25 alternatives
An AMAP (association pour le maintien d’une agriculture paysanne) is a group of households that buys part of a nearby farm’s harvest in advance, for a season, and collects a basket each week at a…
Alternative to supermarket vegetables bought at prices that squeeze farmers
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Énergie Partagée lets savers in France invest in wind farms, solar roofs, small hydro plants, wood-fired heating and biogas units owned and run by local residents and councils. It is both a movement…
Alternative to savings products that finance big energy groups and funds you know nothing about
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MIRAMAP is the national network of the AMAP (associations pour le maintien d’une agriculture paysanne), groups of consumers who sign a contract with a local farmer, pay for the harvest in advance and…
Alternative to supermarket fruit and vegetables bought from industrial farms and central purchasing
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A Repair Café is a free meeting where volunteers help people repair their own broken things: toasters, lamps, clothes, bikes, toys, laptops. It is an alternative to throwing away a broken appliance…
Alternative to throwing away broken appliances and buying new ones, often because repair seems too expensive
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The Netzwerk Solidarische Landwirtschaft is the German association of community supported agriculture (Solawi): farms whose members pay a monthly share of the farm’s costs and get a share of the…
Alternative to supermarket vegetables from heated greenhouses and long-distance imports
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The BZfE Saisonkalender is the seasonal calendar for fruit and vegetables of Germany’s Federal Centre for Nutrition, free as an app and as a poster, showing when each kind is harvested in Germany and…
Alternative to buying strawberries in winter and other out-of-season produce flown or trucked in
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Citiz is a French network of car-sharing operators, most of them cooperatives. Members book a car by the hour or the day, pick it up from a fixed station near home and bring it back there, paying for…
Alternative to owning a car that stands still 95 % of the time, and free-floating car rental run by large groups
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Cohabilis is the French network of intergenerational home-sharing associations: a person aged 60 or over rents a room in their home to someone under 30, a student, apprentice, trainee or young worker…
Alternative to expensive student rooms, and to living alone in old age
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CoopCycle is a federation of bike delivery cooperatives, mostly in France and Spain but also in Germany, the UK, Belgium, Italy, Mexico and Canada. Its members deliver meals from local restaurants…
Alternative to Uber Eats, Deliveroo and the other delivery platforms that take high commissions and pay riders poorly
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A cooperative supermarket belongs to its customers: each member buys shares, works a few hours a month in the shop and buys food there at lower margins than in ordinary supermarkets. Only members can…
Alternative to supermarket chains that set prices and margins for their shareholders
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Place des Libraires is a French website that shows which bookshops have a book in stock: readers choose a title and a nearby shop, then reserve the book to collect there, or order it if it isn’t in…
Alternative to ordering books from Amazon and the big online retailers
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Ressourceries and recycleries are local second-hand shops, most often run by associations, that collect objects people no longer want, check, clean and repair them, then sell them at low prices or…
Alternative to throwing away objects that still work, and buying everything new
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The Unverpackt Verband (Unverpackt e.V.) is the association of German zero-packaging shops, where customers fill their own jars, bags and bottles with dry goods, oils, cleaning products and cosmetics…
Alternative to supermarket groceries wrapped in plastic
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The Volkshochschulen (vhs) are the public adult education centres in Germany: 815 centres with about 2,630 branches, most run by towns and districts. They offer affordable courses in languages…
Alternative to expensive private courses and coaching, and online course platforms that sell subscriptions
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Artisans du Monde is a French network of fair trade shops run mostly by volunteers, selling crafts, food and cosmetics bought from more than 120 producer organisations in Asia, Africa and Latin…
Alternative to gift shops and chain stores selling crafts and food from unknown suppliers
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Incredible Edible is a movement of local groups that grow vegetables, fruit and herbs in public places, for anyone to pick for free. It started in Todmorden, in northern England, in 2008.
Alternative to buying every vegetable at the supermarket and to ornamental-only public planting
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The Slow Food Genussführer is a German restaurant guide of about 450 places chosen by Slow Food volunteers for regional, seasonal cooking without convenience products, published as a book and an app…
Alternative to sponsored restaurant guides and star rankings
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Weltläden are Germany’s fair trade shops, about 900 local shops mostly run by volunteers, which sell coffee, chocolate, crafts, clothing and gifts from suppliers checked against fair trade criteria.
Alternative to department stores and online giants for gifts, coffee and chocolate
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Bienvenue à la ferme is the network of French farmers who sell their produce directly or welcome visitors, and its free website maps them: farm shops, farmers’ markets, producers’ shops, “drives…
Alternative to supermarket fruit, vegetables and meat that pass through several middlemen
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The Deutscher Mieterbund (DMB) is the umbrella organisation of more than 300 local tenants’ associations (Mietervereine) in Germany. Members of a local association get personal legal advice on rent…
Alternative to facing landlords alone, or paying an expensive lawyer for every dispute
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Les Scop is the website of the Confédération générale des Scop et des Scic (CG Scop), the federation of French worker cooperatives (Scop) and multi-stakeholder cooperatives (Scic). In a Scop the…
Alternative to companies owned by distant shareholders, where employees have no say
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Simply Good Food is a recipe site of classic, simple dishes, mostly vegetarian, in English, French and German: soups, salads, pasta, curries, bakes and desserts. It is an alternative to recipe sites…
Alternative to recipe sites full of advertising, pop-ups and life stories before the recipe
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nebenan.de is a German neighbourhood network where only verified residents of the same area see each other’s posts: they lend tools, give things away, ask for help, recommend tradespeople and…
Alternative to Facebook groups and classified ad sites for local exchanges
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Wimoov is a French non-profit network of mobility centres for people who struggle to get around, mostly people in social and professional integration: a personal mobility assessment, advice and…
Alternative to losing a job or training for lack of transport
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Couchsurfing is a website and app that connects travellers with locals who put them up for free, on a sofa, in a spare room or on a mattress. Hosts may not charge for the stay, and they decide whom…
Alternative to hotels and holiday rentals such as Airbnb
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Food and community farming
Neighbourhood, community spaces and local networks
Energy and heating
Banking, insurance and pensions
Political participation and citizens’ initiatives
Repair and do it yourself
Electronics and home appliances
Nutrition advice and recipes
Mobility, cars and transport
Second-hand, swapping, lending and sharing
Renting and tenants’ rights
Ageing, end of life and funerals
Restaurants and food delivery
Work and cooperative economy
Shopping: online, marketplaces and local shops
Culture: books, music, films and streaming
Waste, recycling and zero waste
Household and personal care
Education and training
Celebrations, gifts and holidays
Garden, seeds and biodiversity
Law, consumer protection and advice
Travel and tourism