I’m really interested in the possibilities that arise from two realities:

1. There are multiple benefits of providing health care to people where they live. In order to keep people and communities healthy, the evidence tells us we need to prioritize offering accessible, interdisciplinary care and support in communities – and when needed, in individuals’ homes.
2. Current ecological, economic, and social imperatives call on us to rebuild our communities around locally-based, fair, and resilient economies.

Locally-based health care services, such as community health centres with interdisciplinary teams, have excellent health and wellness outcomes and are able to integrate with other community spaces and services that help keep people healthy and connected.

They also provide good, local, skilled (and green) jobs – one of the cornerstones of resilient local economies.

What are some key elements of “new economies”?

• An integrated approach to health – the health of individuals, communities, economies, and the environment is intimately connected. An understanding that health is more than treatment, it’s about taking measures to maintain and improve our health before we get sick. When people get sick in Canada, half of our health outcomes are a result of social determinants of health – things like access to early childhood care and housing.
• Community-based care – prioritizing the provision of care and support to people where they live.
• Universally accessible care – an economy where access to necessary care and support is based on need, not an individual’s ability to pay.
• Care that celebrates people – I work with a wellness centre that is led by –and for – transgender and gender diverse people. I’ve seen firsthand the remarkable power of providing care that celebrates gender diversity. It’s a simple concept, but one that I think could be applied to many other aspects of how we care for each other.

How does this relate to cities?

One of the projects I work on involves a mapping exercise with highschool-aged youth. Groups of participants get a large piece of paper and markers and are asked to draw what a healthy community looks like to them. Over the years I have been struck by the number of students who illustrate the importance of having health care services located near the other places and services that members of their families, especially elders, need to access. For instance, they draw clusters of grocery stores, immigration services, and community health clinics.

There is a real alignment between living in balance with our environment and supporting healthy communities and people. Just as clustering services and public spaces like parks, grocery stores, libraries around transit hubs supports vibrant communities and reduces the need for emission-intensive car travel, evidence shows that providing care for people in their homes, communities, and clustering multi-disciplinary teams in community health clinics have very positive impacts on people’s health. Moreover, localizing the provision of care localizes jobs.

What does real wealth mean to you?

Real wealth to me means the ability to connect with the land we live on, including an understanding of, and relationship to, the history of that land.

Along with that connection, real wealth is the ability to live in a way that is in balance with our environment.

In other words, the ability to live in a way that does not overburden the ecosystems to which we belong, and instead cares for them, is fundamental to our core sense of wellbeing and an antidote to the deep spiritually and economically destructive results of living out of step with the carrying capacity of our environment.

Adam Lynes-Ford is a father of two and an avid fisher and gardener. He served as National Director for the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and is the founder of Eatable East Van, a community food sustainability network. Adam was a board member of YouthCO AIDS Society and is a former educator with the Gulf Islands Centre for Ecological Learning. He has served as Co-Chair of the Coalition to Build a Better B.C. and is a current board member of the Catherine White Holman Wellness Centre. He works as the Medicare Campaigner with the BC Health Coalition, an organization that champions a strong public health care system.

This blog is part of the ‘Voices of New Economies‘ series within Cities for People – an experiment in advancing the movement toward urban resilience and livability through connecting innovation networks.

The Voices of New Economies series is collectively curated by One Earth and The Canadian CED Network.

This series is an exploration of what it takes to build the economies we need – ones that work for people, places, and the planet. We are connecting key actors, finding patterns, noting interesting differences, and highlighting key concepts and initiatives. Together, this series offers insights into the new economies movement as it develops.

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What are some key elements of “new economies”?

• Rethinking what we value and how we measure success. What does success look and feel like at all levels of the economy? To answer this question we must be willing to redefine wealth and move beyond what our current economic systems value as indicators of success and well being. At a macro level, the Genuine Progress Indicator and the Gross National Happiness index offer positive approaches and at an organizational level, we might measure impacts based on the triple bottom line (people, planet and profit). At a personal level, my commitment to redefining wealth means making daily, conscious decisions about how I choose to spend or invest my family’s money and time. Sometimes this means, as a parent, I’m the odd mom out. Saying no to McDonald’s or no to my kids playing or buying Rainbow Loom Bands. And saying yes to my kids riding bikes to school (even in the rain) and sorting the weekly recycling. Most importantly, I don’t shy away from talking to them about why I make the choices I do.

