Services for Systems
We need to collaborate towards fundamental system evolution to make regenerative business the new normal. This is why, decades ago, many NOW partners co-founded the first sustainable business networks to demonstrate that another economy - that benefits all stakeholders, including investors and Nature - is possible.
We continue to grow action alliances and help pace-setting companies to become even better models and actively engage in system transformation. We collaborate with governments and multilateral institutions, social entrepreneurs, activists, academia, religious and media institutions to co-create new visions and realities. We can only succeed together!
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Sustainable Business Alliances
As owners and leaders of large corporations, innovative start-ups, social enterprises and international institutions, NOW’s founders and partners co-created and led the first sustainable business and investor alliances across Europe and The Americas, including the Social Venture Network and Empresa in the 1990’s and later the B Corp movement that they continue to co-lead.
B Corp Movement
The global B Corp movement that NOW’s partners help to develop around the world certified almost 4,000 B Corps and inspired the international Benefit Corporation legislation that includes 10,000 companies. B Corp tools are used by many more businesses. Many NOW partners own B Corps and NOW supports multinationals to develop their full B Corp business potential.
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Regenerative Business Approaches
NOW’s founders and partners helped to develop and implement many innovation approaches in business and economics, including Sustainable Business, Natural Capitalism, Corporate Social Responsibility, SRI and Impact Investing, Micro Finance, Clean Tech, Fair Trade, Circularity, ESG accounting, the Integrated Bottomline, Social Entrepreneurship and regenerative leadership models - which NOW integrates into Regenerative Value Creation.
Consortium on Regenerative Value Creation
Integrating three decades of experience with these mutually enhancing economic approaches, NOW is founding an innovation and action-oriented consortium of cutting-edge corporate leaders, academic researchers, measurement and regeneration experts to co-create new approaches to innovate, implement and measure Regenerative Value Creation’s mutually enhancing impact on all aspects of business performance and the regeneration of people, societies and ecosystems.
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Thought Leadership
Our partners have authored some of the most innovative approaches to business and economy, leadership and innovation, diversity and inclusion. Now we combine their insight, experience and vast networks to co-create media products, teach and research academically and serve clients in business, government and civil society who really want to evolve.
Natural Capitalism and Megatrends
Our partners developed a ground-breaking trend methodology, coined the term Megatrends and authored 12 books that accurately predicted key developments in business and society. Another partner co-authored Natural Capitalism, that became an inspiring and yet highly pragmatic ‘bible’ for many of today’s most sustainable businesses and public sector institutions.
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“I have grandchildren. I just don’t want to face those beautiful eyes, asking me: what have you done?”
Christine Lagarde
Head European Central Bank, Ex-head IMF
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Innovation in Business Education
To remedy traditional business education’s deficit in integrating business success with human, social and environmental regeneration, NOW partners created and teach in sustainable MBA programs, create innovation alliances with top universities and co-found networks like B Academics that includes over a thousand B Corp faculty and Net Impact that has 350 students & alumni chapters worldwide.
First Sustainable MBA
Already 15 years ago, our partners created and taught the USA’s first fully accredited MBA in Sustainable Management at Presidio in San Francisco. Integrated sustainability and transformative leadership development into every course. Advised governments around the world on business education reform. Inspired major US and international universities to move towards regenerative, inclusive, all stakeholder orientation in their curricula.
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Innovating Leadership Approaches
NOW partners helped to author and refine cutting edge leadership, strategy and innovation approaches - unifying personal, interpersonal and organizational development with business success and regenerating human- and ecosystems. They integrate knowledge and praxis from neuroscience, psychology, mindfulness and wisdom traditions for successful action in diverse corporate and socio-economic contexts.
Design Thinking & U Process
Our partners helped to enhance these and other methods’ impact by integrating hands-on business experience with personal development approaches to deepen listening and insight generation, connect with inspiration in nature and diverse communities, disempower resistance to change and speed up application in rapid prototyping to generate meaningful innovation and transformation.
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Events that make a difference
NOW creates lively and action-oriented events that foster reflection and insight, passion and co-creativity. We convene action and thought leaders in inspiring settings that include nature and art, diverse cultures and engaging leadership practices that invite experiential contact with personal and shared purpose and vision, fueling long-term relationships and sustained collaboration.
Economic Spring in Prague
When the EU’s ex-communist member states struggled to develop democracies and new economic approaches, a NOW partner co-hosted with President Vaclav Havel a conference that integrated market entrepreneurship with social and environmental responsibility. Many of the world’s sustainable business and political leaders were inspired by the historic poignancy and deep immersion in nature, art, music and lived humanity.
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“The universal patterns and principles the cosmos uses to build stable, healthy, and sustainable systems can and must be used as a model for economic-system design.”
John Fullerton
Founder, Capital Institute
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Regenerating Cities & Regions
While climate, Covid and unsustainable economics are global phenomena, they must also be resolved within their specific local context. NOW partners contributions range from convening the first sustainable business conference at the UN’s Global Habitat Summit to working with local communities, economic stakeholders and governments and multilateral institutions to find and implement solutions.
Regenerating Groningen, Netherlands
NOW is co-initiating a systemic stakeholder collaboration to resolve devastation caused by gas extraction that led to earthquakes, soil collapse, pollution, real estate damage and emigration of top talent. Co-convening local and national government, civil society, academia and business to find solutions that regenerate the region, also as a model for other regions.
