Advancing Co-operation Our Impact

The urgency for climate change action and sustainability improvements has remained undiminished, despite the global turbulence arising from firstly Covid and then the Ukraine war. Awareness of the role and potential for co-ops, as values-driven ‘vehicles’ to lead and implement change more quickly and at scale, is gaining recognition.

The Scotland Food & Drink-funded Co-ops and Climate Challenge Programme continued to develop momentum over the last year. Activity included holding focused ‘climate change assessments’ with a range of members. A concept paper was developed and inception workshop held to explore relevant sustainability metrics. A co-op sustainability roadmap is being worked up which includes good progression on the environmental management co-operative concept. Case studies on co-op best practice are now in development and there has been a final refinement of sustainability action plan templates, ahead of testing which is now underway.

In October the development of the co-op sustainability roadmap was informed by a three-day study trip to Denmark to explore how Danish co-ops are handling sustainability and the climate crisis on behalf of their members. A group of nine co-op managers and chairs made the trip. Visits/presentations heard included Arla Foods, Arhus University, KMC Ambe, BM Silos, DLG, Danish Agric and Food Council and the Danish Research Institute for co-operation.

We launched the C2Network in 2021 to encourage cross-sector collaboration and provide a forum for academia, research institutes and technology providers to work with co-op members to find innovative solutions to key challenges. A successful year for C2N saw significant progress made on work around the decarbonisation priority. The Green Hydrogen theme progressed well, with the creation of three workstreams - business model, policy/ funding, and engineering; and the first in person meeting incorporated a visit to an NFUS member’s farm to see their green hydrogen advances. In August, a successful webinar on ‘Revalorisation of Agri Waste’ was delivered, and this theme is now also progressing well with a successful application for funding to IBioIC for a feasibility study of co-products from the potato growing industry; and detailed exploration for the ‘wool for mulching’ project which included Angus Soft Fruits, academic partners and a wool packaging manufacturer. The next priorities for C2N are being worked up based around the Earth Observation and Data theme.

As ever, we have been busy supporting SAOS co-op members with governance advice, strategy development work, member engagement programmes and business development support. A significant amount of support has been provided to scope out and launch the new Seed Potato Organisation (SPO) co-op, helping fill the void left by AHDB Potatoes’ demise. Work has included supporting the production of a prospectus and five-year financial plan. A website and logo have also been developed. A series of meetings were arranged with seed growers throughout the country and recruitment is progressing well, with 40 grower members having joined by the end of March, representing over 20% of the seed potato planting area.

SAOS has provided training courses to members for many years, traditionally with a focus on governance-related matters. Over recent years this has diversified to include relevant business and personal development topics. In the last year we took another step forward, launching a new leadership programme, Growing Tomorrow’s Leaders. The training has been designed around the strategic and operational challenges facing the industry and provides co-op members and wider rural organisations with the opportunity to encourage and enable promising employees, expanding their personal skills and mind-set. Other very successful training has included the two-day Co-op Management in Practice (C-MiP) event and two new training modules ‘Negotiation and Remediation’ and ‘Coaching and Mentoring for Managers’.