Economic and solidarity short supply chains

Principle: As in the "short food supply chains", the idea of an economic and solidarity-based short supply chain (translation of « circuits courts économiques et solidaires ») is to bring the consumers closer to the producers and eliminate the number of intermediaries in the supply chain.

See the short food supply chains page, for advantages and key features.

Beyond ever growing short food supply chains, the concept has extended. It relates to new forms of economic exchanges between several actors (producers, distributors, users, consumers) which concerns all types of sectors of activity (energy, finance, housing, culture, food, etc.), based on cooperation, transparency, equity and social links between the actors involved. An example is collective renewable energy selfconsumption. More than the proximity between producers and consumers, these projects facilitate inter-knowledge and the exchange of information and data between all the stakeholders, while at the same time making it possible to take collective awareness of energy issues : between for example a renewable energy producer, a biocoop store with solar panels and another building in the vecinity (example initiated in 2019 in France here, in French).

In the cultural area, the Labo de l'ESS cites the Associations pour le Maintien des alternatives en matière de culture et de création artistique (aMacca, that we could translate as CSA for cultural activities), which allow citizens to support the development of cultural projects through micro-patronage, thus becoming "citizen-spectators-producers" involved in the governance of the project. The Labo de l'ESS launched in 2015 a Charter of Economic and Solidarity Short Supply Chains for their further recognition by public policies and promotion as a viable solution for self-reliable local economy capable of supplying the goods and services for the people at local level.

Equivalent concepts

• Short circuits
• Canales cortos de comercialización

Public policies associated with this theme

Within the framework of public policies aiming at more sustainability, solidarity and territorial anchorage, local authorities can :

• Carry out territorial diagnoses ;
• Propose specific lines of financing ;
• Accompany their development and networking as a territorial policy.

Main networks working on this issue

France Le Labo de l'ESS works on this issue since 2013 and try to help identify them and promote this form of supply chains.

Links

With socioeco.org

Matching Socioeco.org thematic keyword

For the moment, socioeco.org has only short food supply chains, as examples, in English.