Bay Area Community for Degrowth
Solidarity Economy Asset Map
Mapping organizations building an economy that centers wellbeing for people and planet in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Interactive Asset Map
About This Project
Building an Economy for People & Planet
What is Solidarity Economy?
The solidarity economy encompasses organizations engaged in economic, social, and environmental activities that serve collective interests—based on principles of voluntary cooperation, democratic governance, and prioritizing people over profit. It includes cooperatives, community land trusts, credit unions, mutual aid networks, and more.
Why Map These Assets?
This asset map makes visible the vibrant ecosystem of solidarity economy organizations already operating in the Bay Area. By connecting these initiatives, we strengthen networks, facilitate collaboration, and demonstrate that alternatives to extractive capitalism already exist and thrive in our communities.
Learn More
Understand the Categories
Click on each category to learn more about it and explore the subcategories within.
Ecological Regeneration, Resilience, & Justice
Climate action, restoration, and environmental advocacy
Organizations working to build localized resilience, promote regenerative land care, and ensure ecological transition benefits frontline communities.
Climate Change & Resilience
Organizations focused on adaptation to climate change and enhancing community and ecosystem resilience. Build localized resilience and prioritize community well-being over extraction and expansion.
Ecological Preservation & Restoration
Actions and organizations focused on protecting natural habitats and restoring ecosystems. Promote regenerative land care, biodiversity, and long-term ecological balance.
Environmental Advocacy
Groups promoting policies and actions to protect the environment. Shift governance toward ecological limits and collective responsibility.
Environmental Justice
Organizations that challenge systemic inequity and ensure that ecological transition benefits frontline communities who are most impacted by environmental harm.
Education, Art, Technology, & Repair
Tool libraries, makerspaces, and artisan collectives
Organizations that reduce consumption, enable repair culture, encourage communal ownership, and build long-term capacity for democratic skills.
Artisan Co-Ops & Collectives
Groups of craftspeople or artists who collectively operate businesses or share resources democratically. Center cultural labor, support non-extractive creative economies, and value slow, local production.
Community Centers & Spaces
Facilities that host events, activities, and services for community engagement. Support communal life, cultural exchange, and democratic engagement without profit imperatives.
Education & Youth
Programs focused on formal or informal learning and development for youth and community members. Build long-term capacity, democratic skills, and values aligned with solidarity and sustainability.
Repair & Reuse
Activities and organizations focused on fixing and reusing products to extend life cycles and reduce waste. Reduce material throughput, extend product lifecycles, and challenge consumer-driven growth.
Tool Libraries & Maker Spaces
Shared spaces where tools and technology are provided for community use, reducing individual ownership barriers. Reduce consumption, enable repair culture, and encourage communal ownership.
Energy, Mobility, & Healthcare
Public utilities, community health, and transportation
Essential services that ensure universal access, prioritize long-term sustainability, and remove profit motives from critical infrastructure.
Community Healthcare
Not-for-profit health services provided at the community level designed to be accessible, preventative, and focused on the needs of local populations. Center well-being over profit, reduce healthcare inequities, and promote localized, resilient care systems.
Transportation
Services and infrastructure that enable movement of people and goods within and between communities. Reduce car dependence, lower emissions, and support equitable, low-impact movement within communities.
Utilities
Organizations that provide essential public services such as electricity, water, and telecommunications (often regulated and community-serving). Ensure universal access, prioritize long-term sustainability, and remove profit motives from essential infrastructure.
Food & Agriculture
Gardens, CSAs, farmers markets, and food co-ops
Organizations that support local food sovereignty, regenerate ecosystems, and reduce reliance on industrial food systems.
Community Gardens & Urban Farms
Shared garden or agricultural space managed by community members for local food production. Support local food sovereignty, regenerate ecosystems, and reduce reliance on industrial food systems.
Community Fridges & Pantries
Refrigerators and shelves in public spaces where donated food is freely shared among community members to reduce waste and address food insecurity. Redistribute surplus, reduce waste, and support collective care outside market systems.
CSA's
A system connecting producers and consumers whereby members subscribe to a farm's harvest, sharing the risks and benefits of food production. Shorten supply chains, stabilize farmer income, and strengthen local, regenerative agriculture.
