Our regenerative story starts with a single core idea: The universal patterns and principles the cosmos uses to build stable, healthy, and sustainable systems throughout the real world can and must be used as a model for economic-system design. We then distill our research into a pattern of key interconnected principles that underlie systemic health and collectively represent the eight principles or qualities of a Regenerative Economy.
Humanity is an integral part of an interconnected web of life in which there is no real separation between “us” and “it.” We are all connected in symbiotic relationship to one another and to all locales of our global civilization.
True wealth is not merely money in the bank. It must be defined and managed in terms of the well-being of the whole, achieved through the harmonization of multiple kinds of wealth or capital, including social, cultural, living, experiential and relational. We are only as wealthy as our weakest link.
In a world in which change is both ever-present and accelerating, the qualities of innovation and adaptability are critical to health, and survival is a function of our ability to respond to the ever changing contexts.
In an interdependent system, fitness comes from contributing in some way to the health of the whole. With empowered participation, all parts add their unique contribution towards the health and well-being of the larger wholes in which they are embedded, and the health of the whole is utterly dependent upon all these contributions.
A regenerative economy nurtures healthy and resilient communities and regions, each one uniquely informed by the essence of its individual geological and cultural history and place. The living world is made up of an interconnected web of such bioregional communities, all expressing living systems patterns and principles in their unique context.
Creativity and abundance flourish synergistically at the “edges” of systems, where diversity is high and the bonds holding the dominant pattern in place are weakest. At those edges the opportunities for innovation and cross-fertilization are the greatest.
Just as human health depends on the robust circulation of oxygen, nutrients, etc., economic health relies on the robust circulation of money, information, resources, and goods and services to support exchange, flush toxins, and nourish every cell at every level of our human networks.
Being in balance is essential to systemic health. A regenerative economy seeks to balance: masculine with the feminine; efficiency and resilience; collaboration and competition; diversity and coherence; and small, medium, and large organizations and needs.
Our regenerative story starts with a single core idea: The universal patterns and principles the cosmos uses to build stable, healthy, and sustainable systems throughout the real world can and must be used as a model for economic-system design. We then distill our research into a pattern of key interconnected principles that underlie systemic health and collectively represent the eight principles or qualities of a Regenerative Economy.
Today’s greatest challenge is to address the root cause of our systemic crises – today’s dominant (neoliberal) economic paradigm and the financial system that fuels it and rules it – by transitioning to a more effective economic system design that is regenerative and therefore sustainable over the long term.
The universal patterns and principles nature uses to build stable, healthy, and sustainable systems throughout the real world can and must be used as a model for a new design of our economic system and the financial system that fuels it.
Finance for a Regenerative World provides a frank assessment of our flawed finance ideology, and a bold, principles-based framework for the future of Finance.
The transition toward a regenerative world is a collective effort that is already underway. To promote collaborative review and comment on this paper (and the ideas it introduces) Finance for a Regenerative World is being released in four acts:
Act I: Context and Implications of the Regenerative Paradigm for Finance
Act II: The Failures of Finance
Act III: Towards a Regenerative Finance and a New Investment Theory
Act IV: An Agenda for the Reform We Need
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