Regenerative Economics
Regenerative Economics begins with a simple possibility: that the same universal principles that sustain healthy living systems can also help guide the way we design and participate in our economies.
Regenerative Economics: Rethinking What an Economy Is For
Dear Friends… What is an economy actually for? Is its highest purpose simply to produce more, consume more, and generate continuous financial growth — or can an economy be designed to support the health and well-being of people, communities, and the living systems upon which all economic activity ultimately depends?
Regenerative economics begins with the recognition that the human economy does not exist in isolation. It is embedded within social relationships, ecological systems, communities, cultures, and the larger living reality of the planet. From this perspective, economic health cannot be measured only by profit, production, or Gross Domestic Product. It can also be reflected in resilience, meaningful work, healthy communities, responsible stewardship, long-term stability, and the ability of people and ecosystems to flourish together.
The deeper invitation is not necessarily to reject markets, business, innovation, or prosperity, but to expand our understanding of what prosperity means. A regenerative economy asks whether our economic systems can become more aligned with the patterns of healthy living systems — renewing rather than merely extracting, circulating resources rather than wasting them, strengthening relationships rather than severing them, and creating value in ways that support both present and future generations.
What is Regenerative Economics?
Regenerative economics is an approach to economic life inspired by the way healthy living systems actually function. Rather than continually extracting resources, using them, and discarding what remains, regenerative systems seek to renew, restore, circulate, and strengthen the people, communities, relationships, and natural systems upon which economic activity depends.
In nature, healthy systems depend upon relationship, diversity, circulation, adaptation, balance, and continual renewal. Regenerative economics asks what might happen if we brought those same principles more consciously into business, finance, ownership, production, consumption, and our relationships with one another and the planet.
The goal is not simply sustainability — maintaining what already exists — but regeneration: creating conditions in which communities, ecosystems, businesses, and people can become healthier, more resilient, and capable of flourishing over time. In that sense, economic success becomes something larger than the accumulation of wealth. It becomes a question of whether the economic system itself is helping life thrive.
Universal Principles, Right Relationship & Response-Ability
One of the central ideas behind regenerative economics is that healthy economies may need to function more like healthy living systems. Rather than continually treating the symptoms of economic dysfunction, this approach asks whether we can step back and examine the deeper patterns and principles that support resilience, balance, relationship, and long-term vitality.
In the conversation below, John Fullerton and Thomas Hübl explore the importance of right relationship — the understanding that the different parts of a healthy system must remain in meaningful relationship with one another. Hübl expands this into the idea of response-ability: our capacity to sense, care for, and consciously respond to the systems of which we are already a part.
Applied to economics, this becomes very practical. Businesses exist in relationship with customers, employees, owners, communities, and the larger environment. When those relationships become distant, fragmented, or purely transactional, the system itself can lose responsiveness and accountability. Regenerative economics invites us to restore those relationships so that economic activity can become more connected, responsible, and life-supporting.
The following video offers a thoughtful exploration of what it might mean to realign our economic systems with these deeper principles rather than simply continuing to repair the consequences of systems that have fallen out of balance.
Sacred Economics: Rethinking Money, Value & Relationship
Sacred economics invites us to look beyond money as merely a tool for buying, selling, accumulating, and measuring financial success. It asks a deeper question: Do the economic systems we have created actually reflect the values we say matter most — community, generosity, fairness, relationship, stewardship, and care for one another?
From this perspective, money itself is not necessarily the problem. The deeper issue may be the relationships, assumptions, and stories we have built around it — particularly ideas of scarcity, endless accumulation, separation, and the belief that value exists only when something can be given a financial price. Sacred economics explores the possibility of restoring greater balance between exchange and gift, individual prosperity and collective well-being, independence and interdependence.
Charles Eisenstein has become one of the most recognized contemporary voices exploring these questions. His work invites us to reconsider what money represents, how our economic structures shape human relationships, and what might become possible if our systems began reflecting a deeper awareness of connection rather than separation.
In the following video, Eisenstein explores the relationship between money, gift, community, scarcity, and human connection. Rather than simply proposing another economic theory, he invites us to question some of the underlying stories upon which modern economic life has been built — and to imagine what economics might look like if our systems more fully reflected our interdependence with one another and the living world.
What Might Regenerative Economics Look Like in Practice?
Regenerative economics becomes meaningful when its principles begin showing up in everyday economic life. That can take many forms: regenerative agriculture that restores soil and ecosystems, local economies that keep more value circulating within communities, circular production systems designed to reduce waste, cooperative and employee-owned businesses, community ownership models, and mission-driven companies that measure success by more than short-term financial return.
It can also mean directing capital more responsibly, designing businesses around long-term relationships rather than extraction, and creating systems in which workers, communities, customers, investors, and the environment are considered part of the same economic picture.
There is no single model that defines a regenerative economy. The deeper principle is that economic activity should help renew the systems upon which it depends — strengthening resilience, restoring relationships, circulating value more consciously, and expanding our understanding of prosperity beyond quarterly profit alone.
Further Regenerative Economics Resources
For those interested in exploring regenerative economics, circular systems, responsible business, community wealth, and new approaches to economic well-being more deeply, the following organizations offer useful research, educational material, practical models, and real-world examples.
Capital Institute — A nonpartisan think tank founded by John Fullerton exploring regenerative economics through living-systems principles, finance, business, and long-term human and ecological well-being.
Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) — A global community turning Doughnut Economics into practice by exploring how economies can meet human needs while remaining within the ecological boundaries of the planet.
Ellen MacArthur Foundation — A leading resource on the circular economy, including ways to eliminate waste and pollution, keep products and materials circulating, and regenerate nature through better economic and industrial design.
B Lab — The nonprofit network behind B Corp certification, helping businesses consider their impact on workers, communities, customers, governance, and the environment alongside financial performance.
Schumacher Center for a New Economics — An educational and research organization exploring community-based economics, local resilience, land stewardship, alternative ownership models, and economic systems rooted more deeply in people and place.
10 Economic Myths We May Want to Wake Up From
This thought-provoking article from Share The World’s Resources challenges a number of widely accepted assumptions about economics, scarcity, growth, competition, and the distribution of resources. Rather than asking readers to accept another fixed ideology, it invites a closer look at some of the beliefs that shape modern economic systems and encourages a broader conversation about cooperation, fairness, sustainability, and meeting basic human needs.
Yogi Sadhguru speaks about embracing Collaboration in lieu of Competition
Sadhguru, one of the most well known leaders of evolving a Conscious Planet speaks about the importance of embracing collaboration and the inherent challenges of competition. You can visit his website at www.Isha.org or the Conscious Planet Movement at: consciousplanet.org
Don't Compete, Collaborate by Sadhguru
Sadhguru on Leadership, Inclusive Economics, and more.
Sadhguru, one of the most well known leaders of the Save Soil Movement speaks about the Conscious Leadership and Inclusive Economics. You can visit his website at www.Isha.org or the Conscious Planet Movement at: consciousplanet.org
Changing Leadership and Business by Sadhguru
Sadhguru on the only Business is Human Wellbeing
Sadhguru, one of the most well known leaders of the Save Soil Movement speaks to business people about the business of perception and human wellbeing. You can visit his website at www.Isha.org or the Conscious Planet Movement at: consciousplanet.org
Changing Leadership and Business by Sadhguru
* Note: The individuals, organizations, and resources featured on this page are not affiliated with Peace President United. Inclusion is for educational and informational purposes only and does not imply endorsement of PPU.