look just something wrong with our
global economy is it there I mean it’s
pretty unfair isn’t it if you think
about it if you face it for the majority
of human beings our system is terribly
unfair actually it’s unfair for many
living creatures and we need the air the
water the trees on the bees and right
now we’re destroying them which means
we’re destroying ourselves I think we
all know that I think we all know this
can’t go on do we know who’s responsible
yeah who’s responsible for such an
unfair an unsustainable system well I’m
sorry I’m gonna have to tell you this
but I am every time I go to the
supermarket every time I shop on the
Internet every time I buy a pair of
shoes I’m putting my money into that
system
so yes I’m responsible and then what I’m
only human after all don’t put the blame
on me this is a globalized system
there’s seven point six billion of us
out there I can’t change that I can’t
change that system but there’s one thing
I can change it’s my contribution to the
system and that’s pretty much what I’ve
been trying to do for the last 20 years
and as I’ve been doing that it’s like
the way the burden of that system with
that unfairness on my shoulders has been
very gently been lifted off of my
shoulders every day
I feel much happier today in a sense I
feel more human because I feel more
connected in fact I feel connected to
all of you so this is my story
eighteen years ago I was living in town
an apartment with my wife Christina and
my three kids our third child Paul is
Justin born this one we started dreaming
of a future which was less unfair and
maybe more sustainable my wife and I
both grew up in a village and we loved
the idea of everybody knowing each other
all the kids playing together and people
looking after and helping each other so
we got together with a group of friends
and we started discussing these issues
and dreaming of another future and
pretty soon we came up with the idea of
creating our own housing cooperative and
our first challenge was to find a piece
of land and there it is Paul standing up
on the picture was 8 years old by the
time we found it and on that same piece
of land a professional real estate
developer was to construct a building
the same size at the same time as ours
so we were to see him and we asked him
hey can we cooperate on this and he said
well it’s a tricky operation if you want
high quality and low rent financially
it’s gonna be very difficult but I
suppose we could help you I mean we’ve
got to know how the architects the
engineers so you tell us what you want
you find a bank find the money come back
and we can build it for you so I went
back to my friends and we discussed this
I said yeah cool and the first thing we
asked was we’d really love a wooden
building please not concrete and he said
well if you want those low rent I’m
sorry that’s gonna be too expensive the
second thing we ask is we like big
balconies which connect to each other
and he said I’m sorry that would be too
spencer third thing we asked we’d like
very big installation so as to reduce
our energy consumption and guess what he
said I’m sorry too expensive the fourth
thing we asked is we’d like compost
toilets in order to produce our own
human manure to fertilize our vegetable
gardens and by the way he looked this
this time we said we’re sorry
let’s not cooperate so we looked for our
own architect and we actually found one
really excited I did the idea of working
with us and that’s what we did for the
next three years
and sure enough we built it that village
that was built by that professional real
estate developer that’s the concrete
buildings that’s what happens when money
is your main driver in a coop by the way
everybody has one vote you can put a
million dollars in the company you still
have only one vote that makes it pretty
interesting but it’s no more money it’s
not money anymore that’s your main
driver it’s a people and people’s dreams
and this is what we built
that’s what I’ve been living for the
last seven years with my family and
basically it’s wood the apartments are
bigger the balconies are bigger we’ve
got an extra music room home cinema
workshop hen house it’s got heavy
insulation actually it’s the most
energy-efficient building in Geneva and
on top of that the rents are lower in
fact the rents here are half the market
price
I think you heard me we’re in Geneva
Switzerland one of the most expensive
places in the world we’ve built a pretty
expensive building and our rents are
half the market price when I realize
that I tell you something hit me pretty
hard everything I’d ever heard about
that super efficient competitive free
market economy fell to pieces like a
house of cards the reason is actually
quite simple
in our system there’s no speculation
nobody’s trying to get rich we’re only
looking for better lives for our friends
and our families now wait a minute I
haven’t told you the whole story yet at
the age of 82 I convinced my father to
come and live in an apartment ten times
smaller than his house he was pretty
unhappy with that until he realized
whenever you pressed on his emergency
button he had a dozen friendly neighbors
ready to come and help cooperation sure
made my life a lot easier I know all my
neighbors we spent so much time
discussing the living room the bedroom
the balcony the kitchen the cupboard the
