Post Carbon Fellow Michael Shuman’s PCI Resilience Guide, Local Dollars, Local Sense, was reviewed at Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire.

From the article:

Shuman’s book details several ways to jumpstart the local investment trend. First on his list: cooperatives.

That’s because coops are almost entirely regulated at the state level – and most states don’t define cooperative memberships as securities. That makes it relatively easy for a group of unaccredited consumers to pool their capital and create a cooperative benefitting all the members.

Coops – naturally composed of cooperative folks –also help each other cut the cost of complying with full disclosure requirements by sharing legal templates. That’s allowed some coops to allow unaccredited investors to invest in them.

Creativity is also a product of cooperative minds. Shuman gives the example of Coop Power in Western Massachusetts, where members each put $1,000 into a pool that is invested in local energy businesses, such as solar installation, energy efficient appliances and biofuels. As long as less than 40 percent of the members’ capital is invested, the coop is not considered an investment company.

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