• Rethinking our point of departure for creating businesses. Start with what is im(possible). Start with the large, system-scale problems that exist in the world or our communities (waste, poverty, unsustainable food systems, depleting oceans), and ask how we can build a business model that not only generates value but works at bringing positive change to these issues. I am inspired by business schools and organizations such as Bainbridge Graduate Institute, Presidio, and the Unreasonable Institute who are embracing this approach to entrepreneurship.
   
• Rethinking how we work together. I am passionate about creating the containers that support individuals to actualize their greatest potential to transform the world. By containers I mean businesses, organizations, and institutions that bring individuals together. What I often observe – whether it be in purpose driven businesses, non-profits or social enterprises – are people who launch organizations with clear purposes, values, or ideas of impact they want to make. At some point during their growth trajectory they fumble with how to operationalize the values and changes they are trying to make externally through how they function internally. The individuals in these organizations, so full of energy, creativity, and soul, get worn down by old embedded systems (patriarchy, capitalism, to name a few) that serve neither people nor planet. My work in this space takes inspiration from Carol Sanford’s The Responsible Entrepreneur and Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organizations who offer a new paradigm.

What role does the media play in new economies?

My work with OpenMedia gives me a deep appreciation of how important the Internet and digital tools are for new economies. How we describe, understand, and interact with media has changed dramatically in the last 20 years. The Internet is the critical tool to enable people to build a more connected and collaborative world. As Malkia Cyril, founder and Executive Director of the Center for Media Justice writes, “in a digital age, communities that have long been either the subject of debate or voiceless stereotype now have the means to control their own story.” This sharing of ideas and experiences creates the conditions for a new a economy.

OpenMedia’s vision is to unlock the enormous potential of the Internet through universal access. We use the Internet to save the Internet. We are building a community that is finding new ways of actively engaging people with depth and authenticity through online tools. We had over 300,000 people from 155 countries help create Our Digital Future, a crowdsourced policy report for free expression online. As a leader in the massive, grassroots campaign involving over 5 million people from across the U.S. and internationally, we fought for Net Neutrality and won!

How does this relate to cities?

Cities are the sandboxes for change. They are where people have easier access to the systems (bureaucracies, financial markets, scope of stakeholders) that are otherwise out of reach. A great example of the power of municipalities is OpenMedia’s upcoming work to educate, promote and support the swell of Municipal Broadband initiatives. As Cynthia Khoo, OpenMedia’s Policy Research intern states “more and more municipalities across Canada have taken it upon themselves to ensure affordable, citywide Internet access through community-based networks known as municipal broadband.” Local ownership and control over Internet infrastructure is a key component to thriving new economies of the future.

Alexa Pitoulis is the Managing Director with OpenMedia. Alexa brings over 15 years experience building and leading teams and projects for government and community organizations. A self-proclaimed kale-powered supermom on two wheels, she is a creative strategist driven by her passion for building regenerative social and ecological systems. With an MBA in Sustainable Systems from Bainbridge Graduate Institute, Alexa views organizations as living systems and is excited to bring this perspective to the “how” we work at OpenMedia. Inspired by Margaret Wheatley’s wisdom that “people support what they create“, Alexa is committed to authentic engagement and collaboration.

This blog is part of the ‘Voices of New Economies‘ series within Cities for People – an experiment in advancing the movement toward urban resilience and livability through connecting innovation networks.

The Voices of New Economies series is collectively curated by One Earth and The Canadian CED Network.

This series is an exploration of what it takes to build the economies we need – ones that work for people, places, and the planet. We are connecting key actors, finding patterns, noting interesting differences, and highlighting key concepts and initiatives. Together, this series offers insights into the new economies movement as it develops.

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What are some key elements of new economies?

New economies mean rethinking notions of value, innovation and the purpose of business. It requires collaboration with non-traditional business partners. At Interface, we are driven by questions like: what would it mean to be a restorative enterprise? I.e. how can we create economic value while also creating social and ecological value?

