Cooperative Enterprises and the Ecological Transition. Self-Organization of Stakeholders, Multi-Stakeholder Governance, and Sustainability Goals

This chapter seeks to analyze the emergence and development of adaptive, multi-stakeholder governance in cooperative enterprises in support of the achievement of environmentally sustainable goals. The evolution of the governance structure of cooperatives has demonstrated that it is possible to increase complexity and improve adaptability and resilience to change through the active inclusion of diverse publics in their governance and management. Stakeholder self-organization provided a solid foundation on which to build a new adaptive model of organizational evolution. This evolutionary path has brought social and community cooperatives to the fore as locally rooted and multi-party organizations pursuing not only mutualistic but also social goals. Looking ahead, it is expected that cooperatives will continue to change and adapt their governance rules and structures to serve new emerging goals related to environmental sustainability. In this regard, some new accounting and regulatory tools, such as environmental codes of ethics and environmental reporting, are briefly discussed.