As part of The Economy of Francesco program initiated by Pope Francis, the Business Ethics Center organized a workshop on “New Business Models for Human Flourishing & Ecological Regeneration” on September 23, 2022, in Assisi, Italy.
Faculty who contributed to the workshop included Laszlo Zsolnai (Corvinus University of Budapest & Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford), Antonio Tencati (University of Brescia & Bocconi University Milan), Andras Ocsai (Corvinus University of Budapest), and Jozsef Veress (Corvinus University of Budapest).
The workshop presented innovative business models which connect human flourishing with ecological regeneration from different industries and fields of social life. These models ensure the simultaneous flourishing of people and nature. They bind an erhics of nature and ethics of people/community into practical frameworks for creating integrated socio-ecological wellbeing. The cases discussed include the following: Slow Food (Italy), Organic India (India), Green Monday (Hong Kong), Patagonia (USA), Natura (Brazil), Triodos Bank (The Netherlands), TAHITO (New Zealand), and Wellbeing Economics Alliance (global).
The workshop addressed the challenges of business transformation required by the new reality of the Anthropocene, including the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and growing national and global inequality. The workshop presented a variety of initiatives to show that it is possible to develop and run new businesses that promote human flourishing and ecological regeneration at the same time.