One example is our global partnership called Net-Works – a collaboration with one of our yarn suppliers, Aquafil, ZSL (Zoological Society of London) and villages in the Danajon Bank region of the Philippines, home to one of 6 double barrier reefs in the world, threatened by overfishing. In the last few years, Aquafil has expanded their ability to recycle discarded Nylon 6 fishing nets into carpet fiber.

Net-Works provides a new stream of recycled content for Interface products while generating positive impacts in vulnerable human communities and marine ecoystems by:

• Removing the nets (which can take hundreds of years to degrade) and thereby eliminating the detrimental environmental effects (eg. ghost fishing);
• Creating a new source of revenue for local community residents, and setting up community banking associations in the local villages. This creates savings accounts for local families to help build long term, sustainable livelihoods going beyond charitable donations and one-shot beach clean ups.

How do these relate to cities?

Cities play a key role in broader systems level collaboration toward closed loop economies (e.g. regionalizing carpet reclamation and recycling). They serve as important nodes of activity facilitating material throughputs, transfer of goods and services as well as waste management.

In what ways do you see footprint reduction, product innovation, and culture change as being linked?

It is hard to separate these things. When your company’s purpose, lens, mindset and culture are all driven by sustainability, it transcends all areas and activities. For example, we will not innovate and launch new products if they don’t bring us closer to reaching our mission zero goals to get off oil and eliminate any negative environmental impacts our company might generate by 2020. Interface does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, it operates within a much larger, more powerful, and some might say unsustainable economic system. What is the obligation of a global carpet tile manufacturer to leverage its influence and collaborate with others to facilitate broader systems change? Systems transformation begins with transforming ourselves, inspiring a culture of sustainability while adopting new business models and innovations that respect the biophysical limits of Earth.

What does real wealth mean for you?

Personally, real wealth means creating sustained health, wellbeing and quality of life. From a business perspective, it means creating more holistic value opportunities. At Interface, we are redesigning our operations and supply chain to generate positive impacts in buildings, communities and society in general.

It goes back to the question of what it might mean to serve as a restorative enterprise and generate social and ecological value along with economic. It also means making products that can enhance quality of life that work in a space to foster health and wellbeing by inspiring positive connections between humans and nature. Interface believes that false notions of humans as separate from nature’s systems are at the root of industrial ugliness. Biophilic design is a huge source of inspiration for us, and it is key to making products that not only have zero negative environmental impacts but also reconnect us with the natural world.

As Director, Sustainability Strategy with global carpet tile manufacturer, Interface, Nadine drives and develops sustainability leadership through education, community engagement and innovative market solutions.

With more than 18 years experience in the fields of environmental education, community development and planning, Nadine taught in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University and served as a research fellow with the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability before joining Interface. Her areas of focus include sustainable business strategy, organizational change and learning, materials stewardship and ecological design. Based in Toronto, she serves on a number of local and international boards and committees including the Council for Clean Capitalism and the National Advisory Panel to the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada.

Nadine is a LEED Accredited Professional and is currently completing a PhD in Environmental Studies at York University. She studied sustainable business and worked at Schumacher College in England and obtained a Masters in Community and Regional Planning from the University of British Columbia. She also holds a Bachelor of Sciences honours degree in Environmental Science from the University of Guelph. Her work on sustainability education and organizational change, including the creation of a life-size board game on sustainability has been published in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education and International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability.

This blog is part of the ‘Voices of New Economies‘ series within Cities for People – an experiment in advancing the movement toward urban resilience and livability through connecting innovation networks.

The Voices of New Economies series is collectively curated by One Earth and The Canadian CED Network.

This series is an exploration of what it takes to build the economies we need – ones that work for people, places, and the planet. We are connecting key actors, finding patterns, noting interesting differences, and highlighting key concepts and initiatives. Together, this series offers insights into the new economies movement as it develops.

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As announced in the 2013 report published last January, work on the new UN Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) picked up strongly in the last twelve months. The year 2015 will be even more important since the UN General Assembly will adopt the new SDGs in September.