color the materials
we spent time working together gardening
painting working partying and sometimes
arguing yeah just like in any other
other neighborhood except in this
building I know there will always be a
friendly door open whenever I feel
lonely cooperation helps people connect
to each other competition only breeds
loneliness today I’m lucky to be one of
seven employees of our co-op we’ve got
eight other construction projects all in
Geneva all with very high economic
ecological and social standards the
local authorities have understood the
advantages of working with us fewer cars
means less resistance to urban
development lower rent means less
subsidies and more money for the state
and more importantly involving in
consulting future inhabitants and tells
higher quality of life and more peaceful
neighborhoods our second project is a
six story building completely insulated
with straw bales produced by a local
farmer this is a picture of the
inauguration party last year
and you wouldn’t believe it but those
people in front are actually standing on
an autonomous sewage treatment plant
which was invented for this building
under their feet there’s thousands of
earthworms doing all the work and water
being recycled back into the toilet
flush this system it’s got just about
zero environmental impact and the cost
is a quarter of a centralised sewage
system
there’s no patent by the way we’d be
happy to share our experience with
anybody anywhere in the world and this
building as well on the initiative of
few inhabitants we’ve reserved some
apartments for migrant families and
seeing their smiles
we’ve now are now doing that for all our
future projects our third project is at
a bigger scale we’ve just finished the
construction of these three buildings as
part of a news district for 3,000
inhabitants this gave us the chance to
go beyond housing and to start exploring
our cooperative approach at in other
realm’s of the economy and our first
challenge was concerning food how do you
feed a district of 3,000 inhabitants so
he got together with the five other
housing cooperatives and the local
authorities and we started finding ways
to consult and involve all the future
inhabitants and neighbors and our first
event we organized four years ago was
attended by nearly 200 people and indeed
food was one of the major concerns this
is four years ago I’m pretty soon after
this event we had small groups of people
starting organizing imagining and
dreaming of a whole new cooperative food
chain from the field to the plate today
four years later we’ve got a farmers
cooperatives up with seven farmers
cultivating inside and around the
district we’ve got a craftsmen and women
cooperative including a baker a butcher
a dairy economy a Carter er all situated
inside that same district we’ve got
cooperative
restaurants and now in the middle of
this district it’s in Geneva by the way
just outside Geneva we’re planning a
cooperative supermarket which will be
completely owned and run by the clients
the inhabitants the farmers the
craftsmen and the restaurants in this
district as well we decided to upscale
our car sharing system and we’ve now
developed completely open-source free to
share a computer and GPS system which
can be installed in any car park
anywhere around the world but and which
enables a community just to share their
cars in a cooperative economy the best
ideas are there to be shared so they
multiply whereas resources are protected
so they last quite the opposite of a
system in which you put a patents on the
best ideas to protect them and you
bundle resources to maximize profits
today many people come to see me and
asking for advice how does how do you
start a cooperative and of course
looking back I realize how lucky we’ve
been getting so much help from so many
people and meeting extraordinary people
along the way I really would like to
thank them all I think none of this
could have been possible without them
but if I had to give you one piece of
advice it would be this listen to your
heart look at the people around you do
you really think we were meant to
compete for an unfair world and end up
feeling lonely don’t you think we’d
rather cooperate help each other and
cooperation enhances collective
intelligence cooperation helps us become
better people
cooperation boosts our self-esteem it
helps each of us find a place in society
but above all cooperation helps us
connect to each other
and to all other living creatures we’re
all in this together
but we must be realistic let’s not
pretend this is going to be easy these
are hard times but if you two feel like
a cooperative person if you’re ready to
swim against the current you can be sure
there’s people around you feeling the
same and as we start to realize how
empowering cooperation can be we’re
going to see more and more initiatives
appear in your country in your town in
your neighborhood it might be people to
getting together to share a vegetable
garden or helping a local farmer or
craftsman you might want to start your
own cooperative bookshop basically it’s
our time it’s our money it’s our choice
either we keep feeding that unfair and
unsustainable system or we start looking
for ways to help and support a more
cooperative and sustainable system but
before you choose remember please listen to your heart thank you so much
