Coming HomeThe New Economy and Honoring the Inherent Sacredness of All Life

As i write these words in Oakland, the day after Christmas 2017, the Thomas wildfire in Ventura County near Los Angeles has been burning for nearly a month. Finally 88% contained, this is the largest fire in California history and the second unprecedentedly catastrophic wildfire in the state in under two months. The air quality in the Bay Area has been significantly impacted. People with respiratory illnesses or other sensitivities have needed to wear their N95 masks again as they did during the Northern California fires, and the severity of asthma symptoms, especially in children, has ostensibly worsened.

A recent photo of Christmas trees decorated in what now resembles a vacant lot in Santa Rosa, placed by people marking where their homes used to be, is an indelible reminder of the tragedy, as are images of the loss and devastation caused by hurricanes Henry and Ira in the Southern U.S., Puerto Rico, and many places in the Caribbean.

For hundreds of millions of people, perhaps billions across the globe, natural disasters have brought home the inescapable fact that the world as we once knew it is truly gone. Words fail to approximate the extent to which there has never been a more crucial time to redesign our economy than now—life as we know it urgently depends on it. The ever expanding voraciousness of our current economy has eroded Earth's capacity to regulate our ecosystems. Thus, the urgency of climate change is extending its long, many-handed reach and knocking upon all our doors—except for those people from Santa Rosa to San Juan, Puerto Rico, who have lost homes upon which those doors once welcomed them. In the silence that now greets them, now is the time to co-create a new economy that is capable of sustaining rather than recklessly devouring life: this is the message that resounds.

In defining the vision of its Next Economy Program, the Movement Strategy Center, a Bay Area and national thought leader on these issues, states: "MSC's Next Economy program supports the transition to an economy based on interdependence, abundance, and regeneration. [The] Next Economy program focuses on discovering, building, and supporting what is feasible, scalable, and replicable, while staying rooted in the needs and interests of local communities. Our current global economic system is based on exploitation and profit maximization that sacrifices our most vulnerable communities as well as the natural world. We know that today, our communities face the worst of climate catastrophe and epic dislocation, the symptoms of a system in its last, most destructive phase. The current unsustainable system is melting down. Let's put something strong in its place."

As you read this issue, you will note that as our movements, institutions, and practices to transform capitalism as it currently functions emerge and grow, new language to describe these efforts is emerging. New economy, regenerative economy, next economy, socially conscious entrepreneurship, and impact investment are all terms which relate to and attempt to define these myriad interconnected and hopeful efforts.

The Community Capital Markets (COCAP) Conference: Building the We Economy, which has been organized for the last four years by Impact Hub Oakland, stands out as another local and national thought leader. The COCAP Conferences serve as a compass of where our movements have been and where we are heading in terms of the most progressive and cutting-edge regenerative economic efforts. The community-based (and much more affordable) alternative to the annual SOCAP (Social Capital Markets) gathering, the COCAP Conference focuses on "strategies for building local regenerative economies that create equity and well being for all." The leadership and needs of communities marginalized from finance, entrepreneurship, and wealth, especially communities of color and women, are centered.

A nondenominational spiritual exploration of who we all need to become individually and collectively to enable sustainable economic shift has also consistently been a central focus of the conference. COCAP is the brainchild of Konda Mason, the cofounder and founding CEO of Impact Hub Oakland and a long-time Buddhist teacher...