Transforming lives and neighborhoods.

The Evergreen Cooperatives of Cleveland have become a global innovation model for creating more sustainable regional economies. Local residents earn an ownership stake as they create thriving businesses, while playing a transformational role in building vibrant neighborhoods.


We proudly partner with University Circle anchor institutions, helping create green jobs and driving economic stability in nearby low-wealth communities.Read More about Our Partners.

Evergreen Cooperatives’ Fund for Employee Ownership Acquires Manufacturer of Custom Wood Crates, LEFCO Worthington LLC

(Cleveland, April 7, 2023). Evergreen Cooperatives, a nonprofit focused on revitalizing urban neighborhoods by preserving jobs that build middle-class wealth, has added to its growing portfolio of employee-owned businesses with the asset purchase of LEFCO Worthington LLC, an industry-leading manufacturer of engineered custom wood crates and heavy-duty skids for international shipping. The deal represents the […]

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Green City Growers acquired by Local Roots Cleveland

The Evergreen Cooperative Corporation (ECC) and Green City Growers (GCG) boards recently sold GCG to Local Roots Cleveland, a company headquartered in Fort Wayne, Ind. The GCG board, comprised of employee-owners and independent board consultants, voted to approve this transaction, and Local Roots Cleveland assumed ownership on May 19, 2022. Local Roots has offered jobs […]

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Evergreen Signs New Five-Year Contract with the Cleveland Clinic

Evergreen Cooperative Laundry (ECL) has extended its wide-ranging relationship with the Cleveland Clinic by signing a new five-year agreement to provide laundry and linen services for approximately 200 Clinic locations in Northeast Ohio. The new contract extends the original three-year service agreement ECL had with the Clinic, an Evergreen anchor partner since its inception in […]

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Hosting a School Group Gave Green City Growers a Chance to Talk About Our Mission

The coronavirus pandemic has forced inner-city school districts to improvise learning tactics like nothing else has in decades. Green City Growers also had to make adjustments, from providing produce largely for now-shuttered restaurants in the community to finding more retail outlets for its fresh food. So, a recent greenhouse visit by a Cleveland public schools […]

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Evergreen Cooperatives’ Fund Acquires Assets of LED Accessory Producer Intellitronix

(Cleveland, May 17, 2021). Evergreen Cooperatives, an internationally recognized nonprofit focused on revitalizing urban neighborhoods by preserving jobs that build middle-class wealth, has added to its growing portfolio of employee-owned businesses with the asset purchase of Intellitronix, an industry-leading producer of LED automotive aftermarket digital and analog gauges. Terms of the deal were not released. […]

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Employee Ownership Conversions, New Opportunity for Impact Investors

New report includes Evergreen Cooperatives’ Fund for Employee Ownership as a part of a dozen funds pursuing innovative impact strategy A promising yet little used new avenue for high impact — offering returns ranging from a healthy 2 percent to as much as 15 percent — is opening to impact investors through new funds focused […]

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Local Coffee Shop Employees Take Ownership With Evergreen’s Impact Investment

(Cleveland, Oct. 27, 2020) Nationally recognized Evergreen Cooperatives, building on more than a decade of impact investing to build wealth in local communities, has once more made a strategic investment that will allow a company—this time a Northeast Ohio coffeehouse chain—to transition to employee ownership.  The Fund for Employee Ownership (TFEO), an Evergreen initiative, has […]

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