ABOUT

Regenerative Economy Lab is founded by me, Katy Shields, renegade economist, mother, and co-creator of the acclaimed podcast docu-series Tipping Point: The true story of the Limits to Growth.

For almost two decades, I was a mainstream economic consultant for media organisations like The Economist, Financial Times and Newsweek, before an alarming presentation by a climate scientist caused me to rethink my life and work. I came to realise, as Bill Clinton once said: It’s the economy, stupid. Or rather, it’s economics.

Before founding Regenerative Economy Lab I spent several years as Lead Facilitator on terra.do’s online Climate Fellowship. While there, I wrote a class on transformative economic approaches and was amazed at the response. Most people realise the economy is stupid (and unfair, unjust, extractive, racist, sexist, etc) but, partly because of how economics has been taught, far too few people feel empowered to do anything about it.

As one of my inspirations, Kate Raworth, likes to say, the economy we need this century will be practised first, theorised second. Actually, there are already many communities and organisations practising a different kind of economics, centred on values like human dignity and meeting genuine needs, not the market logic of neoclassical economic textbooks. What is needed is more awareness of the alternatives that already exist; more strategising on how to seed and spread new ideas, models and policies; and more people who feel empowered to play a role. While we don’t claim to have all the answers, by constantly learning and exploring together—I hope we can play some part in that transformation.

Katy Shields