<aside> đ The spectrum of economies
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<aside> đĄ Case studies
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<aside> đŞ Worksheet: Pathways
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<aside> ⨠Possibilities
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<aside> â Research question: What organizations operate in alternative economies (hybrid, regenerative, relational), and how do they practice it? What can we learn from them?
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Shorter link to this report: https://tinyurl.com/yckfxum2
https://embed.kumu.io/2f7ec07fadae33edfbf875d3b5ce2c49
The 9 selected case studies below demonstrate how they operate in alternative economies, with hybrid forms of capital, medium of exchange, value creation, trust, and governance models. Please click each case study to learn more about them. You can click the icon on the button right to view a larger version.
https://airtable.com/shrQXqQN0JhltmKB3
https://airtable.com/shrUQGQGtiCJeTcl2
The pathways worksheet aggregates different forms of capital, medium of exchange, underlying principles, decision-making mechanisms, membership models, and types of trust from different case studies. The purpose of the worksheet is to provide a reflective space for anyone who would like to re-examine or establish new ventures, organizations, institutions, communities, or groups that operate in alternative economies (hybrid, regenerative, relational) that does less/no harm to society, people, and the planet. Please go through the details of each selection in the case studies section and reflect on the elements youâd like to include in your practice. You can mix and match those elements or create new ones. Please feel free to download this worksheet.
The purpose of a portfolio of ideas is to synthesize the learnings of the above-mentioned case studies and show what-ifs (what we need to build and invest next) to operate in a more regenerative, hybrid, and relational economy.
Context: Over the last seven years, Coralus has transitioned from an innovative Venture Capital intermediary to an orchestrator of multiple forms of capital, fusing them to generate positive outcomes for ventures and activators. As described in this research report, these forms of capital include financial, trust, human, intellectual, experiential, social and care capital. There are few organizations in the world that effectively activate a multi-capital model. There are even fewer that do so through a decentralized system of community consensus, essentially assuring that every decision is transparent, informed through many-to-many collective processes, and strengthened through multiple perspectives and knowledge lenses. What Coralus has been able to accomplish is structuring an alternative market system. This means that as an organization Coralus now holds significant positive value, no different from companies operating in a traditional economy that report fixed and variable assets, such as real estate, equipment or receivables. However, unlike traditional assets, the multi-capital that Coralus has created is growing exponentially in value rather than depreciating; and it produces significant positive spillover effects on the ecosystem as a whole.
At the same time, each venture i.e. impact business, and each activator i.e. investor have built their own respective value models. Ventures hold multiple forms of capital: the impact they generate within the community from which they employ individuals; the role modelling that happens because women funders lead successful businesses; the positive change that each venture creates with their business model: whether it is removing plastic from the oceans, building radical bicycles for elderly and thus challenging the entire health care system or establishing an indigenous education platform. Activatorsâ capital mix consists of new relationships and deep alternative learnings: the knowledge of starting oneâs own impact business, navigating the challenges of being a female or BIPOC community founder, scaling the revenue and adjusting to dynamic market conditions.
What is it trying to solve? However, Coralus, the ventures it funds and the organizations featured in this report all operate within existing accounting and legal frameworks. This means that the multiple capitals they hold are not recognized by existing standards. Yet, what they are manifesting is the next generation of typologies.
What is it? To illustrate this, we could consider a tree whose value is dismissed by existing accounting rules and that legally has no representation. What if trees were given legal status - so they could advocate for themselves, govern their relationships with all other living creatures and choose their own stewards? Moreover, what if we recognized their multiple spillover values: the clean air they generate, the stormwater they alleviate, the flooding they prevent, the heat island effect they mitigate, and the carbon they sequestrate?
Why is it helpful? All of a sudden, the trees are no longer a liability but one of our most valuable assets with its distinctive set of governing legislations. It has its own unique balance sheet, income statement and investment memorandum. The government, philanthropic, public & private pension institutions would no longer have a reason to allocate their funds towards depreciating assets when a tree, an urban park or a street canopy provides such a strong alternative. The same logic could be applied to Coralus and the next generation of ventures and investors that it enables. What would its balance sheet, income statement and investment memorandum look like? What about all other organizations featured in this report? If we could showcase their distinctive capital models, values and revenue flow outside traditional monetary exchanges then we would indeed be creating an alternative market system - a system capable of operating in the complex, entangled world we live in.
