Our work and collective success is bound to the following eight elements that have been established by the Capital Institute for a thriving regenerative economic system:
1. Right Relationship: It holds the continuation of life sacred and recognizes that the economy is embedded in human culture and the ecosphere.
2. Entrepreneurialism: A Regenerative Economy draws on the innate ability of human beings to innovate and “create anew” across all sectors of society.
3. Wealth Viewed Holistically: True wealth is defined in terms of the well-being of the “whole,” achieved through the enhancement and harmonization of the multiple forms of capital – social, ecological, manufactured, and financial.
4. Shared Prosperity: Wealth is equitably (although not necessarily equally) distributed in the context of an expanded view of true wealth.
5. Real Economy Circularity: Ultimately solar-powered, the economy strives continually to minimize energy, material, and resource throughput radically at all phases of the production cycle. Products are remanufactured, recycled and composted, with natural outputs safely composted to the biological world, while minerals and human made substances return to the industrial cycle.
6. “Edge Effect” Abundance: Creative, diverse collaborations increase the possibility of value-adding wealth creation through relationship, exchanges, and resiliency.
7. Resiliency: The whole system develops the long run ability to adapt and learn from shocks; adaptability to change is valued over current brittle concentrations of power and hyper-efficiency.
8. Honors Place: A Regenerative Economy operates to nurture healthy, stable communities and bioregions, both real and virtual, in a connected mosaic of place-centered economies.
Reference: John Fullerton, The Capital Institute