"It's not enough to build your own company, you have to participate in building the whole ecosystem," says Jeffrey Hollender. In this episode of Next Economy Now, Kevin Bayuk, a partner and worker-owner at LIFT Economy, interviews Jeffrey Hollender, founder of Seventh Generation, the American Sustainable Business Council and Sustain Natural among other enterprises and organizations.
Hollender is a thought leader on corporate responsibility, sustainability, and social equity. His decades of experience have covered decentralized models of education, ethical community banking, starting and growing sustainable, and now net positive, enterprises and using the power of coalition building as a lever for creating change in policy and governance.
In this interview Bayuk and Hollender discuss:
- How important it is to take a systems view when engaging in changing the economy (systems thinking emerges as the consistent theme throughout the discussion and Jeffrey encourages listeners to check out this lecture by Peter Senge to develop a basic literacy of systems thinking).
- Which type of scale (many small businesses or few very large businesses) is better to change the economy.
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The role of worker ownership in addressing wealth inequality.
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The role and power of everyday consumer choices.
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"Net positive" business compared to business just "less bad."
- The dysfunction of the "business as usual" capital and the return mandates on that capital to serve the innovation of small emergent next economy enterprises.
If you only have two minutes, click here for a highlight from the interview.
This is part of a series of Next Economy Now podcasts we are publishing on Shareable. You can also listen/subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.
Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, democratic, transparent, and whole-systems approach to solving social and environmental challenges. The goal of this podcast is to identify the trends, tips, and best practices that will help listeners better harness the power of business as a force for good.
Header image by Seventh Generation
