Circular EconomyCircular EconomyKeeps materials and products in use through reuse, repair, remanufacturing, and recycling. Waste is eliminated by design.Conceptualized by Walter Stahel (1970s), popularized by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Towards the Circular Economy (2013)Cradle to CradleCradle to CradleDesigns products as nutrients: either biological (returning safely to nature) or technical (circulating indefinitely in industry). Waste equals food.Developed by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart.McDonough & Braungart, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (2002)Functional EconomyFunctional EconomySells performance and use rather than ownership of goods. The manufacturer retains responsibility for the product lifecycle.Developed by Walter Stahel at the Geneva-based Product-Life Institute.Walter Stahel, The Performance Economy (2010)Regenerative EconomyRegenerative EconomyRestores and regenerates the vitality of living systems (soil, water, ecosystems) as the foundation for lasting prosperity.Developed by John Fullerton and the Capital Institute.John Fullerton, Regenerative Capitalism (2015)Blue EconomyBlue EconomyUses what nature offers locally, cascading resources from one process to the next: zero waste, zero emissions, multiple value streams.Pioneered by Gunter Pauli, inspired by biomimicry principles.Gunter Pauli, The Blue Economy (2010)Ecological EconomicsEcological EconomicsTreats the economy as a subsystem embedded within ecosystems, placing biophysical limits (energy, matter, biodiversity) at the core of analysis.Founded by Herman Daly and Robert Costanza in the 1980s–90s.Herman Daly, Beyond Growth (1996) · International Society for Ecological Economics (est. 1988)Steady-State EconomySteady-State EconomyAn economy with stable population and stable throughput of energy and materials, operating within the biophysical carrying capacity of the planet, rejecting infinite growth as a viable goal.Developed by Herman Daly, rooted in the thermodynamic economics of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen.Herman Daly, Steady-State Economics (1977) · Beyond Growth (1996)Doughnut EconomicsDoughnut EconomicsDefines a safe and just space for humanity between a social foundation (basic needs) and a planetary ceiling (ecological limits).Created by Kate Raworth at Oxfam, developed at Oxford University.Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics (2017)Post-Growth EconomyPost-Growth EconomyAn economy designed to deliver well-being, equity, and ecological stability without requiring perpetual GDP growth. Not degrowth, but a system that no longer depends on growth to function.Developed notably by Tim Jackson, formalized by Thomas Piketty & Tim Jackson in a landmark joint paper, and advanced by economist Timothée Parrique whose doctoral research provides the most comprehensive empirical case for decoupling the economy from growth.Tim Jackson, Prosperity Without Growth (2009) · Piketty & Jackson, The Lancet Planetary Health (2024) · Timothée Parrique, Ralentir ou périr (2022)Beyond GDP: New Wealth IndicatorsBeyond GDP: New Wealth IndicatorsReplaces GDP as the primary measure of progress with indicators capturing well-being, social equity, ecological health, and long-term resilience.Patrick Viveret's Reconsidérer la richesse report (2003), Éloi Laurent's social-ecological indicators, and the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission.Viveret, Reconsidérer la richesse (2003) · Stiglitz, Sen & Fitoussi, Mismeasuring Our Lives (2010) · Laurent, Measuring Tomorrow (2018)Commons EconomicsCommons EconomicsDemonstrates that communities can govern shared natural resources (forests, fisheries, groundwater) sustainably without privatization or state control, through collective self-governance rules.Elinor Ostrom, Indiana University. Nobel Prize in Economics (2009), the first woman to receive it.Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons (1990)Complexity EconomicsComplexity EconomicsTreats the economy as a complex adaptive system in perpetual evolution, not a mechanical equilibrium. Agents adapt, niches emerge, and the system never fully settles. Rooted in biology and systems science.W. Brian Arthur and colleagues at the Santa Fe Institute, 1980s–90s.W. Brian Arthur, Complexity and the Economy (2014) · Santa Fe InstituteWellbeing EconomyWellbeing EconomyReorients national policy around citizen well-being, ecological health, and social equity rather than GDP growth. Already adopted as official framework by Scotland, New Zealand, Iceland, Wales, and Finland.Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) alliance, formed 2018.WEGo, Wellbeing Economy Governments (2018) · Katherine Trebeck & Jeremy Williams, The Economics of Arrival (2019)Care EconomyCare EconomyMakes visible the unpaid or undervalued work of care (raising children, caring for the elderly, maintaining social bonds) as the foundation of all productive economic activity. Challenges the invisibility of reproductive and natural systems in standard economics.Joan Tronto, Nancy Folbre, Marilyn Waring. Part of feminist economics since the 1980s.Marilyn Waring, If Women Counted (1988) · Nancy Folbre, The Invisible Heart (2001)BioregionalismBioregionalismOrganizes human society around natural geographic regions defined by watersheds, ecosystems, and local cultures rather than political borders. Each bioregion becomes the primary unit of economic, political, and cultural life.Developed by Peter Berg and Kirkpatrick Sale in the 1970s and 1980s.Kirkpatrick Sale, Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision (1985)BioeconomyBioeconomyApplies thermodynamics to economics: all economic processes irreversibly transform low-entropy resources into high-entropy waste. The economy is a biological system, subject to the laws of entropy. Extended by astrophysicist François Roddier, who applied dissipative systems theory (Prigogine) to show why economies follow thermodynamic cycles.Pioneered by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen. Extended by François Roddier (astrophysicist, Univ. of Hawaii) in the tradition of Prigogine's dissipative structures.Georgescu-Roegen, The Entropy Law and the Economic Process (1971) · F. Roddier, De la thermodynamique à l'économie (2018)Gross National HappinessGross National HappinessA governance framework that replaces GDP with a multidimensional index integrating psychological wellbeing, cultural resilience, ecosystem health, time use, and good governance. The first national framework to institutionalize living-world health as an economic objective.Conceived by King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan in 1972. Formalized as national policy and integrated into the Bhutanese Constitution in 2008.Centre for Bhutan Studies, GNH Survey (2010) · UNDP, Beyond GDP: Measuring What Counts (2019)Small is BeautifulSmall is BeautifulAn economic philosophy arguing that human-scale, decentralized, and ecologically embedded economies are more resilient, just, and meaningful than industrial gigantism. Introduces "Buddhist Economics": production and consumption guided by the minimization of effort and the maximization of wellbeing, not output.Developed by E.F. Schumacher, British economist, in his landmark 1973 book. Schumacher was influenced by Gandhi's vision of village-scale self-sufficiency.E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (1973)Sacred EconomicsSacred EconomicsArgues that money and economics should reflect the true abundance of the living world rather than enforcing artificial scarcity. Proposes demurrage currency (money that loses value over time to encourage circulation), gift economy principles, and the re-embedding of economic exchange in relationships of gratitude and care.Developed by Charles Eisenstein, American author and speaker, in his 2011 book. Draws on gift economy theory (Marcel Mauss), alternative currency movements, and the philosophy of interbeing.Charles Eisenstein, Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition (2011)Eco-EconomyEco-EconomyA framework for restructuring the global economy so that its progress is guided by ecosystem health rather than GDP growth. Proposes concrete sectoral transitions (energy, transport, agriculture, materials) within planetary carrying capacity, treating the economy as a wholly owned subsidiary of the ecosystem.Developed by Lester Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute and Earth Policy Institute. His "Plan B" series (2003–2011) outlined the most comprehensive early roadmap for a full-economy ecological transition.Lester Brown, Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth (2001) · Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (2009)Microcredit & Social BusinessMicrocredit & Social BusinessMicrocredit provides small loans to people excluded from traditional banking systems, enabling entrepreneurship and economic agency at the grassroots level. Extended into Social Business: companies designed not to maximize profit but to solve human problems, with investors recovering only their initial investment.Pioneered by Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank (Bangladesh, 1983). Nobel Peace Prize 2006. Extended into the Social Business concept in his book Building Social Business (2010).Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor (1999) · Building Social Business (2010)Social and Solidarity EconomySocial and Solidarity EconomyA set of organizations (cooperatives, mutual societies, associations, foundations, social enterprises) that pursue a social or environmental purpose, operate with democratic governance, and limit profit distribution. Represents an alternative to the shareholder model, placing human and ecological needs at the centre of economic activity.Rooted in 19th-century cooperative movements (Rochdale Pioneers, 1844). Institutionalized in France by the ESS Law (2014). The social entrepreneurship movement, including Ashoka (Bill Drayton, 1980), extended this logic globally through individual changemakers.Loi française relative à l'ESS (2014) · Defourny & Nyssens, Social Enterprise in Europe (2017)Symbiotic EconomySymbiotic EconomyAn economic model inspired by the logic of living systems, where human activities regenerate ecosystems rather than degrade them. The economy is conceived as a symbiosis between human societies and the living world, in which each party benefits the other.Developed by Isabelle Delanoy, founder of the Symbiotic Economy Institute, building on biomimicry and regenerative design.Isabelle Delanoy, Économie Symbiotique (2017)