global economy is it there I mean it’s
pretty unfair isn’t it if you think
about it if you face it for the majority
of human beings our system is terribly
unfair actually it’s unfair for many
living creatures and we need the air the
water the trees on the bees and right
now we’re destroying them which means
we’re destroying ourselves I think we
all know that I think we all know this
can’t go on do we know who’s responsible
yeah who’s responsible for such an
unfair an unsustainable system well I’m
sorry I’m gonna have to tell you this
but I am every time I go to the
supermarket every time I shop on the
Internet every time I buy a pair of
shoes I’m putting my money into that
system
so yes I’m responsible and then what I’m
only human after all don’t put the blame
on me this is a globalized system
there’s seven point six billion of us
out there I can’t change that I can’t
change that system but there’s one thing
I can change it’s my contribution to the
system and that’s pretty much what I’ve
been trying to do for the last 20 years
and as I’ve been doing that it’s like
the way the burden of that system with
that unfairness on my shoulders has been
very gently been lifted off of my
shoulders every day
I feel much happier today in a sense I
feel more human because I feel more
connected in fact I feel connected to
all of you so this is my story
eighteen years ago I was living in town
an apartment with my wife Christina and
my three kids our third child Paul is
Justin born this one we started dreaming
of a future which was less unfair and
maybe more sustainable my wife and I
both grew up in a village and we loved
the idea of everybody knowing each other
all the kids playing together and people
looking after and helping each other so
we got together with a group of friends
and we started discussing these issues
and dreaming of another future and
pretty soon we came up with the idea of
creating our own housing cooperative and
our first challenge was to find a piece
of land and there it is Paul standing up
on the picture was 8 years old by the
time we found it and on that same piece
of land a professional real estate
developer was to construct a building
the same size at the same time as ours
so we were to see him and we asked him
hey can we cooperate on this and he said
well it’s a tricky operation if you want
high quality and low rent financially
it’s gonna be very difficult but I
suppose we could help you I mean we’ve
got to know how the architects the
engineers so you tell us what you want
you find a bank find the money come back
and we can build it for you so I went
back to my friends and we discussed this
I said yeah cool and the first thing we
asked was we’d really love a wooden
building please not concrete and he said
well if you want those low rent I’m
sorry that’s gonna be too expensive the
second thing we ask is we like big
balconies which connect to each other
and he said I’m sorry that would be too
spencer third thing we asked we’d like
very big installation so as to reduce
our energy consumption and guess what he
said I’m sorry too expensive the fourth
thing we asked is we’d like compost
toilets in order to produce our own
human manure to fertilize our vegetable
gardens and by the way he looked this
this time we said we’re sorry
let’s not cooperate so we looked for our
own architect and we actually found one
really excited I did the idea of working
with us and that’s what we did for the
next three years
and sure enough we built it that village
that was built by that professional real
estate developer that’s the concrete
buildings that’s what happens when money
is your main driver in a coop by the way
everybody has one vote you can put a
million dollars in the company you still
have only one vote that makes it pretty
interesting but it’s no more money it’s
not money anymore that’s your main
driver it’s a people and people’s dreams
and this is what we built
that’s what I’ve been living for the
last seven years with my family and
basically it’s wood the apartments are
bigger the balconies are bigger we’ve
got an extra music room home cinema
workshop hen house it’s got heavy
insulation actually it’s the most
energy-efficient building in Geneva and
on top of that the rents are lower in
fact the rents here are half the market
price
I think you heard me we’re in Geneva
Switzerland one of the most expensive
places in the world we’ve built a pretty
expensive building and our rents are
half the market price when I realize
that I tell you something hit me pretty
hard everything I’d ever heard about
that super efficient competitive free
market economy fell to pieces like a
house of cards the reason is actually
quite simple
in our system there’s no speculation
nobody’s trying to get rich we’re only
looking for better lives for our friends
and our families now wait a minute I
haven’t told you the whole story yet at
the age of 82 I convinced my father to
come and live in an apartment ten times
smaller than his house he was pretty
unhappy with that until he realized
whenever you pressed on his emergency
button he had a dozen friendly neighbors
ready to come and help cooperation sure
made my life a lot easier I know all my
neighbors we spent so much time
discussing the living room the bedroom
the balcony the kitchen the cupboard the
color the materials
we spent time working together gardening
