Earthworker Cooperative

Why Earthworker Cooperative?

The United Nations has declared 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives in recognition of their contribution to socio-economic development and in particular their track record in impacting poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.

Earthworker Cooperative will provide the vehicle for Australia to establish Eureka’s Future. Earthworker Cooperative is the structure model that will provide the setup and ongoing support to Eureka’s Future and other cooperatives set up in its wake.

The Plan

Earthworker Cooperative will provide finance, assistance with marketing strategy, research and development, and networking to a new social sector of the Australian economy. Earthworker Cooperative will be a powerful force for the collective good, on behalf of its member organisations: cooperatives, unions, shire councils, faith-based organisations and individuals.

Earthworker Cooperative has a finance arm, Earthworker Finance, which is an account managed by Australian Credit Union, MECU. As the social sector and its factories grow in numbers, we will invite Superannuation Funds to partner with Earthworker Finance to provide the critical social capital required for a successful and powerful social sector of the Australian economy. This new social sector will be based on the manufacturing of our renewable energy needs.

Why has a cooperative structure been chosen?

  • A Cooperative cannot be wholly owned by any one party or entity; it cannot be bought out. This guarantees that the venture will remain Australian owned and operated.
  • As cooperatives have a closed loop of finances, the sole beneficiaries of the income generated by the enterprises are the cooperatives themselves and the communities in which they work.This ensures that products manufactured by the Cooperative can be sold at a competitive price and surpluses will be used to further expand activities of new cooperatives.
  • A cooperative structure is compatible with the philosophy that socially and environmentally responsible approaches to economics, in addition to worker’s rights, are paramount.

Earthworker Cooperative – Earthworker Finance RELATIONSHIP

  • Earthworker Cooperative (EC) and Earthworker Finance (EF) are two distinctly separate bodies tied together by articles of co-operation
  • EF, the finance wing, undertakes all financial dealings on behalf of EC and its members
  • EF is the financial arm of EC, which makes the everyday financial decisions around investment, contractual arrangements and accounting and reporting
  • EF is entirely owned by its investors, the members of the Earthworker Cooperative
  • EF has autonomy in order to avoid any political or factional interference with the fiscal decisions of Earthworker Finance
  • EF must provide a status report at every meeting of the Earthworker Cooperative and must be audited, providing a full financial report at the end of each financial year
  • Earthworker Cooperative is owned by its members and supports all of the manufacturing, selling or leasing of member Cooperatives’ products through Earthworker Finance
  • Earthworker Cooperative also gives direct support with marketing, training, research and development, recruitment, etc., whenever such assistance is requested by member Cooperatives.

Product range for Earthworker Cooperative

1. Large Wind Power Generators:

  • Components, Gearboxes Towers, Blades, etc.

2. Small, medium and large biomass:

  •  All local waste will be used right where it came from.

3. Small, medium wind generators:

  • Delivering micro power both to specific projects and to sell excess power back to the grid.

4. Energy Efficient Grey Water/Brown Water Harvesting Technologies:

  • Taking water from all pre-existing structures. Designing and building all new construction, as well as cisterns, to collect falling water and run-off.

5. Wave Power Generators:

  • Victoria has world-class wave resources. This resource could be harvested to provide power to isolated plants and add to the power grid.

6. Large Solar Thermal and Combined heat & power photovoltaic and hot water systems:

  • Many houses will generate some power into the grid and therefore see a further reduction in power bills. For working people management of our debt is key not only to an economically sustainable life, but now also to ecological sustainability.
  • The Australian designed social model we are using is a workers’ cooperative: Earthworker Cooperative. It will manufacture, then sell, to union-supported Earthworker Finance, which in turn will lease to communities, governments and businesses. In this way photovoltaics become affordable, so that we get a rapid uptake.

Goods and power, made available through Enterprise Bargaining Agreements, will be therefore affordable for rapid uptake.
We, working people in our communities, can become the power generator in our own right – in a healthy social sector of the Australian economy.