We’re at the vanguard of change, but capitalism isn’t going anywhere, enter re-capitalism.
Sustainability and capitalism have, for a long time, been opposing forces. But what if the resources of finance and business were instead aligned to help deal with challenges like climate-change and bio-diversity loss? What if capitalism could be incentivised to do good?
This is not class warfare, and this goes well beyond left vs right; this is the evolution of doing business.
This is Re-capitalism:
“Capitalism needs a Reset” says the World Economic Forum (WEF)
“Re-imagining capitalism” is the title of Harvard Professor Rebecca Henderson’s book.
Ray Dalio and Martin Wolf both say we need to “Reform capitalism”.
John Elkington’s recent book Green Swans is all about “The coming boom in Regenerative capitalism”
Kate Raworth’s model of ‘Doughnut Economics’ offers a “radical Re-envisioning of the system that has brought us to the point of ruin”.
Chris Marquis has written a book called: “Better Business: How the B Corp Movement is Remaking Capitalism”
The Global Impact Investment Network (GIIN) has a new podcast called “Next Normal: Re-imagining capitalism for our future”
And the mission statement of my own work is to “Reboot finance and economics, to better serve people and the planet”.
Re-capitalism is a movement, and whether they realise it or not, the people and organisations mentioned above are all on the same team. These are pragmatic people and organisations who are devoted to the business of business. Yet still, they recognise that sustainability lowers risk, and that equality is good for our economy.
We’ve reached a tipping point where companies are now expected to do more than just make profits for shareholders, they also need to make a positive contribution to society.
If the global financial crisis wasn’t a big enough wake-up call, covid-19 certainly has been. The movement towards sustainability, efficiency and resilience has now been joined by big-business, but importantly, it’s being pushed by the investors who fund the companies and the customers who buy their products. Which is just how capitalism was always intended to work.
We’re all capitalists, but that doesn’t mean we have to tolerate companies exploiting the environment for short-term gain, or influencing politics to maintain monopoly power.
The system works, it just needs a little Re-capitalism.
