On November 16th and 17th, CPPA hosted Ted Howard to talk about the development and launch of the Evergreen Cooperatives, a business initiative aimed at creating living wage jobs and building wealth in downtown Cleveland. While here, Howard — who founded The Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland and is now a senior fellow at the Cleveland Foundation — gave two public talks about Evergreen and met with a group of stakeholders in Springfield about the possible utility of the model for that city.
Today, the Evergreen Cooperatives include a $5.7 million state-of-the-art green laundry, a solar installation company, a community newspaper, and a multi-block hydroponic greenhouse aimed at providing farm fresh produce to food retailers, wholesalers, and food service companies. The Evergreen model aims to revitalize a local economy from the “ground up,” creating living wage jobs that also help to build wealth and assets in local communities. A video about the Evergreen Cooperatives is available on YouTube here.
Howard was recently named by Utne Reader as one of the “Top 25 Visionaries Who are Changing Your World.” Howard and the Evergreen Cooperatives were also recently featured on the PBS documentary, “Fixing the Future.”