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Supporting Government
NOW partners have served in government and continue to support local, national and regional public sector institutions and alliances such the EU, the Association of Caribbean States and the Cumbre of Latin governments to strengthen democracy and evolve collaboration with civil society and sustainable business towards the regeneration of societies and ecosystems.
Future Generations Legislation
Played key role in creating Welsh Government’s Wellbeing of Future Generations Act. Acknowledged by UN as leading the world in integrated approaches that make sustainable development the responsibility of every public sector organisation. Create legal obligation to deliver on sustainability and justice. Provides platform for country-scale change in government, civic institutions and business.
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Advising the U.N.
NOW is committed to help the UN, its sister organizations and other multilateral institutions to evolve their understanding and action towards sustainable business and economic development. This included advising UN leaders, briefing the General Assembly and national delegations at Global Summits, helping to generate the UN Global Compact and convening multi-stakeholder events.
Introducing Sustainable Business
At the UN Global Habitat Summit, our partners hosted the first sustainable business conference. Provided 3-hour briefing to UN General Assembly members, many of whom had never encountered concrete business cases of sustainable economic development. Briefed national delegations and supported inclusion of sustainable business standards in UN’s Global Plan for Action.
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Bottom of the Pyramid Financing
Around the world our partners continue to play an important role in making adaptive financing and investment available to less affluent communities, social entrepreneurs and small business innovators through financial education, impact investments, micro and SME financing and by building an alliance of private and public financial institutions.
Global Alliance for Banking on Values
Our partners co-developed and led this alliance of now 59 regenerative banks on five continents. With €200 billion in assets, 80,000 co-workers, they outperform the average commercial bank, while serving directly 60 million and indirectly many more ‘bottom on the pyramid’ business leaders and SMEs which in most Southern Hemisphere countries are the backbone of employment and entrepreneurship.
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Finance Sector & Multilaterals
Financial systems and their institutions are key to reorienting companies and towards the regeneration of people and Nature. NOW therefore works regeneration-oriented impact investors, sustainable and commercial banks like Triodos and Rabo as well as multilateral finance institutions, ranging the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation to the Dutch FMO.
Asian Development Bank
As former director of Asian Development Bank, a NOW partner advanced public, private and civil society awareness and collaboration towards sustainable development, human and physical infrastructure solutions that promote and integrate improved livelihoods and proper management of natural resources, while countering the impacts of climate and related socio-economic disruption.
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Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Building on decades of experience, NOW partners help to lead and strengthen the growing movement of social entrepreneurs who around the world and across all sectors of society integrate regenerative visions with the dynamic can-do spirit of business entrepreneurs to implement solutions for humanity’s most pressing global & local challenges and opportunities.
Africa in Action
A NOW partner leads Ashoka Africa and others support it with continent-wide strategy, leadership development and team coaching. Empowering hundreds of Ashoka’s social entrepreneurs across the continent to advance system change, including in education, affordable healthcare, sustainable agriculture, women’s empowerment, human rights, peace work, good governance and democracy.
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Youth Leadership
Everywhere, new generations of innovators, activists and entrepreneurs show us ways into personally inspiring, socially and environmentally regenerative futures. They remind us what matters: To serve all stakeholders, innovate perception and thinking, co-create and collaborate for positive impact. We learn from and support them and other institutions to do the same.
Empowering Youth Entrepreneurs
A NOW partner founded & led Global Youth Innovation Network: 6,000 members, 100 countries, 200 public, private, civic sector partners. Via CORY consortium strengthened capacities of 43,000 West and Central African rural youth entrepreneurs who launched 480 rural youth enterprises. Via CEEYAFS provided 10,000 young rural entrepreneurs in East Africa with startup capital.
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Civil Society
Civil society is crucial for regenerative system evolution. NOW partners therefore founded, lead and support many civil society organizations, alliances and movements. We help to increase its impact on societies and markets to motivate companies to implement more regenerative business models. We help companies to collaborate with civil society to develop shared solutions that work for all.
Empowering Activists to help us
A NOW partner trained the leadership team of STAND (ex-ForestEthics) that was co-created by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and similar NGOs to motivate corporations and governments to protect by now 75 million acres of virgin forests, its communities and the climate. 3M’s CEO: STAND’s intervention was one of the best things that happened to our company.
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Spirit in Business
We support sustainability-oriented faith leaders like the Pope and the Dalai Lama to translate their inspiration into pragmatic visions and applications that can orient the economy-related activities of their institutions and guide leaders in business and other sectors in how to regenerate creation and live our awesome human potential in action.
Vatican
Co-created task force advising Pope and other Vatican leaders on regenerative business, future of work, climate solutions, Covid crisis, financial stimulus packages. Creating action-oriented round tables with CEOs, other sector leaders on integrating business and values. Exploring how to motivate millions of Christian business leaders to put Pope’s Laudato Si teachings into business.
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Integrating 3 Types of Knowledge
To support shifts in corporate behavior, governmental policies, public awareness and academic programs we generate applied research on major developments in business and technology, economy and diverse sectors of society. We integrate 3 types of knowledge discovery: Scientific research, pragmatic action knowledge and insights generated by awareness practices of contemporary and ancient wisdom traditions.
Naisbitt China Institute
Based on their highly effective Mega Trend methodology, our partners founded an institute for in-depth analysis of China’s socio-economic, political and cultural trends within global context. Research conducted in key Chinese cities with diverse communities of business and government leaders, citizens and youth. Published several China specific books, local articles and interviews. Professorships at top Chinese universities.
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