During the past year, CCEDNet involvement in the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS) was quite intensive. This involvement has increased since as mentioned in last year’s report, CCEDNet agreed in 2013 to accept the responsibility of a position on RIPESS’ Board of Directors.

Some 2014 activities

Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) recommendations made by RIPESS were presented by Daniel Tygel, a RIPESS representative in New York last July who spoke in front of 120 country delegations. A blog post tells this story.

RIPESS has official Observer status in the UN Taskforce on Social and Solidarity Economy (TFSSE). As a member of the RIPESS delegation to this workgroup, it has been possible to provide input in different areas, including the Position paper on Social and Solidarity Economy and the Challenge of Sustainable Development. We reposted on the CCEDNet website an article from Marie-Adélaïde Matheï on Social and Solidarity Economy: A rising force?

This work explains the invitation to attend a meeting in Washington last November at the World Bank for the yearly dialogue between International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). The invitation was to make the case for including social solidarity economy activities in the funding mechanisms of the IFIs. More information here.

The last year was also an occasion to participate in two meetings in Marrakesh (Morocco). In April, the RIPESS African members held a two-day conference which was followed by a RIPESS Board of Directors meeting. The meeting in November was an invitation from the Morocco network RÉMESS to attend a workshop they had the responsibility of organising during the 2nd International Forum on Human Rights. Éthel Côté, also a CCEDNet member, participated in this event.

UNITERRA, a joint CECI and WUSC Program, held a meeting in Lima, Peru in October. As a CCEDNet partner, our participation allowed us to meet with UNITERRA partners from Asia, Africa and South America. This was important since CCEDNet as an organisation, or some of its members, could be invited to participate in different projects in the future 2015-2020 UNITERRA program. At the same occasion, it was a great opportunity to know more about the challenges of international volunteering since before the Uniterra meeting, the Uniterra team organised the 2014 International Volunteer Cooperation Organisations (IVCO) Forum.

Our participation in the CommonBound conference in Boston last June organised by the New Economy Coalition (NEC) was a great occasion to learn about great examples of alternative economic approaches, quite similar to CED, south of the border. CCEDNet is a NEC member. Altogether, we were about a dozen Canadians at the event, some CCEDNet members, others not.

This 15th year of the 21st Century should be, if all goes well, a milestone for a fundamental change in the world’s future.  Since global warming will assuredly increase by 2 degrees in the next century, the challenge is to have all countries, including Canada (!) adopt stringent measures at the Paris meeting in December to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent a worse future. At the same time, the UN General Assembly will adopt new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) for the 2015-2030 period in September. RIPESS and other social movements will be very busy pushing for a people-centered approach, respectful of the planet.

However, as is the case for CCEDNet, the focus of the work, in all countries is to strengthen the people at the grassroots who are building, day after day, a world with less poverty, less inequality, less discrimination, less conflicts, and less degradation of all aspects of Mother Earth.

Yvon Poirier is President of CCEDNet’s International Committee and Secretary of the Board. He has a long history of involvement in the labour and social movements in Québec and Canada and has been very active in the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS). He represents the CDÉC de Québec in CCEDNet.

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Through a focus on women’s economic independence, Lis Suarez is working toward poverty reduction among both local and immigrant women in Canada. The FEM International founder works with women to increase awareness of social and ecological practices, provide tools for successful entrepreneurship, and deepen the knowledge- and skill-sharing networks amongst communities in Canada and the global south.

In your view, what are some key elements of “new economies”?

For me, new economies are people’s economies, rather than profit-oriented economies. Community-centered economies are those that encompass the interactions between individuals and their environments. In new economies as I see them there are four pillars:

• Fundamental Rights: This includes social rights, environmental rights, economic rights, and also cultural rights.  When we are looking at the division between the global north and global south, the capacity to approach issues from your own culture’s perspective is critical.
• Self-determination: Developing nations have been following the path of the developed nations, replicating their development model, a path that is clearly not working, and they are now starting to frame things in their own perspective and context. This frame itself, of developing-developed, or global north-global south, is shifted in new economies. It moves from a colonial (how I impose on you) model, to a how do we exchange as equals and work together model.
• Equality: Inequalities are essential to address in new economies. Access to opportunities for men and women, but also between countries, is important. Access to opportunities is key for poverty reduction, and inequalities are a barrier to this.
• Circular economy: In new economies, the extraction of resources is reduced and waste is reduced. The principles of the circular economy are based on closed loop production, where there is zero waste production because waste is an input. We try to work with this in our projects because through a people-centered economy, the emphasis is on the services, on the people and then the material resources become minimized.  We are able to generate necessary revenue, income that people need to access opportunities, through new kinds of products or services that reduce the use of actual materials, and that can loop back into the economy on a constant basis.