Sustainable DevelopmentSustainable DevelopmentDevelopment that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The dominant international framework since the Brundtland Report (1987). Useful but insufficient: it does not challenge the growth paradigm and remains anthropocentric.Brundtland Commission, Our Common Future (1987) · UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015)Green EconomyGreen EconomyAn economy that results in improved human wellbeing and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. Promoted by UNEP. Useful for greening markets but remains within the growth framework and does not address systemic metabolic imbalance.UNEP, Towards a Green Economy (2011)CSR / ESGCSR / ESGCorporate Social Responsibility and Environmental, Social & Governance criteria. Useful for incremental improvement of corporate practices but remain voluntary, marginal relative to core business logic, and do not redesign the firm's fundamental purpose. ESG ratings have been widely criticized for greenwashing.Freeman, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (1984) · Business Roundtable, Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation (2019)Carbon MarketsCarbon MarketsMarket-based mechanisms (cap-and-trade, carbon credits) that assign a price to carbon emissions to incentivize reduction. Useful for creating economic signals but insufficient: they commodify the atmosphere, are subject to fraud and offsets of questionable quality, and do not address the full metabolic imbalance.Kyoto Protocol (1997) · EU Emissions Trading System · Grayson (2023), Carbon Markets Are BrokenGreen GrowthGreen GrowthThe theory that economic growth and environmental protection can be decoupled through technology and efficiency gains, allowing GDP to rise while absolute resource use and emissions fall. The empirical evidence for absolute decoupling at the scale required remains weak.OECD, Towards Green Growth (2011) · Parrique et al., Decoupling Debunked (EEB, 2019)Natural CapitalismNatural CapitalismProposes four principles: radical resource productivity, closed-loop production (biomimicry), a service-and-flow economy (selling use rather than ownership), and reinvestment in natural capital. More systemic than CSR or green growth, but remains within market capitalism. Its core limitation: treating nature as "capital" to be managed perpetuates the Homo sapiens logic of nature as an asset, rather than the Biospheric Economy's view of nature as the living whole we belong to.Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins & Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism (1999)Ecological CivilizationEcological CivilizationA governance concept institutionalized in China's Constitution (2018) under Xi Jinping, aiming to harmonize economic development with ecological protection, drawing on Taoist and Confucian philosophy of human-nature harmony. Points in the right philosophical direction but remains embedded in a state-led growth model without metabolic transformation.Chinese Communist Party, 18th National Congress Report (2012) · Pan Yue, Ecological Civilization (2006)
Fossil-fuel EconomyFossil-fuel EconomyAn economy whose energy metabolism is powered by the combustion of ancient carbon reserves (coal, oil, gas). Structurally incompatible with Biospheric Economy: it burns in 300 years the solar energy the Biosphere stored over hundreds of millions of years, generating an irreversible thermodynamic imbalance.IEA, World Energy Outlook (annual) · IPCC AR6 (2021)Linear EconomyLinear EconomyA take-make-dispose model in which raw materials are extracted, transformed into products, and discarded as waste. Incompatible because it treats planetary materials as infinite stocks and the biosphere as a waste sink, violating the fundamental logic of living systems where there is no "waste" — only nutrients.Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Towards the Circular Economy (2013)Extractive EconomyExtractive EconomyAn economic model organized around the systematic extraction of natural resources (minerals, biomass, water, land) for export and industrial processing, with costs externalized onto local ecosystems and communities. Represents the most direct form of economic colonialism of the living world.Jason Hickel, The Divide (2017) · IPBES, Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity (2019)GDP maximizationGDP maximizationThe use of Gross Domestic Product growth as the primary objective of economic policy. Incompatible because GDP makes no distinction between activities that regenerate life and those that destroy it — a cancer has a positive GDP contribution. It measures flows of money, not flows of wellbeing or vitality.Robert Kennedy, Speech on GNP (1968) · Stiglitz, Sen & Fitoussi, Mismeasuring Our Lives (2010)Shareholder primacyShareholder primacyThe doctrine that the primary purpose of a corporation is to maximize returns to shareholders. Formalized by Milton Friedman (1970). Incompatible because it structurally subordinates all other forms of value (ecological, social, relational) to financial extraction, making regenerative purpose structurally impossible.Milton Friedman, The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits (NYT, 1970) · Mayer, Prosperity (2018)