Our Values

Equality, Trust & Resilience

Equality & Inclusion

Our co-op gives all members an opportunity to get involved. We seek out, identify, understand, and remove barriers to full participation, encouraging high levels of both individuality and belonging. We have zero tolerance towards discriminatory behaviours of any kind.

Democracy & Solidarity

All members are equal. Voting power can’t be bought – it’s one member, one vote. Together we’re stronger, so members collaborate to help our cooperative achieve even more, including within the wider cooperative movement and our global community.

Dignity & Respect

We treat each other and our customers and partners with dignity and respect. We operate with honesty, fairness and kindness, helping one another to succeed.

Self-responsibility

We take responsibility for our words and actions and respect our rules and policies. We feel empowered to step up and play our part in solving our problems and improving our business.

Openness & Transparency

We believe that openness to information about our business allows everyone to contribute and trust one another towards making better decisions together.

Innovation & Openness to Change

We challenge the status quo from the largest decisions to the smallest. We have the courage to experiment, a willingness to adapt and are not afraid to fail and learn from it. We challenge ourselves to improve and develop, both as individuals and as a business.

Resilience

Decisions are taken with a long-term view and with future generations of co-operators who will run and develop the business with the future in mind. This future should take consideration of social and environmental justice.

Well-being

We recognise that in order to maintain resilience we take a broad view of well-being, whether that’s on a day to day basis or throughout our career at Suma. We acknowledge that people may be able to contribute more at certain points and at other times may need to take a break for their well-being.