Ansar Finance Group is based in Manchester, England, and offers interest-free personal loans and diminishing partnership home finance to its members. These community-funded schemes meet with traditional interpretations of Islamic law and have been self-funded by the Manchester Muslim community since their inception in 1994 and 2000, respectively. The organisation is supported by several prominent Muslims in the United Kingdom, including Lord Nazir of Rotherham who is its patron. Ansar's vision is to raise awareness of the implications of interest and its consequences for the society, the environment and the economy, and to establish a complete interest-free financial system, embodying Islamic, ethical and social values for the betterment of the society as a whole.
		Akhuwat is a charitable operation with 60 branches in Pakistan. Its mission statement is "to alleviate poverty by empowering socially and economically marginalized families through interest free microfinance and by harnessing entrepreneurial potential, capacity building and social guidance". Established in 2001 with a donation of RS10,000, Akhuwat has now disbursed a cumulative toal of RS1.1 billion in interest-free loans to over 100,000 borrowers and achieved a 99.85% recovery rate. Its operations have been the focus of academic study at the Lahore University of Management Sciences and at the University of Southern New Hampshire in the United States. Visit the Akhuwat web site here.
		GoldMoney is a privately owned company founded by James Turk and his son Geoff Turk in 2001. Based in Jersey in the British Channel Islands, the company sells physical gold and other precious metals, and facilitates the use of precious metals as a payment mechanism between account holders. GoldMoney's investors include IAMGOLD (a large Canadian gold mining company), Eric Sprott (founder and chairman of Sprott Asset Management), and Doug Casey (chairman of Casey Research). Currently with over one billion euros of customer assets, the organisation is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission and undergoes a regular audit by a "Big Four" accountancy firm. A range of international safe storage facilities are available for the purpose of safe custody. Visit the GoldMoney web site here.
		The Green European Foundation is the European level political foundation affiliated to the Green political family. It was established in 2008 and is funded by the European Parliament. GEF aims to "contribute to a lively European sphere of debate and to 'Europeanise' the political debate within and beyond the Greens. The foundation acts as a laboratory for new ideas, offers cross-border political education and a platform for cooperation and exchange at the European level". Go here for further information.
		JAK has been operating an interest-free savings and loan system in Sweden since 1970. A bank license was obtained in 1997 (JAK is now constituted as a co-operative bank). It has over 35,000 members and is growing at approximately 5% year. Members’ deposits finance all loans, and as of 2008 members had saved a total sum of €97 million and borrowed €86 million since the bank's inception. Annual membership fees and loan fees cover the bank's administrative and development costs. If calculated as a rate of interest these would produce approximately a 2.5% effective rate of interest. The bank's three main products are an interest-free savings account, an interest-free Balanced Savings Loan (best suited for individuals) and a Support Savings & Loan Instrument (for small companies and associations). More information on the bank's activities is available in several languages here.
		Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) are locally organised not-for-profit schemes that allow members to provide work and services for one another in return for interest-free credits held in an accounting system operated by the scheme manager. These credits act as a form of complementary currency and have enabled some communities to maintain employment and output where the secular monetary system has failed. The idea of LETS is widely credited to Michael Linton in Canada where LETS are widely found. LETS are also popular in France, Japan, Australia and in the UK. They have often failed to thrive because participation rates have remained low among the essential trades that would provide opportunities to spend LETS credits, and because of a tendency for some members to be permanently in debit. Managers of LETS tend to have a heavy marketing and management workload and in recent years efforts have focussed on the use of software to improve efficiency. A comprehensive LETS manual is available here.
		Ormita Commerce Network is a "clearinghouse for the trade of excess capacities, goods and services and works through a combination of manual clearing, online e-commerce trading, 24 hour telephone brokering and independent licensees". The company is the world's single largest global barter network and is based in Hong Kong. It aims to connect organisations around the world with counter-parties who will buy or sell on a barter or other non-cash basis, helping to turn unproductive or unsold assets into a revenue stream. The World Trade Organization has estimated that some 15% of world trade is undertaken in this way. To succeed in its model, Ormita relies upon the fact that assets such as unfilled appointment time, empty hotel rooms, unsold tickets, unfilled advertising space, depreciating stock, end-of-line items or oversupplied products represent lost revenue which will otherwise never be recovered. The company currently maintains relationships with governments, corporations, trade exchanges and related organisations in over 50 countries. More details here.
		Founded by Ricardo Semler in Brazil, Semco SA has pioneered a radical reform of industrial organisation and management techniques along co-operative lines. Under Semler's control, the company's revenue has grown from USD4 million in 1982 to over US$200 million today. Semler's innovative practices aim to achieving a greater work-life balance for those working in the company by offering them stake in the company's profits and allowing them to generate new business ventures and make management decisions. The decision making and organisational structures which Semco uses to achieve its goals have been termed "sociocracy", and are based upon achieving consent within and between the different levels of management hierarchy. Workers often perform multiple roles in the organisation, giving them better understanding of its operations and allowing them to suggest improvements. Semco achieved dramatic improvements in product quality, delivery times, defect rates and profitability by implementing Semler's ideas, which are widely held to be one of the best demonstrations in modern times of co-operative principles working successfully in a competitive business environment. More details here.
		Founded in 1989, Slow Food is is a non-profit association with over 100,000 members in 150 countries which aims to "counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world". The association includes a network of some 2,000 communities across the world practicing small-scale sustainable food production and is opposed to the "standardization of taste and culture, and the unrestrained power of the food industry multinationals and industrial agriculture". Slow Food promotes the concept of neo-gastronomy which recognises the inter-connections between "plate, planet, people and culture". Full details here.
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