3.4 Addressing Global Climate Change

Coöperation is, incidentally, the only way we will be able to confront and remedy global climate change. The fundamental principles and ideals underlying coöperation represent the best path forward toward sustainability.

Those principles favor equal voice and shared well-being, both of which are essential to creating a more sustainable environment. Under the United Nations guidelines, the principles that define the coöperative enterprise include: open and voluntary membership, democratic member control of the enterprise, participation in the enterprise, as well as autonomy and independence.250 These mirror the seven core principles of coöperatives that have emerged in the literature on coöperation—and include, as well, each member having substantially equal control and ownership; each member having a functional role in the enterprise; and a primary focus on the well-being of the members.251 What characterizes the coöperative versus other forms of business structures is the notion of one-member-one-vote and the fact that the primary purpose of a coöperative is not profit maximization or short-term growth, but general well-being.252

Those guiding principles of equality and welfare are precisely the values that will promote a more sustainable living environment.