We have a lot in common.
Invest accordingly.
Our work needs a safe haven, held in common trust. Build nest eggs that are nested.
Free your conscience; build an asset that doesn't exploit. It's the family model: you don't exploit your kids, so don't exploit the collaborators at work either.
Free your work; build work that doesn't get exploited by others. An asset, a nest egg that's rent free, debt-free.
Leave investors better off, but leave people and planet better off too. That's regenerative business; leave people and planet better than you found them.
Scientists are painting a picture of regeneration; a balance of life that stewards fit into, instead of a factory of resources that prospectors extract from. Every steward in the system has:
- Agency — a voice in governance
- Equity — a stake in the value created
And by every steward, we mean every investor, founder, employee, contractor, and customer, up and down the value chain — and we mean their families and communities. We mean every natural resource affected directly or indirectly by the value chain, including any birds and bees, the atmosphere or the trees, the coral reefs or the seas. The ones that are used or impacted have a stake, and a voice, in the regenerative financing that drives the system.
We all need investors at the table, just not at the head of the table. We need business that's in harmony with nature, and is a stakeholder in community-building. We are as accountable to Nature and Society as we are to Investors. Start by making them equal shareholders.
Nature doesn't value dollars, so don't price nature in dollar terms. Society doesn't value dollars, so don't price social costs in monetary terms either. Track shareholder investments on their own terms:
- Investors measure in money
- Nature measures in life
- Society measures in need
Treat them like family. Build the nest for the family. Reinvest returns, compound the value. Bring others into your family nest; more mothers, more eggs. Grow the nest, grow the clutch. Solve each others' problems in cooperative structures, and build common wealth. Networks of businesses own each other and work together to survive; build nests that are nested. When an entity in the value chain is not fairly rewarded, get them involved. When everyone is involved, there's nobody left to exploit.
You can't just charge rent or interest and claim to be involved. When a rewarded entity is shirking involvement, appropriate their control; divest them. When everyone is participating, there's nobody left to extract.
A regenerative business is a closed system, with no externalities; a new value chain, and a new operating model. This is a system, and this is a movement.
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." — Buckminster Fuller