Eighteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

This talk centers on the presenter’s new book by the same title. Based on case studies in Spain and the U.S., it offers an alternative vision for creating sustainable businesses, emphasizing the power and potential of cooperative models. Drawing on both her extensive experience founding and directing social enterprises and her interviews with sustainability leaders, Scanlan provides a legal blueprint for creating alternate corporate business models that mitigate climate change, pay living wages, and act as responsible community members, including Certified B Corps and benefit corporations. With an emphasis on cooperatives, this book reveals the power and potential of cooperating as a unifying concept around which to design social enterprise achieving triple bottom-line results: for society, the environment, and finance.