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Project A1:The Consumer Co-operative Sustainability

and Planning Scorecard

Leslie Brown, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityElizabeth Hicks, Mount Saint Vincent University

André Leclerc, Université de Moncton

June 24, 2010 Community University Research Alliance - Atlantic Cluster

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Supported by & Partnered with

Southern Ontario Node, Social Economy Centre

SOCIALECONOMY.UTORONTO.CA

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Today’s Presentation – An Overview1. Scorecard’s purposes2. Research Partnership Main Goal3. The Partners4. Partnership in Research5. Tool design process6. Scorecard’s structure7. Next steps8. Time frame and responsibilities9. Objectives and research priorities

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Scorecard’s Purposes

A Scorecard to :• Define and measure the Co-operative

Difference.• Guide strategic planning of the Co-op

Difference.• Help benchmark and improve your economic,

social and ecological performance.• Provide valuable information to members.• Raise cooperative’s public image.• Develop leadership among co-operatives as well

as other organizations in social responsibility reporting and planning.

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Research Partnership Main GoalTo develop a self-assessment and planning tool that measures co-operative sustainability (including the social, economic and environmental performance) in relation to targets and priorities set by the co-op’s key stakeholders.= a pilot project initially for consumer co-operatives

Actual tool’s name :

The Consumer Co-operative Sustainability and Planning Scorecard

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The Partners1. Co-op Atlantic

• Léo LeBlanc, Corporate Secretary and Vice-President of Human Resources and Corporate Affairs

• Monique Bourque, Corporate Marketing & Communications Manager

• Roméo Cormier, Manager of Public Affairs2. Academic Partners from 2 universities

• Leslie Brown and Elizabeth Hicks, Mount Saint Vincent University; André Leclerc, l’Université de Moncton

= 6 members of the Research Advisory Committee (RAC)

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The Partners (con’t)

3. Pilot Project Co-ops and CFM (7)

• 5 retail food co-ops (out of 57) & 2 co-operative food markets (out of 13) set up Pilot Project Committees (PPC)

• 3 - 8 persons selected by the Board (Co-op) or the Advisory committee (Co-operative food markets - CFM)

• Includes board or committee member(s) and other key individuals such as general members, managers, member relations officers and other employees.

• May consult with other stakeholders

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The Partners (con’t)

La Coopérative Régionale de la Baie

La Coopérative de St-Louis

La Coopérative de Dieppe

Musquodoboit Valley Co-op

Pictou County Co-op Food Market

Morell Consumers Co-operative

Sackville Co-op Food Market

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Partnership in ResearchCommunity-University Research Alliance =

“ … partnerships between community organizations and postsecondary institutions which, through a process of ongoing collaboration and mutual learning, will foster innovative research, training and the creation of new knowledge ...”

“These partnerships must demonstrably increase research capacity across university and community-based participants in the research, and result in knowledge that is valued and useful for all the partners.” (SSHRC, emphasis added)

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Tool design process1. Drafting the tool, Recruitment of PPCs + Workshops; 2. PPC review of the main themes and practices; 3. Re-drafting the tool based on feedback from the PPCs4. PPC reports on their co-op’s priorities for each of the practices

+ researchers develop the indicators for each practice; 5. PPC reports on performance using the indicators +

commenting on the process and critiquing the indicators; 6. Re-draft tool based on feedback from PPCs, making it

available;7. Review stakeholder approaches and encourage co-operatives

to develop a stakeholder engagement strategy;8. Pilot project co-operatives and other interested co-operatives

use the third draft of the tool and report on the results.

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Scorecard’s Structure• Initial version of the scorecard presented at 2009

Co-op Atlantic AGM :– 178 practices structured in 5 sheets :

• co-operative principles; • operations;• economic measures;• social measures;• environmental measures.

• After the first evaluation by PPCs :– Discard 31 practices.– Revise or move elsewhere in the scorecard : 10

practices.• Further revision by the RAC based on the PPCs

comments.