painting working partying and sometimes
arguing yeah just like in any other
other neighborhood except in this
building I know there will always be a
friendly door open whenever I feel
lonely cooperation helps people connect
to each other competition only breeds
loneliness today I’m lucky to be one of
seven employees of our co-op we’ve got
eight other construction projects all in
Geneva all with very high economic
ecological and social standards the
local authorities have understood the
advantages of working with us fewer cars
means less resistance to urban
development lower rent means less
subsidies and more money for the state
and more importantly involving in
consulting future inhabitants and tells
higher quality of life and more peaceful
neighborhoods our second project is a
six story building completely insulated
with straw bales produced by a local
farmer this is a picture of the
inauguration party last year
and you wouldn’t believe it but those
people in front are actually standing on
an autonomous sewage treatment plant
which was invented for this building
under their feet there’s thousands of
earthworms doing all the work and water
being recycled back into the toilet
flush this system it’s got just about
zero environmental impact and the cost
is a quarter of a centralised sewage
system
there’s no patent by the way we’d be
happy to share our experience with
anybody anywhere in the world and this
building as well on the initiative of
few inhabitants we’ve reserved some
apartments for migrant families and
seeing their smiles
we’ve now are now doing that for all our
future projects our third project is at
a bigger scale we’ve just finished the
construction of these three buildings as
part of a news district for 3,000
inhabitants this gave us the chance to
go beyond housing and to start exploring
our cooperative approach at in other
realm’s of the economy and our first
challenge was concerning food how do you
feed a district of 3,000 inhabitants so
he got together with the five other
housing cooperatives and the local
authorities and we started finding ways
to consult and involve all the future
inhabitants and neighbors and our first
event we organized four years ago was
attended by nearly 200 people and indeed
food was one of the major concerns this
is four years ago I’m pretty soon after
this event we had small groups of people
starting organizing imagining and
dreaming of a whole new cooperative food
chain from the field to the plate today
four years later we’ve got a farmers
cooperatives up with seven farmers
cultivating inside and around the
district we’ve got a craftsmen and women
cooperative including a baker a butcher
a dairy economy a Carter er all situated
inside that same district we’ve got
cooperative
restaurants and now in the middle of
this district it’s in Geneva by the way
just outside Geneva we’re planning a
cooperative supermarket which will be
completely owned and run by the clients
the inhabitants the farmers the
craftsmen and the restaurants in this
district as well we decided to upscale
our car sharing system and we’ve now
developed completely open-source free to
share a computer and GPS system which
can be installed in any car park
anywhere around the world but and which
enables a community just to share their
cars in a cooperative economy the best
ideas are there to be shared so they
multiply whereas resources are protected
so they last quite the opposite of a
system in which you put a patents on the
best ideas to protect them and you
bundle resources to maximize profits
today many people come to see me and
asking for advice how does how do you
start a cooperative and of course
looking back I realize how lucky we’ve
been getting so much help from so many
people and meeting extraordinary people
along the way I really would like to
thank them all I think none of this
could have been possible without them
but if I had to give you one piece of
advice it would be this listen to your
heart look at the people around you do
you really think we were meant to
compete for an unfair world and end up
feeling lonely don’t you think we’d
rather cooperate help each other and
cooperation enhances collective
intelligence cooperation helps us become
better people
cooperation boosts our self-esteem it
helps each of us find a place in society
but above all cooperation helps us
connect to each other
and to all other living creatures we’re
all in this together
but we must be realistic let’s not
pretend this is going to be easy these
are hard times but if you two feel like
a cooperative person if you’re ready to
swim against the current you can be sure
there’s people around you feeling the
same and as we start to realize how
empowering cooperation can be we’re
going to see more and more initiatives
appear in your country in your town in
your neighborhood it might be people to
getting together to share a vegetable
garden or helping a local farmer or
craftsman you might want to start your
own cooperative bookshop basically it’s
our time it’s our money it’s our choice
either we keep feeding that unfair and
unsustainable system or we start looking
for ways to help and support a more
cooperative and sustainable system but
before you choose remember please listen to your heart thank you so much
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