According to the latest Hartman Group consumer research on sustainability, 57% of people surveyed said that “top-level responsibility” for creating a sustainable future rests with large companies, followed by governments (54%) and individuals (42%). Food co-ops are probably not the “large companies” these folks have in mind, but we would be wise to take note. Just as we’ve seen natural and organic go mainstream, as our competitors respond to increased consumer demand for operational transparency, the stakes regarding sustainability will be raised, as well.

To help co-ops succeed and keep pace with well-funded corporate sustainability efforts, NCG is making a major investment to upgrade our Co+efficient sustainability reporting system. We’ll be working with our current software partner, Sphera, to design and test a more intuitive, user-friendly system in time for our next annual impact metrics reporting cycle in January 2023.

We will be soliciting feedback from co-ops on the existing Co+efficient system this spring. All co-ops are invited to email me (cole.hawthorne@ncg.coop) with feedback any time between now and May 15, 2022. In addition to your observations, please consider commenting on the following questions:

• What might make it easier for your co-op to submit annual impact metrics data each year?
• What might make Co+efficient more useful for your co-op’s business planning needs?
• What might encourage your co-op to track routine data monthly, rather than annually?

If you prefer, we’ll be inviting all Co+efficient contacts to join us in a series of listening sessions in April. Co+efficient contacts should look for a direct email from me inviting you to take part in these opportunities. We also plan to contact those co-ops that currently use Co+efficient the most to schedule one-on-one conversations.

Once we’ve gathered your input, we will share it with Sphera, and they will begin building our new platform for us in June. When it’s ready for testing, we will select five co-ops to pilot the new platform. The pilot will require a firm commitment to participate (likely in early August) and co-ops chosen will be compensated for their staff’s time. We’ll share more details at that stage, but for now, please send us your feedback and consider whether your co-op has the interest, availability and desire to volunteer to pilot the site when it’s ready.

We hope you will share our excitement about this opportunity to take a step forward with our sustainability efforts. Food co-ops have been strong advocates for environmental and social responsibility for decades. We believe the Co+efficient upgrade is an important step towards rising to meet the challenge of sustainability in the decades to come.