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Scorecards Structure after revision

• Two scorecards :– Autonomous consumer co-ops

• 145-150 practices organized in 4 sheets (co-operative principles,economic measures,social measures, and environmental measures)

• practices related to co-op values• indicators for each practices

– Co-operative food markets• 130-135 practices organized the same way

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Scorecard’s Structure - co-op version

Theme Subgroup # of pract.

First Sheet : Co-operative Principles

Open & Voluntary Membership 12

Democratic member control I. Governance 14

II. Member Engagement 7

Member Economic Participation 7

Autonomy & Independence 3

Education, Training & Information I. Inform. & Image Manag. 5

II. Member Education 4

III Staff Education 4

Co-operation Among Co-ops 5

Concern for Community 3

Subtotal 64

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Scorecard’s Structure - co-op version (con’t)

Second Sheet : Economic Measures

I. Budgets and planning 6

II. Strategic reporting and monitoring

13

Subtotal 19

Third Sheet : Social

I. Our customers / members 5

II. Our employees 19

III. Our suppliers 9

Subtotal 33

Fourth Sheet : Environment

Subtotal 15

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Scorecard’s Structure : example of practices

Principle 1 - Open & Voluntary Membership 

  PRACTICES

Please indicate how your co-op would prioritize each practice. Please circle the appropriate number on the scale of 1 –5, where 5 is the most important and 1 is the least important.

 Least Important Most Important

Does Not

Apply

1

The co-op makes sure that the membership list is updated regularly. 1 2 3 4 5

N/A

2

Our database (or manual list of members) allows us to identify inactive members. 1 2 3 4 5

N/A

3

The co-op has a member relations policy to provide strong member focus. 1 2 3 4 5

N/A

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Scorecard’s Structure : example of indicators

Principle 1 - Open & Voluntary Membership 

  Indicators

 Metrics - Adjust as appropriate for your co-operative

Our Metric

Benchmark

1# of hours annually provided to pertinent staff to review co-op membership information, member sign-up procedures.

2 % increase or decrease in membership

3 # of new members recruited, year over year

4 # of inactive members, year over year

5 # of member resignation

6 # of re-engaged members

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Next steps

• PPC reports on their co-op’s priorities for each of the practices

• Develop indicators associated to each practices (in collaboration with managers)– to measure the current state of co-op

sustainability and will help your co-op identify opportunities for improvements.

• Using the indicators, PPC reports on performance

• Web version of the tool?

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Time Frame and Partner Responsibilities

Interested co-ops and CFMs volunteer

to produce a sustainability report using the Scorecard – Late Fall/Winter

PPCs work with the tool, supported by

RAC (setting priorities and

reviewing changes to practices)

Spring/Summer 2010

PPCsuse the indicators to

measure performance and set

targets, making suggestions for

improvement of the tool – Late

Summer/Fall

2011 AGM

RAC develops indicators for each practice

by Spring/Summer

RACreviews & updates

indicators by Fall

RAC prepares guide / manual on using the Scorecard -Fall/Winter

RAC makes changes to

Scorecard by Summer/Fall

PPCs review the final draft of the tool and if the timing works it

goes to the zone meetings

– Fall

2010 AGM

PPC Responsibilities

RAC Responsibilities

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Objectives and Research Priorities Identify the performance practices and indicators

that best express the « co-operative difference » and allow a co-op to evaluate and improve its social, environmental and economic performance; [i.e. produce a useful scorecard]

Understand the ways that co-ops use the information to engage in operations and in strategic planning; [i.e. info’ feeds into plan for action]

Learn from this stakeholder approach to the creation of a tool; [i.e. capacity building for all]

Contribute to the development of the theory of co-operative organizations & their impacts on community [i.e. synthesis of info’ for co-ops too]

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There you have it - a partnership for change

THANK YOU !

QUESTIONS?