The Seven Cooperative Principles: What They Look Like at PV Squared

October is Co-op Month, a time to celebrate a business model that has shaped PV Squared since our founding in Greenfield in 2002.

We talk often about being a 100% worker-owned solar cooperative. But what does that actually mean?

Cooperatives around the world are united by a shared set of values and seven guiding principles. Developed through the international cooperative movement, these principles provide a framework for businesses that are owned and democratically controlled by the people they serve or, in the case of a worker cooperative like PV Squared, by the people who work there.

They aren’t a checklist we pull out once a year for Co-op Month. They influence how we govern our company, develop our people, invest our resources, work with other businesses, and participate in the communities we call home.

Here’s what the Seven Cooperative Principles look like through the lens of PV Squared.

1. Voluntary and Open Membership

Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to people willing to accept the responsibilities of membership.

At PV Squared, employment and ownership are not automatically the same thing. Employees have the opportunity to pursue a path toward worker ownership, learning what it means to become not just an employee of the company, but one of its stewards.

That distinction matters.

Ownership comes with opportunities, but also responsibilities. Worker-owners participate in governance, learn how the business operates, contribute to decisions, and take responsibility for the long-term health of the cooperative.

Our Worker-Owner-in-Training process helps employees understand that responsibility before deciding whether ownership is right for them.

The goal isn’t simply to create more owners. It’s to create informed, engaged owners who understand what they’re choosing to become part of.

2. Democratic Member Control

One of the clearest differences between a conventional business and a cooperative is who gets a voice.

PV Squared is democratically governed by its worker-owners.

That means ownership isn’t determined by job title, seniority, or who has the largest financial stake. Worker-owners participate in the governance of the cooperative and elect representatives to our Board of Directors.

Democracy in a workplace doesn’t mean every person makes every operational decision. Running a solar company still requires clearly defined roles, expertise, leadership, and accountability.

What it does mean is that the people doing the work have meaningful power in shaping the organization they collectively own.

The decisions we make today affect our coworkers, our clients, and the company we’ll inherit tomorrow. Democratic ownership gives us both a voice in those decisions and a responsibility to take them seriously.

3. Member Economic Participation

Worker ownership is also economic ownership.

PV Squared’s worker-owners have a financial stake in the cooperative and collectively share responsibility for its economic health.

Rather than building value primarily for outside shareholders, a cooperative can reinvest in the business, its employees, and its long-term stability.

That changes the relationship between work and ownership.

When PV Squared succeeds, we’re not creating value for a distant group of investors. We’re strengthening a company owned by the people working within it.

That perspective encourages us to think beyond the next quarter.

What equipment should we invest in? How do we maintain stable, year-round jobs? How do we prepare for changes in the solar industry? How much should we reinvest today to make the cooperative stronger tomorrow?

Those aren’t abstract questions when you’re one of the people who owns the answer.

4. Autonomy and Independence

Cooperatives are designed to remain accountable to their members.

For PV Squared, independence allows our worker-owners to make decisions based on what we believe will support the long-term health of our company, our clients, and our work.

We’re not operating toward an acquisition timeline or answering to outside shareholders demanding short-term growth.

That independence is particularly important in solar.

A solar energy system is infrastructure expected to operate for 25 to 30 years. We believe the company standing behind that investment should be thinking on a similar timeline.

Our cooperative structure gives us the ability to prioritize thoughtful system design, craftsmanship, sustainable growth, long-term service, and client relationships over simply maximizing the number of projects we sell.

We aren’t trying to build the biggest solar company.

We’re trying to build one that lasts.

5. Education, Training, and Information

A cooperative only works when its members understand how to participate in it.

Education is therefore built into the cooperative model.

At PV Squared, that begins internally. Worker-owners learn about governance, finance, cooperative decision-making, leadership, and the responsibilities of ownership alongside the technical education required to work in an evolving solar industry.

But Principle Five extends beyond our own walls.

We’ve welcomed clean-energy students into our Greenfield headquarters for hands-on training, worked alongside technical-school students on solar installations, supported apprenticeship and professional development, and shared what we’ve learned with others entering the renewable-energy workforce.

We also believe part of our job is helping clients understand solar itself.

Our advisors are commission-free because we want people to have the information they need to make thoughtful decisions about an investment that may remain on their property for decades.

Knowledge shouldn’t be something we guard.

The stronger the knowledge around us becomes, the stronger our industry and our cooperative become with it.

6. Cooperation Among Cooperatives

This principle is wonderfully straightforward:

Cooperatives help other cooperatives.

PV Squared sees this in action all the time.

We’re a member-owner of the Amicus Solar Cooperative, a network of independently owned solar companies across North America that share knowledge, purchasing power, technical expertise, and best practices.

Through Amicus, companies that might otherwise be relatively small regional businesses can learn from one another and collectively access some of the advantages of much larger companies while retaining their independence and local ownership.

Here at home, we’re also part of a remarkably rich cooperative ecosystem.

We bank, gather, collaborate, exchange knowledge, participate in conversations about the cooperative economy, and celebrate fellow cooperatives throughout our region.

You’ll find our cooperators at roundtable discussions, conferences, community events, and sometimes simply sitting across the table from people at another cooperative asking:

What are you learning? What’s working? How can we help each other do this better?

That is Principle Six in practice.

Cooperation allows independent businesses to remain independent without having to operate alone.

7. Concern for Community

The seventh principle may be the easiest to see from outside our walls.

PV Squared was founded in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and more than two decades later, this region is still our home.

Our investment here extends beyond the solar systems we install.

Over the years, our team has donated solar installations and labor to affordable housing projects, volunteered on river and neighborhood cleanups, supported local farms and food-access organizations, participated in workforce-development programs, sponsored arts and cultural institutions, supported community events, and worked alongside nonprofits throughout Western Massachusetts.

We do those things because we believe a healthy business depends on a healthy community.

Clean energy is one piece of community resilience.

So are strong local farms. Affordable housing. Education. Arts and culture. Healthy rivers and ecosystems. Local journalism. Workforce development. Food access. Small businesses. And neighbors willing to show up for one another.

This is the heart in our Heart & Solar philosophy.

More Than a Business Structure

The International Cooperative Alliance describes the seven principles as guidelines through which cooperatives put their values into practice.

We like that distinction.

Worker ownership isn’t simply a legal structure attached to PV Squared’s name. It’s something we practice.

Sometimes imperfectly. Often thoughtfully. Always collectively.

It shows up when a new employee begins learning what ownership means.

It shows up when worker-owners cast a vote.

It shows up when we choose to invest in training instead of taking the shortest route.

It shows up when another cooperative shares something it has learned with us, and when we return the favor.

It shows up when we make a decision today knowing that someone else at PV Squared will inherit its consequences years from now.

And it shows up when we step outside our doors and invest our time, money, skills, and energy back into the communities that have supported this cooperative for more than two decades.

Voluntary and Open Membership. Democratic Member Control. Member Economic Participation. Autonomy and Independence. Education, Training and Information. Cooperation Among Cooperatives. Concern for Community.

Seven principles.

Thousands of cooperatives.

And one shared idea that feels just as relevant today as ever:

We can build stronger businesses when the people affected by them have a meaningful stake in what happens next.