Cooperator Profile: Joe Naroditsky / Dupont Commons

When the Dupont Commons affordable housing development was approved 15 years ago in the Fort Dupont neighborhood of Southeast Washington DC, housing density required that a substantial parcel be left open to meet building codes. That land became something of a blight; it required basic maintenance, accrued stormwater management fees, and was littered with garbage and illegal dumping. Joe Naroditsky, Director of Solar Programs for CPA, spent two and a half years pitching the land to solar companies, but kept hearing that the terrain wasn’t ideal for solar panel placement and that the project seemed daunting because the costs of development were uncertain.

New Life in A Broken Economy: A Strategy Input Session on Organizing, Finance, and CPA’s Future

Last month CPA Co-op executive director Felipe Witchger hosted a strategy input session on how to breathe new life into a broken economy. Felipe set the stage for the call by sharing CPA Co-op’s success adding value on contract decisions for organizations who work together to tackle ambitious, mission-aligned economic actions. These actions position CPA to help community institutions writ large to think about all of their economic transactions, and integrate their values and mission and purpose into not just their purchasing, but also their real estate and their investing. Felipe brought together representatives from stakeholders across the country: co-op organizing and finance, credit unions and church mutuals, national co-op organizations and new start-ups, to explore this new economy. What follows is a series of highlights from this conversation.