HiVE Vancouver: Shared workspace leads to social innovation

For many small businesses and freelance professionals, finding an affordable workspace is a continual problem – not to mention accessing a workspace with unique networking opportunities. It’s a challenge that a group of green-building consultants and entrepreneurs hoped to address when they collaborated to form a new kind of co-working space in downtown Vancouver: the HiVE.

The HiVE is a 9,000 square foot, open-concept co-working space in Vancouver, home to more than 70 members, including designers, writers, architects, social enterprises, non-governmental organizations and sustainability consultants.

Vancity rents a permanent desk at the HiVE for its microfinance team to share, putting them at the cross-section of social and environmental change in Vancouver while lending their expertise and insight to fellow HiVE members. Vancity has also provided the HiVE with a grant, start-up loan and operating line of credit through its microfinance program to help the HiVE realize its vision of bringing together passionate, innovative people who want to create positive change in their community.