Imagine an island powered entirely by its residents, a grocery store fighting food waste while building a community, or a network of affordable homes shielded from market speculation. These aren’t utopian dreams – they’re real examples in communities taking control of their own resources and rewriting the rules of local finance. NetZeroCities partners DemSoc take a closer look. 

Across Europe, community-owned enterprises are showing that collective action can fund sustainable, inclusive, and resilient local economies in ways traditional markets often cannot. 

Unlike conventional businesses, these initiatives are owned and run by the very communities they serve, ensuring that value circulates locally. They take many forms – such as housing cooperatives, mobility initiatives, renewable energy projects, and community food programmes – and their financial models are as creative as their missions. 

By examining four cases across Europe, we explored how communities overcome the challenge of early-stage financing, turn risk into opportunity, and ensure broad participation. We also looked at how cities can create the right conditions for community-owned organisations to flourish. 

Read the full deep dive here.

Community-owned inspiration for cities 

  1. MietshäuserSyndikat (Germany) – A network of over 180 housing projects, Mietshäuser Syndikat protects affordable homes from speculation. Emerging from Germany’s squat movement in the 1990s, these projects are self-managed through grassroots democracy. Bank loans and direct loans from friends, family, acquaintances, and foundations form the two main pillars of financing for new housing projects. An Internal Solidarity Fund redistributes resources across projects, helping new initiatives get started and remain independent of market pressures. 
  2. SomMobilitat (Spain) – Founded in 2016 in Catalunya, SomMobilitat provides shared electric vehicles to reduce private car use and build greener cities. It was created by activists linked to the SomEnergia network, who adapted cooperative energy principles to the mobility field. In its early stages, SomMobilitat was financed through volunteer work, pre-financing from its founders, and visibility and support from SomEnergia. Start-up prizes and member loans with fixed terms allowed the cooperative to expand its fleet and operations while remaining community driven. 
  3. Energy Island Samsø (Denmark) – Samsø became internationally known as “Energy Island” after transitioning to 100% renewable energy. The project began in 1997 with a national competition that sparked local collaboration between residents, farmers, and institutions. Innovative financing, such as allowing residents to buy wind turbine shares without upfront capital and repay loans via electricity sales under a national feed-in tariff, enabled broad participation and long-term community ownership. Today, Samsø stands as a global model for local energy transitions. 
  4. Community Grocery Shop (UK) – Launched in Manchester during the first COVID-19 lockdown, this initiative provides affordable surplus food while tackling food poverty and social isolation. Initially funded by church donations and local support, it now offers grocery services alongside cooking classes, financial advice, and wellbeing programs. By saving over 5,250 tonnes of food from landfill, it combines environmental impact with human dignity. 

How community-owned enterprises make it work 

Across the cases, several pathways to early-stage financing emerged: 

  • Solidarity-based funding: Small direct contributions from community members can seed powerful initiatives. In Mietshäuser Syndikat, housing collectives pool small loans from friends, family, acquaintances – sometimes as little as €500 – to buy land and build homes. Banks often recognize these direct loans as equity replacements, unlocking access to traditional financing. 
  • Membership-based contributions: Regular member fees or small loans create stable, recurring income and strengthen local ownership. SomMobilitat, for example, is sustained by thousands of members who each contribute annual fees and small investments, providing both working capital and long-term commitment. 
  • Government support: Structured subsidies, competitions, and grants can provide the financial backbone needed to scale, as seen in Samsø and SomMobilitat. Samsø’s energy transition began with a government grant and ongoing subsidies, while SomMobilitat grew through start-up prizes and its cooperative network. 

Community-owned enterprises are also rewriting financial design itself. Mietshäuser Syndikat’s Internal Solidarity Fund allows new projects to co-finance others within the network, strengthening collective resilience. Samsø’s feed-in tariff guaranteed a minimum energy price, enabling residents to invest without upfront capital and repay loans through energy revenues – a mechanism that democratised ownership of the island’s renewable future. 

Financial creativity alone isn’t enough, however. The social dimension is central. The feed-in tariff in Samsø allowed everyone, regardless of income, to participate in wind projects, turning the green transition into shared economic benefit. Manchester’s Community Grocery Shop offers not only affordable food but also community connection and practical support, ensuring no one is left behind. 

Risks to watch 

Despite their successes, community-owned enterprises face structural challenges. Unequal legal recognition can make it difficult to scale or access loans, while market competition threatens local control – successful models can attract larger players, risking displacement or reduced influence. Heavy reliance on grants or donations also leaves initiatives vulnerable to shifting political priorities. 

At the same time, the broader social and environmental impacts of these initiatives are often undervalued in funding and policy systems. Without recognition of these wider benefits, community-led projects risk being treated as niche or charitable efforts, which can hinder their sustainability and impact. 

What cities can do 

These stories aren’t just inspiring – they offer concrete lessons for urban policy. Cities can help community-owned enterprises thrive by: 

  1. Providing accessible funding: Design grant programs and subsidies that are easy to access and adaptable to diverse community-led projects. A key ingredient is to create flexible grants that recognize different organisational forms.
  2. Creating supportive legal structures: Legal frameworks can either enable or constrain community-led initiatives. Cities should recognise community organizations as key stakeholders in shaping regulations that affect them. 
  3. Protecting local economies: Community-led initiatives are often vulnerable to competition from large, established actors. Cities can mitigate this by prioritizing local actors in funding, procurement, and public space allocation – and by providing platforms to showcase community-led solutions, raising visibility and credibility. 
  4. Mobilising local resources: Cities can actively support community-led initiatives by providing space, infrastructure, and networking opportunities. 
  5. Encouraging leadership: Recognising and supporting local changemakers accelerates impact and sustains momentum.

A glimpse into the future 

Community-owned enterprises are more than local experiments – they’re laboratories for building a fairer, greener, and more resilient economy. By blending solidarity, innovation, and strategic partnerships, they show how communities can anticipate challenges, create opportunities, and lead change. For cities willing to nurture them, these initiatives can become the building blocks of a just climate transition, turning local action into global inspiration.