Green Worker Cooperatives utilizes a bottom-up approach that enables residents of a community to create profitable businesses that are environmentally responsible; hire residents of the community; and enable those residents to collectively own and control the business. Our approach broadens the concept of a “green” business to one that empowers workers and can be held accountable to the community it operates in. Through our 16-week Co-op Academy training program we assist small teams of aspiring co-op entrepreneurs in the development of their very own business plan. The development of the business plan is a collective project, involving all members of the future cooperative. Participants not only gain an understanding of business basics, they also learn key principles and skills needed for the democratic management of the cooperative as well as the implementation of environmentally sustainable business practices.