Villers-les-Pots, Côte-d'Or, France

What was done

The commune of Villers-les-Pots (Côte-d'Or, France) installed a communal hen coop run on a collaborative basis by residents, as a shared-infrastructure waste-reduction measure.

Rather than each household keeping its own hens, the village operates a single shared coop. Residents bring their food scraps to it and participate in caring for the hens collectively, sharing the resulting eggs. The coop is managed by the community of users rather than by an institution or a single household.

Why this case matters

Villers-les-Pots is the clearest example of the resident-run communal coop — the form of the collective model that most directly reaches households without their own garden, while keeping ownership in the hands of the community itself. It is the counterpart to the institution-run school coop: same shared-coop principle, but governed by a resident collective.

What a replicating commune should know

• A resident-run communal coop reaches gardenless households. Anyone in the village can bring scraps and share eggs, regardless of whether they have outdoor space — the central advantage over individual hen distribution.
• Collaborative governance is the make-or-break factor. The coop depends on residents actually sharing the daily care; the commune should help set up a clear rota or coordinator role rather than assuming self-organisation will hold.
• Shared eggs are the shared reward. Distributing the eggs among contributing residents keeps the incentive aligned with participation.
• Start at village scale. A single communal coop suits a small commune or a defined neighbourhood; territory-wide coverage needs multiple coops.

Honest reading

Outcome recorded as success as a functioning collaborative installation; the consulted source describes the governance model rather than quantifying diverted tonnage. The value of the case is demonstrating the resident-collective coop as a workable governance form for the shared-coop model.