The Organisational Gardener

Recently I read a blog post in LinkedIn by ConsciousU about community-supported economics.  It really caught my attention and imagination.  Firstly, because it mentioned the idea of a new perspective for business modelling where the community is not the consumer of a product, service, experience or transformation; but its supporters “come rain or shine”. Secondly, it resonated as an interesting alternative to explore for my “unretirement” plans in the following years. Hence, I’ll first explore this idea conceptually and then detail what a practical application could look like. This article serves as a preamble to an experiment I’m starting for the Village Magazine, where I volunteer as the editor.

Exploring the Concept

The above mentioned article is based on a conversation between Timo Wans and Nadjeschda Taranczewski.  

Timo Wans views the economy through the lens of living ecosystems. After studying business sociology during the 2008/2009 financial crisis, he became disillusioned with classical market mechanisms. He has since focused on developing “market-independent” business models.

He Co-founded Myzelium (formerly MYZELIUM UG) around 2018 with colleagues like Michaela Hausdorf.  He advocates for a shift from Homo Oeconomicus (the self-interested economic actor) to Homo Cooperativus (the collaborative actor).  He uses “Mycelium” (the underground fungal network) as a primary metaphor for how human economies should function: interconnected, resilient, and resource-sharing. 

These ideas made me think of a book I am listening from Jon Alexander called “Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us”.  In this book, Alexander argues that the root of our current global crises lies in a “Consumer Story” that has reduced human agency to individual choice and passive consumption for the last eight decades. Drawing on his work with the New Citizen Project, Alexander posits that we are currently undergoing a “Citizen Shift,” transitioning from a society of subjects and consumers toward a “Citizen Story” where people are recognised as creative, collaborative, and inherently capable of shaping their own communities. The book serves as both a manifesto and a practical guide, illustrating how organisations, from businesses to governments, can move beyond simple “engagement” to foster deep participation, ultimately asserting that the collective intelligence and agency of ordinary people are the essential tools needed to navigate the challenges of the 21st century.

Tim Wans founded Myzelium as an educational and consulting network based in Germany. It serves as an incubator for businesses that want to operate outside the traditional market.  It has the mission to help founders and existing businesses transition to Community-Supported Economics.  It works with a variety of sectors beyond just agriculture, including bakeries, retail shops and craft businesses.  Much like its namesake, Myzelium acts as an “underground” support system, providing tools like the “Myzelium Canvas” to map out community-based business models.

Community-Supported Economics

This concept is an evolution of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), known in Germany as Solidarische Landwirtschaft (SoLaWi).

Key Principles

1. Budget-Based Pricing: Instead of setting a price per unit (e.g., per loaf of bread), the community (customers) covers the total annual operating costs of the business.
2. Risk Sharing: The “customers” become “members” or “partners.” If a harvest fails or a machine breaks, the community bears the cost together, ensuring the business stays solvent.
3. Direct Financing: Members often prepay or commit to monthly contributions, which eliminates the business’s dependence on bank loans or external investors.
4. Transparency: The business opens its books to its community, showing exactly what it costs to pay fair wages and maintain sustainable production.”Wirtschaften ohne Markt” (Economy without a market) is how Wans often describes this. It replaces the “customer-provider” relationship with a “community-enterprise” partnership.

Potential Business Ventures Supported by the Community 

In reading more about these ideas some types of business were repeated constantly: agriculture (farms), bakeries, and flowers, so I set myself to explore a little bit about the ideas and to imagine if any of these could be an alternative business model for my unretirement.  

In the UK, the concept is most established within the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) network, but it has increasingly expanded into other sectors like baking, retail, and even energy. While the term “Community-Supported Economics” (CSX) is less common in the UK than in Germany, the “Social Enterprise” and “Community Business” movements cover much of the same ground.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): The UK has one of the most active CSA networks in the world. As of 2026, there are over 220 CSA farms feeding roughly 55,000 people. Some examples are:

• Stroud Community Agriculture (Gloucestershire): One of the flagship examples. Members pay a monthly subscription that covers the farm’s entire budget (wages, seeds, equipment). In return, they get a share of whatever is produced.
• School Farm (Devon): A social enterprise that uses the CSA model not just for food, but for education and ecological wellbeing.

Community Supported Baking (CSB): Following the “Myzelium” philosophy of applying these rules to crafts, several UK bakeries use the CSB model.

• Breadshare (Scotland): A community-supported bakery that involves volunteer bakers and distribution through “bread baskets” via neighbourhood networks.
• Two Fold Bakehouse: A micro-bakery where subscribers pay a monthly fee for a weekly loaf. This “guaranteed market” allows the bakers to source expensive, regenerative local flour without the risk of unsold stock.
• The Real Bread Campaign: A UK-wide initiative that promotes the CSB model as a way to make local bakeries resilient against energy price spikes and supermarket competition.