How does this relate to cities?

New economies are essentially centered around community activities within cities. Cities are microorganisms that are interdependent. This is true in a global space too. Global interaction is becoming more and more decentralized, and more direct between cities. There is an influx of information sharing, and experiences and services that go around. Cities play a key role, as the entities that allow these exchanges to take place. When I say city I do not mean the local government, or any institution, I mean the communities; the organic component of communities as a gathering of people that come together over particular issues. They have their own dynamics, and can be embedded within larger city structures. It is the city in this sense, the communities, which are connecting with each other around the world.

What is the importance of women’s economic independence within new economies?

There is no one country in the world that has truly achieved gender equality. Inequality is one of the biggest barriers for poverty reduction globally and locally, so creating equal access to opportunities for women everywhere is critical. Even those countries that pride themselves on gender equality have a long way to go in terms of female empowerment, and the resulting ability to tackle poverty. Women in general tend to create enterprises differently than the way men do, maybe because women often have a deeper sense of interdependence. This is visible in their enterprises. The role of communities seems to be more important to women, and you see that in their projects. That way of thinking ends up being channeled into ensuring that there is continued increase of equal access, it paves the way for more men and more women to have that same access that they had. This becomes an opportunity for men and women, because empowerment affects both. 

It is fundamental for men to participate in this too. In a society we are connected, and men need to work along the same way that we are moving with women. In new economies, equality is about access for both, including those that haven’t been able to participate in the past due to barriers. This is not a lowered role for men – it is a partnership. In patriarchal societies, men are the ones that need to be convinced that equal access is a positive thing. They are a vital part of inequality reductions.

What does real wealth mean to you?

I see real wealth as the capacity to choose what is best for you and yours and embrace it, not to take what you can because it is your only option, or the only thing you can afford. Having options, choosing, and living those choices is for me real wealth.

This is true as individuals, and as communities. A wealthy community is one that is able to choose what is best for them, has the opportunity to do so, and the resources to make it happen.

Related links:

• FEM International
• Ethik-BGC
• Gender Inequality Index
• Circular Economy

Lis Suarez Visbal-Ensink is an ASHOKA fellow, passionately engaged with women’s inner force, sustainable development, and socially responsible entrepreneurship. Lis believes that the dynamics of social entrepreneurship could channel the potential of a human being toward the realisation of their inner force, their strengths, and their potential to be the managers of their own path by contributing at the same time to the wellbeing of their communities.

Born in Colombia, and having lived and worked with women and micro-enterprises in more than 6 countries over 3 continents, Madame Suarez finds herself connected with the causes she fights for in Montreal Canada, were she founded FEM International, a non profit organization of Bi-national co-operation that empowers women to become self-sufficient through socially responsible entrepreneurship. Lis has been the instigator of all successful initiatives of FEM International: Modethik, ETHIKA, the 5a7ETHIK, and most recently Ethik-BGC, the sustainable business incubator for ethical fashion in Montreal. For over 5 years she was also the principal trainer and Coordinator of the Aurora micro-credit program of Compganie-F.

This blog is part of the ‘Voices of New Economies‘ series within Cities for People – an experiment in advancing the movement toward urban resilience and livability through connecting innovation networks.

The Voices of New Economies series is collectively curated by One Earth and The Canadian CED Network.

This series is an exploration of what it takes to build the economies we need – ones that work for people, places, and the planet. We are connecting key actors, finding patterns, noting interesting differences, and highlighting key concepts and initiatives. Together, this series offers insights into the new economies movement as it develops.

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