Woodshanti
In 1997, Tom Clossey and Shawn Berry took over a furniture shop in San Francisco's Bayview District and started down the road to economic self-sufficiency.
Just five years later, they invited others to share in what they created by formally organizing Woodshanti as a worker-owned cooperative. And they have since become a model for progressive business development in the Bay Area.
Woodshanti is part of a larger cooperative movement — the San Francisco Bay Area has the largest concentration of worker-owned co-ops in the country. According to Berry, "We chose this model to give our members greater control over their working environment and to give our business the strong, stable guidance of a collective decision-making process." And this cooperative business model also supports their commitment to economic, ecological and social concerns.
Woodshanti considers its co-op to be deep green. Berry explained, "We are a green business not just because we have started to purchase recycled products or something trendy like bamboo, but we are deep green because we have incorporated ethics into the fundamental structure of how we do business by giving our workers democratic control over their economic reality. From there it is only natural that we do green things like source our lumber from local salvaged logs and use hand-rubbed natural oil to finish our work."
Customers appreciate the elegant designs and superb craftsmanship Woodshanti offers, and many are surprised to learn that they are a cooperative. "When they first learn that we are a cooperative, they think we just share tools and space," Berry explained. "I tell them that we are one unified organized company that functions like any other company, only all of our workers also sit on our board of directors. When they hear that, they think it's great."
Learn more about Woodshanti at www.woodshanti.com.