How can adopting regenerative principles unlock a sustainable future?

Tackling the polycrisis requires an economic reset. Positive signals abound, but bold action is needed to accelerate the transition.

It’s easy to look at collective global progress on environmental, social and economic indicators and feel as though we’re locking ourselves into an unappealing future. While corporate sustainability has driven significant momentum over the past few years, the scale and pace remain insufficient to address the crises we face. Ultimately, we’re still trying to retrofit sustainability into a system that is unsustainable by design. A new economy - Exploring the root causes of the polycrisis and the principles to unlock a sustainable future (pdf) has been written to explore where we have come from and more importantly, the choices that we need to make to increase the pace and scale of the action needed.

The current global economic system has certainly yielded undeniable societal dividends, but cracks in its foundations are becoming increasingly apparent. These cracks reveal that the ecological, social and geoeconomic polycrisis we find ourselves in, and the inadequacy of attempts to avoid or address it, are inevitable consequences of six interconnected systemic flaws:

1. Unsustainable growth – valuing the quantity over the quality and sustainability of growth
2. Overconsumption – consuming unequally, beyond our planetary means
3. Linear economy – a take-make-waste production and consumption model
4. Financial capital myopia – overvaluing financial and undervaluing everything else
5. Short-termism – structural and cognitive focus on the present at the expense of the future
6. Siloed thinking – approaching complex, interconnected issues in isolation

Key economic forces – policy, technology, citizens, finance and business – all have huge roles to play in either reinforcing the inertia and the lack of trust that holds the dominant system in place or helping build confidence in, and momentum behind, the transition to a new state. While there are worrying trends indicating we are at risk of locking ourselves into an unsustainable future in the long term, there are equally promising signals that we are at a pivotal moment for transformation, one where the crises we face today could become the catalyst for an economic reset.

These positive trends can be seen in the growing number of frameworks and initiatives for economic transformation increasingly making their way into the policy discourse; the rapid advancement of renewable and regenerative technologies and the transition to a digitally enabled economy. Similarly, the cultural shift toward eco-conscious, experience-based and values-led modes of consumption; the growing role of finance in mobilizing capital toward sustainable projects and technologies; and the expansion of sharing economy, ecosystem and other innovative business models that challenge traditional paradigms for success, all hint that change is already underway.

Translating these early signals into widespread action requires intentional collaboration across all economic actors to remove structural barriers and create enabling conditions for change. Should there be deliberate, confronting and urgent moves away from the systemic flaws perpetuating the polycrisis, a new, regenerative economy founded on human and planetary flourishing is still within reach. To accelerate the transition, we believe that strategies and decisions made today (and in the future) would need to be guided by five principles:

1. Sufficiency – enough for a good life within planetary boundaries
2. Circularity – aligning production and consumption with nature
3. Systems thinking – connecting the dots to catalyze systems change
4. Value redefined – putting human and planetary flourishing at the heart of value creation
5. Equity and justice – achieving shared and lasting prosperity for all

Transitioning to a new economy