Community Retail & Social Enterprises: Beyond food, the UK uses “Community Shares” and “Community Benefit Societies” to create market-independent businesses.

• Village Greens (Greater Manchester): A community-owned co-operative with over 600 members. It functions as an alternative to supermarkets, where the community owns the assets and dictates the ethical sourcing.
• Breadwinners: A social enterprise that supports refugees by giving them jobs managing market stalls. While it sells to the public, its “community” includes institutional partners and donors who de-risk the employment of vulnerable people.
• Biohm: A fascinating “mycelium-based” construction company (literally using fungi to make building materials) that is setting up community-led production facilities in places like West Somerset to keep economic value local.

Key UK Networks: If you are looking for the UK equivalent of the Myzelium consulting network, these organizations provide the most similar support:

• CSA Network UK: The primary hub for “budget-based” and “risk-sharing” models.
• Power to Change: An independent trust that supports “community businesses” (businesses run by and for local people).
• Social Enterprise UK: The largest network for businesses that reinvest profits for social/environmental missions.
• Co-Operatives UK: The network for Britain’s thousands of co-operatives, working to promote, develop and unite member-owned businesses.

A New Business Canvas

The Myzelium Canvas is a strategic design tool developed by Timo Wans and his team to help entrepreneurs move away from traditional “supply and demand” business models.

While the famous Business Model Canvas (by Strategyzer) is designed to help a company capture value from a market, the Myzelium Canvas is designed to help a project grow roots within a community. It essentially replaces the “Customer” with a “Partner” and the “Price” with a “Budget.”

The Key Shifts in the Canvas

The canvas is structured to answer four fundamental questions that differ from a standard business plan:

1. From “What do I sell?” to “What is needed?”

In a standard model, you look for a “Value Proposition” to beat competitors. In the Myzelium Canvas, you identify a Core Supply Need. You aren’t just selling bread; you are securing the community’s access to high-quality, local grain.

2. From “Target Audience” to “Community of Solidarity”

Instead of “Customer Segments” (demographics you target), the canvas maps out Stakeholders. These are people who don’t just want a product; they want the business to exist. This includes employees, neighbors, and local suppliers who all have a “skin in the game”.

3. From “Price” to “Common Budget”

This is the most radical part of the canvas.

The Traditional Way: You calculate your costs and add a margin (Cost + Profit = Price).

The Myzelium Way: You calculate the total amount needed to run the business healthily for a year (including fair wages, repairs, and reserves). You then present this Total Budget to your community, and they divide that cost among themselves.

4. From “Marketing” to “Bidding Rounds”

Instead of a marketing strategy to “convince” people to buy, the canvas focuses on the Bidding Process. This is a community event where the budget is revealed, and members anonymously pledge what they can afford to pay monthly until the total budget is covered.

Why use it?

Timo Wans argues that traditional canvases often lead to “self-exploitation” because founders lower their prices to compete, eventually burning out. The Myzelium Canvas protects the founder by:

Decoupling from the Market: If the price of flour triples, the community adjusts the budget together; the baker doesn’t just lose their profit.

Planning for “Enough”: It encourages businesses to define what “finished” or “sufficient” looks like, rather than chasing infinite growth.

The Metaphor: Just as mycelium transports nutrients from where they are abundant to where they are needed, the Canvas helps a business distribute its financial needs across a supportive network.

My First Experiment: A Village Magazine 

I am taking this whole idea to funding the Village Magazine where recently I have taken the volunteering role of Editor.  In a next post I will share the results of our first steps towards a “Community-supported Magazine”.  

In Summary

This is my first exploration of Community-supported Economics.  The concept feels very attractive for my personal unretirement plans in the next 10 years.  The concept resonates and seems applicable to begin a first experiment to apply the CSE model to funding the Village Magazine where I collaborate as a volunteer.

Community-supported Economics (CSE) is proposed as an alternative business model that fundamentally shifts the community’s role from passive consumers to active “supporters” and partners, ensuring a business’s stability “come rain or shine”. The concept, which evolved from Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), is championed by Timo Wans and his organisation, Myzelium, advocating for a philosophical move from the self-interested Homo Oeconomicus to the collaborative Homo Cooperativus. This approach is designed to create market-independent businesses by securing the community’s access to a core supply need, rather than competing on price, and aligns with the idea of a “Citizen Shift” towards collective agency.1

The model replaces the traditional “customer-provider” relationship with a “community-enterprise” partnership defined by four key principles. Instead of determining a price with a profit margin, the business calculates its entire annual operating cost (the “Common Budget”), including fair wages and reserves, and presents this budget to the community, which then divides and commits to covering the cost through monthly contributions. This risk-sharing and budget-based approach is facilitated by the Myzelium Canvas, a strategic tool that formalizes the business’s relationships with a “Community of Solidarity”.