Farmers' Markets
Markets where producers sell food directly to consumers, often local and seasonal. Circulate wealth locally, reduce distribution emissions, and promote seasonal, sustainable diets.
Seed Libraries
An organized collection of seeds from which users may "check out" small amounts to take home and plant. Promote biodiversity, local resilience, and community stewardship of genetic resources.
Worker Owned Food Co-Ops
Businesses in the food sector that are owned and democratically controlled by their workers. Challenge corporate consolidation, support fair labor, and keep value within the community.
Food - Other
Other food and agriculture initiatives that support local food systems, community nourishment, and sustainable practices but don't fit neatly into the other subcategories.
Goods & Services
Co-ops, collectives, and professional services
Organizations that shift economic power to communities, reduce exploitation, and encourage sustainable production through cooperative ownership.
Co-Ops & Collectives
Democratically governed enterprises owned by members or workers that produce goods or services. Shift economic power to communities, reduce exploitation, and encourage sustainable production.
Legal & Professional Services
Cooperatively structured or mission-driven organizations providing legal, accounting, consulting, or other professional services. Support solidarity economy organizations with accessible expertise and alternative business models.
Mutual Aid & Time Banking
Voluntary, reciprocal exchange of resources and labor among community members without traditional market transactions. Strengthen social fabric, reduce dependence on market exchange, and circulate value non-monetarily.
Governance, Labor, & Justice
Social justice, labor unions, and research institutes
Organizations that strengthen community self-determination, redistribute power within the economy, and advance policies aligned with equitable resource distribution.
Alternative Economics
Organizations promoting economic models that prioritize well-being, sustainability, and equity over growth. Advance degrowth, steady-state economics, doughnut economics, and other post-capitalist frameworks.
Cooperative Supports
Organizations that provide technical assistance, training, financing, or advocacy to help cooperatives form, grow, and thrive. Strengthen the cooperative ecosystem and expand democratic ownership.
Labor Union & Workers' Rights
Organizations advocating for collective bargaining, fair wages, and safe working conditions for workers. Redistribute power within the economy and challenge growth-driven exploitation.
Political Party/Org
Organizations that participate in or influence political processes, elections, and governance. Advance policies aligned with equitable resource distribution and ecological limits.
Research Institute
Organizations conducting research to inform public policy or community development. Provide evidence supporting non-extractive models, policy shifts, and democratic planning.
Social Justice
Work toward equitable rights and opportunities for all people in social systems. Strengthen community self-determination and dismantle systems that create inequality.
Land & Housing
Land trusts, housing co-ops, and housing organizations
Organizations that decommodify land, stabilize communities, and prioritize long-term ecological and social good over land speculation.
Housing Co-Ops, Co-Housing, Resident-Owned Communities
Housing owned and managed collectively by residents, often democratically. Enable democratic control of living spaces, reduce housing costs, and foster low-impact communal living.
Housing Organizations
Nonprofits that support affordable housing development, tenant rights, or homelessness services. Strengthen housing justice, address structural inequality, and reduce dependence on speculative markets.
Land Trusts & Permanent Real Estate
Nonprofit entities that hold land in trust to ensure long-term affordability and stewardship. Decommodify land, stabilize communities, and prioritize long-term ecological and social good over land speculation.
Money, Finance, & Mutual Aid
Credit unions, CDFIs, and mutual aid networks
Financial institutions and organizations that support local wealth circulation, reduce extractive financial practices, and democratize control of capital.
CDFIs (Community Development Financial Institution)
Financial institutions that provide credit and financial services to underserved markets and populations and prioritize community development. Redirect capital toward community needs, small businesses, and equitable development rather than growth-for-growth's-sake.
Credit Unions
Member-owned, nonprofit financial cooperatives organized to provide financial services that benefit consumers. Support local wealth circulation, reduce extractive financial practices, and democratize control of capital.
Mutual Aid
Networks of voluntary, reciprocal exchange of resources among community members, often including financial support, emergency funds, and resource sharing. Build community resilience and meet needs outside traditional financial systems.