can propose new ones or amend these. If you are a Cooperator°, you will decide, democratically, whether or not they should be supported by the Cooperative:

• Cooperators' Projects focusing on sustainable consumption:
  • a series of 5 workshops "’Taking back control of my consumption"
  • the use and dissemination of our Sustainable Diet Handbook;
  • car-free walks;
  • book clubs focusing on non-fiction or public reports;
  • an online catalogue of sustainable products;
  • a collaborative and interactive map of tourist attractions (outside major cities) that can be visited without a car;
• Other Cooperators' Projects:
  • a play for amateur theatre groups illustrating why our society is in a bad way – and how to put things right;
  • the distribution of sustainable soups (made from our Sustainable Diet Handbook), at public events;
  • a chorus of songs of hope and encouragement...

Rediscover the meaning in your work and regain your pride in doing it, by democratically devising and adopting a way forward for the organisation or economic sector you work for, or to which you are connected (for example, as a supplier or neighbour), should move towards environmental and social sustainability. We call this: proposing the “Sustainability Actions” for that organisation or economic sector. If trade unions are present within the organisation or sector and are willing to contribute, these Actions are defined in close collaboration with them. Once defined, you will collectively advocate for these Sustainability Actions at European Union level as part of a “sustainability dialogue” with the organisation’s management, as a contribution to ensuring their compliance with the requirements of the Directive on corporate sustainability reporting, adopted in November 2022, in addition to the social dialogue conducted by trade unions and/or in the form of shareholder activism.

Sustainability Actions by an organisation or sector generally, though not necessarily, focus on social and environmental sustainability:

• the range of products or services offered by the company or the sector; or
• of its internal processes.

Examples of sustainability initiatives we are currently considering. You can propose others or amend these. If you are a member°, you will decide, democratically, whether or not they should be supported by the Co-operative:

• Actions relating to the provision of goods or services:
  • a collective specification for a more sustainable product or service not listed in the manufacturers’ catalogue; followed by a joint order placed by the Cooperative for that product or service, following a call for tenders from manufacturers;
  • responsible procurement practices to improve pay and working conditions throughout the value chain;
• Measures relating to internal processes:
  • a company’s sustainable employee travel scheme: cycle racks, showers;
  • restrictions on business travel within the company, in favour of remote meetings;
  • a just transition plan for the downscaling of the automotive sector;
  • replacing a fossil-fuel-based industrial process with biogas...

Create a prototype for an innovative, productive and economically self-sufficient enterprise, managed by a subsidiary of the Cooperative, providing the sustainable goods and services that are expected to become predominant in the Society of Agreement, in cases where these goods and services are not provided by the existing market. This is what we call a Entrepreneurial Prototype. The Cooperative will widely disseminate the know-how derived from the Entrepreneurial Prototypes to other economic actors, so that they may be improved and replicated.

Examples of Entrepreneurial Prototypes we are currently considering. You can propose others or amend these. If you are a Cooperator°, you will decide, democratically, whether or not they should be supported by the Cooperative:

• a pedal scooter for urban and suburban journeys covering the ‘last kilometre’ from the station or bus or tram stop (= as part of ‘intermodal transport’);
• children’s shoe hire;
• computer-assisted fashion advice, focusing on the few styles of clothing that suit your body shape (thereby preventing you from wasting money on clothes that don’t suit you);
• software for identifying, developing and selecting organisational transformation initiatives (and, in particular, sustainability initiatives)...

Design and adopt, through a democratic process, public policies that amend legislation, regulations or public budgets in line with the three pillars of the Society of Agreement: social justice, environmental sustainability and pan-European democracy.

In the short term, support these proposals during the public consultations organised by public authorities, from local council level up to the European Union.  In the longer term, implement these policies by being elected to positions of responsibility in public bodies at all levels, from the local council to the European Union as a whole.

Public policies are the preferred tools for :

• scale up and broaden our actions towards social and environmental sustainability ;
• to act, drawing on the force of the law, on the pillars of social justice and pan-European democracy.

Examples of public policies we are currently considering. You can propose others or amend these. If you are a Cooperator°, you will decide, democratically, whether or not they should be supported by the Co-operative:

• Urban coolness islands created by large deciduous trees that provide continuous shade in summer;
• Bicycle racks installed at bus and coach stops in suburban and rural areas;
• A minimum wage that is compatible with a sustainable lifestyle;
• Free sport from the stranglehold of advertising;
• Border adjustments for the pesticide content of agricultural products;
• Abolition of the unanimity rule (which is equivalent to a veto right for each Member State) in European Union decisions on tax matters...

The CosmoPolitical Cooperative’s work isn’t just about projects that transform society. You can quite simply get involved in the life of the Cooperative and its community, and in its day-to-day running, for example:

• Take part in, and encourage others to take part in, our series of workshops on consumer issues, our small-group leisure activities, and our online events, or run one yourself;
• Take part in the activities and discussions of the Community’s Teams: teams around initiatives, local teams, Sustainability Dialogues with organisations or economic sectors, and teams dedicated to our internal processes (communications, IT, etc.);
• To highlight documents (reports, articles) that enrich our thinking and collective action, and to share them in our shared library.