ABSTRACT
While plastic waste is a common issue with negative impacts on ecosystems, and packaging represents the largest segment of the plastics market, this chapter focuses on cooperative zero-packaging grocery stores as a potential solution to tackle the challenge of plastic waste. Our objective is to gain a better understanding of how the founders of these stores drive the transformation toward sustainable development. Based on interviews with 18 founders, our results indicate that these founders aim to make the retail sector more sustainable and plastic-free, demonstrating the viability of this approach through the cooperative model. Additionally, we propose that cooperatives founded with the intention of driving widespread transformation can be viewed as project-based organizations. They rely on networks established through the civic engagement of their founders, with the primary goal of implementing their practices within conventional organizations. In contrast to the general tendency that cooperatives have longer survival times, cooperative zero-packaging grocery stores may have no longer a reason for their continued existence once the transformation goal is achieved and the project’s purpose has been fulfilled.
