Interview with Cody Harrison from Copia
Author: Jerry Michalski Issue: 2023-04-05
Interview with Cody Harrison from Copia
*Cody Harrison is the founder of Copia (formerly Corona Enterprises), a regenerative design-build cooperative. **Jerry Michalski *and Peter Kaminski met with him on Zoom to say hello and to start to look for synergies between Copia and the Plex. The following is an email interview between Pete and Cody.
Q: Hi Cody, it's nice to meet you! For Plex readers who don't know you already, can you tell us a little about yourself and Corona Enterprises?
Hi, I'm Cody. I grew up in the NW corner of Montana with Glacier National Park in my backyard. My educational background includes a BA in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University and a little over 12 years working in any way I could to help save the world, in sectors such as water, waste, housing, agriculture, and energy.
Generally, I work through an LLC I started in college exclusively in the environmental and social impact sectors trying to leverage technology and biology harmoniously as tools for social good. I am committed to creating an economic system that works for all life on this planet, providing for human needs in a way that actually regenerates the planet.
I think that with the widespread use of open source, bioregional, multi-stakeholder cooperatives we can incentivize automation of menial human tasks, allowing the 99% to benefit from the wave of automation that is continuing to wash ashore, instead of fearing it for its job-killing capacity.
I think a side effect of large multi-stakeholder cooperatives would be widespread ecosystem regeneration as we realize the vast wealth and potential within our natural systems. For decades now we have had the technology to eliminate poverty but our current incentive structures and culture have prevented us from doing so.
I find that absolutely unacceptable and have dedicated my entire professional life and much of my personal life to righting that wrong.
Q: I hear you've got a name change coming up. Do you have a new name picked out? How did the name change come about?
For the time being we're going to go with Copia, Greek for “abundance.” We won't form a new legal entity quite yet so we'll let this simmer for a bit to see how we like it.
The premise for the new name was that since we are more or less converting Corona Enterprises into a multi-stakeholder cooperative, we should create a new name so that we would have a shared sense of ownership from the ground up.
Q: What are a couple of the projects Corona is thinking about at the moment?
As we attempt to launch this multi-stakeholder cooperative, or really a Federation of cooperatives and mission-aligned organizations, we are trying to figure out what our market entry point should be.
We've engaged in a process of collaborative decision-making and narrowed around 30 different business ideas down to 5.
Those are a compost porta potty co-op, a refurbished utility-scale battery bank operator, a flexible micro-factory of the future, a regenerative real estate development company, and some sort of local woody biomass enterprise (likely combining removal/salvage of fire-prone invasives e.g. eucalyptus, with some sort of value-added processing of the material).
Q: What kinds of help are you looking for?
That's a good question... We're having trouble getting engagement from the ~100 members we've gotten signed on so far. Even paying $50/hr for people to join meetings we still have people not showing up and not even responding to text messages letting them know the meetings are starting, even when they've RSVPd yes.
So we could use someone who really loves creating culture and community within an organization, someone who would like to organize some in-person get-together to build camaraderie perhaps. Someone who would personally reach out to all new sign-ups and get them onboarded might help. We also could use all the advice we can get in terms of which of the above market entry ideas might make sense to start with.
Q: What kinds of help can you offer?
Haha that's a great question too. For the past 12 years Corona has operated using a fairly basic fee for service model providing mostly project management services to environmental and social impact initiatives as well as some more pure consulting here and there.
But we're really trying to move on from that to something more impactful and scaleable. That's not to say that we can't provide services going forward. Hypothetically, the 100 people we already have involved could offer myriad products and services.
And if we had chosen one of our above market entry points then I could give a specific answer such as we can help remove and process your fire-prone eucalyptus trees, restore the area with native flora and fauna, and help you monetize the enhanced ecosystem services the restored area will provide.
Q: Where can we learn more about Corona (now Copia)?
Right now the website is www.corona-enterprises.com, and soon www.copia.life should point to more or less the same site but with a new logo. If any of this piques your interest you're also welcome to reach out to me personally at charrison@corona-enterprises.com.
Related:
- Jerry Michalski (author)
- 2023 (year)
- Topics: AI and Technology, Climate and Environment