Throughout urban and rural America, cooperatives are thriving.  Credit unions, housing cooperatives, energy, water, and telecommunications cooperatives, grocery cooperatives and, increasingly, healthcare cooperatives are providing basic services in their communities.  Today, more than 1 in 3 Americans are receiving these services

Consumer cooperatives have survived and prospered over the years not only because they provide essential services but also because they embody cooperative values.  These values include taking personal responsibility, working constructively with others, treating all “member-owners” equally, addressing issues honestly, and participating in annual elections.

Historically, most cooperatives were organized around a community (e.g., rural electric co-ops) or an employer (e.g., credit unions) to meet essential human needs.  For example, if communities had not organized rural electric cooperatives in sparsely populated rural areas, farmsteads would have waited decades to gain electric power to light their homes, power their appliances and irrigate their lands.

Consumer cooperatives have been so successful that some now serve millions of members.  Navy Federal Credit Union, for example, includes more than 14 million members ranging from new enlistees to four-star generals.  Collectively, America’s electric cooperatives serve 42 million people, including 92% of persistent poverty counties.

Despite the size of some consumer cooperatives, all cooperatives embody the principle of “concern for community.”   Consumer cooperatives are community-based, community-controlled and community-governed.

Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) is a wonderful example of a consumer cooperative meeting the needs of a local community.  KIUC, serving the island of Kauai in Hawaii, was formed in November of 2002 and is one of America’s newest electric cooperatives.

The cooperative was created through the acquisition of an investor-owned utility. When Citizens Communications of Connecticut chose to divest their electric properties in Kauai, citizens on the island chose to offer a cooperative bid for the purchase of the utility.  After a 3-year negotiation, meetings with the Public Utility Commission and a robust education program on the structure and governance of cooperatives, KIUC was incorporated as an electric cooperative.

Shortly after the purchase of the electrical assets by the cooperative, a series of island-wide meetings were held to receive input from the new member-owners.  The overwhelming consensus was that the citizens of Kauai wanted 100% renewable energy from their newly formed cooperative.  The engineering staff went back to headquarters and asked themselves how they could possibly make this happen.  They gradually formed a plan to eliminate the diesel fuel generation, delivered by ship, that was continually increasing power supply costs and instead opted to look at solar and hydropower to meet the island’s electricity needs, including the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands, and the resort hotels. The result was the Waiahi hydroelectric plants.

The cooperative’s engineers focused their attention on the water diversions and their associated ditch irrigation systems that were built nearly 100 years ago to support Kauai’s sugar industry.  After careful analysis, those systems were repurposed to provide new hydroelectric power to the island.

The Waiahi hydro plants and ditches continue to support diversified agriculture in central Kauai by increasing water flow availability. Today, 75 farms grow a variety of crops on 10,000 acres of state and private agricultural land. The use of the hydro system also allows KIUC to avoid burning roughly 675,000 gallons of oil every year.

The cooperative’s Board of Directors has now set an aggressive goal of reaching 70 percent renewable generation by 2030. Currently KIUC is approaching 55 percent renewable, which includes the Waiahi hydro facilities.

As a result of this innovative thinking, Kauia Electric Utility Cooperative is the leader in the entire industry in reaching the goal of 100% renewable energy delivery, and all because the cooperative members asked for it.

The consumer cooperative approach to basic services provides examples of how we can strengthen civil society.  This is the same approach that numerous non-profit organizations — from churches to PTAs to food banks — utilize to meet the needs of their local institutions and communities.  Volunteers and staff work to better their communities, whether through first-class elementary and high school education, health care clinics staffed by qualified professionals, adequate and affordable housing, retirement facilities for the elderly, grocery stores with attractive and nutritious food, and access to high-speed communication.

Consumer cooperatives provide many of these services.  They also introduce cooperative values to their members and urge them to participate in their cooperatives as member-owners. A primary responsibility of a consumer co-op member is to vote in elections for the board of directors.  Consumer cooperatives emphasize this in their daily communications to their members through their websites and newsletters.  Voting typically occurs at a co-op’s annual meeting.  In some rural areas, it is the most prominent annual event in that community.

According to numerous polls, most Americans yearn for a country where there is less social divisiveness, polarization, and even hatred.  Hundreds of thousands of diverse consumer cooperatives throughout the country show that Americans can still come together with mutual respect, working cooperatively to meet their basic community needs.