The socio-political and economic conditions in North America have been undergoing a considerable shift over the last several decades. The end of the post-WWII golden age heralded the gradual erosion of the Keynesian welfare state social safety-net. As a result, state funding was withdrawn from social services and non-profit organizations were forced to fill the void with increasingly limited fiscal and human resources.

Social enterprises have emerged as viable business models that create a blended return on investment as a result of the multiple economic, social, and environmental benefits they bring to local communities. 

Greening the economy at the local level will bring jobs, prosperity, and help us address the environmental challenges we’re facing. That is the finding of Green Economy at Community Scale, by Professors Tim Jackson and Peter Victor — two of the world’s top ecological economists and leading thinkers on issues of environmental sustainability and economic growth.

Human history is largely the story of communities, punctuated by examples of cooperatives--in fact, our level of cooperative behavior is one of the attributes that makes us most human. In recent years, however, concepts such as rugged individualism and social Darwinism have competed against cooperative ideas for supremacy, and today's climate of global economic crisis has found these "me-first" concepts wanting.

Earlier this year, Atira Property Management Inc. (APMI) contracted Ernst & Young to perform a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis. The purpose of the SROI analysis is to determine the costs and benefits to all key stakeholders of hiring Target Employee Group (TEG) individuals.

The richest 400 Americans now own more wealth than the bottom 180 million taken together. The political system is in deadlock. Social and economic pain continue to grow. Environmental devastation and global warming present growing challenges. Is there any path toward a more democratic, equal and ecologically sustainable society? What can one person do?