Union Sustainable Development Co-operative: Affordable Housing in Waterloo Region

Nicole Hayes, Anthony Piscitelli, Sean Campbell

Product #:W41630

Supplier:Ivey

Discipline:International Business, Sustainability

Setting:Canada, 2022

Details:Case (PDF) • 8 pages • 2025-05-22

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Sean Campbell founded Union: Sustainable Development Co-operative (Union Co-op) in 2018 to tackle the affordable housing crisis in Waterloo Region, Ontario. Union Co-op combines a community land trust model with for-profit co-operative governance to allow for maximum community engagement while providing permanently affordable housing. Students examine three different properties Union Co-op considered in 2021 and 2022 to decide which one best balances its mandate for social good and need for a return on investment with its existing competencies.

Learning Objectives

This case can be used in sustainable business and non-profit management courses at the undergraduate and graduate level to introduce students to issues of social, environmental, and economic value generation within the context of a co-operative business model.

After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:

Explain the features of community land trusts and for-profit investment co-operatives.
Identify and apply metrics for measuring social and cultural, financial, and environmental value creation using a triple- or quadruple-bottom-line or blended value approach.
Evaluate different building projects according to performance on metrics for social and cultural, financial, and environmental value.
Generate new metrics for evaluating social and cultural, financial, and environmental value creation.

Union Sustainable Development Co-operative: Affordable Housing in Waterloo Region

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Learning Objectives