Are mission-controlled, employee-owned companies better environmental stewards than conventional corporations? Is transitioning to employee ownership a more likely path to keeping a firms’ ecological mission alive, compared to selling a firm to a large competitor? The answer to these questions is critical to enterprise design for the 21st century and beyond. If we understand the […]
Continue ReadingEmployee Ownership & Ecological Sustainability
Cathedral Builders at South Mountain Company
A Mission-Led Employee-Owned Firm By Sarah Stranahan The best of the best is what you might say about South Mountain Company, an employee-owned, environmentally oriented design-build firm on Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. It’s a B Corp, a new type of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. […]
Continue ReadingThe Power and Limits of Enterprise Design
The Environmental Performance Record of UK’s John Lewis Partnership By Sarah Stranahan The new economy movement often speaks of creating an economy that works for people and the planet. But are those two goals always aligned? Given limited resources and competing needs, how do businesses manage trade-offs between what’s best for people — employees, customers and communities — and […]
Continue ReadingBipartisan Support for Employee Ownership
by Erin M. Kesler Late last week, on October 19, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a resolution to the Judiciary Committee designating October “National Employee Ownership Month.” Sponsored by Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the resolution was signed onto by senators as diverse as Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Angus King (I-ME), Todd Young (R-KS), and Pat Roberts […]
Continue ReadingEmployee-Ownership Reduces Stress and Anxiety
Employee-owners are more confident about their financial security. by Erin M. Kesler At a time of growing anxiety around economic issues for many workers, recent news indicates that employee owners are experiencing significantly less stress. According to a recent Forbes piece, employee owners have far fewer worries about paying their monthly bills than workers at other firms. […]
Continue ReadingThe ESOP-erative
A new design: worker cooperative governance with ESOP tax benefits By Martin Staubus Businesses interested in transitioning into employee ownership are often presented with a structural dilemma: convert into an ESOP or a cooperative? Go for the democratic worker control and participation of a cooperative, or the tax benefits of an ESOP? I recently helped […]
Continue ReadingWhat do Craft Beer and Solar Have in Common?
By Marjorie Kelly, Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow, The Democracy Collaborative When it comes to identifying low-hanging fruit for companies most ready to convert to employee ownership, the “contagion effect” can be a key strategy. One industry where this phenomenon is well known is craft beer, where the trend is poised to get a boost from […]
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