Community-based enterprises SolarShare, ZooShare, and the Centre For Social Innovation have two exciting collaborations in the works. They already have a lot in common - they are all in the process of selling community bonds, and they all have a strong commitment to providing triple-bottom-line returns on investment that benefit people, the economy, and the environment. They also represent a growing number of socially responsible investment (SRI) opportunities currently making headlines in Ontario.
Seeing the potential in collaborating to share resources and spread the collective word about their investment products, these three organizations developed an easy-to-use guide to ethical investing: Impact Investing with Community Bonds. It clearly outlines how a person’s investment dollars can make a difference by investing in one or more bond offerings, promoting the individual players as well as the socially responsible investment sector as a whole.
To capitalize on this first collaboration, SolarShare, ZooShare, and CSI are joining forces again on March 19 for a public event that will highlight their own successes and provide networking opportunities for anyone interested in Community Power or ethical investing. There will be food and drink on offer from CSI’s delicious Coffee Pubs, and information booths from other environmental and social justice organizations that call CSI home.
More about the organizations:
SolarShare boasts over 750 co-operative members and has successfully installed nearly 3 MW of solar capacity on rooftops across Ontario. Since 2010, SolarShare projects have generated over $2.5 million in revenue, and counting.
ZooShare has plans to turn poo into power- that’s right, this Community Power co-operative has a Feed-in-Tariff contract to construct a 500kW biogas plant at the Toronto Zoo, which will also divert waste from a large grocery store chain.
CSI is committed to supporting non-profits, start-ups, artists, and innovators by providing co-working space, a resource network, and more. The organization already has four successful locations in Toronto and New York, and is looking to expand its downtown office.