As part of The Economy of Francesco program the Business Ethics Center organized a workshop entitled “New Business Models for Human Flourishing & Ecological Regeneration” on September 23, 2022 in Assisi, Italy.
Contributing faculty of the workshop included Laszlo Zsolnai (Corvinus University of Budapest & Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford), András Ócsai (Corvinus University of Budapest), Antonio Tencati (University of Brescia & Bocconi University Milan), and Jozsef Veress (Corvinus University of Budapest).
The workshop presented innovative business models which connect human flourishing with ecological regeneration from different industries and fields of social life. These businesses ensures simultaneous flourishing of people and nature. They bind together an ethic of nature and ethics of people/community into practical frameworks for creating integrated socio-ecological wellbeing. The discussed cases included the following. Slow Food (Italy), Organic India (India), Green Monday (Hong Kong), Patagonia (USA), Natural Cosmetics: Natura (Brazil), Triodos Bank (The Netherlands), TAHITO (New Zealand), and Wellbeing Economics Alliance (global).
The workshop addressed the challenges of business transformation required by the new reality of the Anthropocene including climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and growing inequality nationally and globally. The workshop presented a variety of initiatives from all over the world to show that it is possible to develop and run new business models that serve human flourishing and ecological regeneration at the same time. Industries included food production, animal protection, clothing, community development, banking & finance, and wellbeing policies.
Background materials and readings for the workshop:
1 Shrivastava & Zsolnai- Wellbeing‐oriented organizations
Zsolnai and Ócsai lecture Challenges of the Athropocene
Tencati slides Beyond the Business Case
3 Trasformational Dynamism of Civil Society Organizations
4 Ecological Civilization The Vision
5 Earth is our only shareholder