In this episode Designers of Paradise host Erik van Lennep talks with Kevin Doyle Jones who is, among other roles, one of the organizers of next month’s Regenerative Economics conference in San Francisco – Regen18. (Disclosure: RASA is a partner on this event – use this link to get 30% off your tickets.) The conversation has a lot packed into it and will give you some idea of the scope and richness that will be Regen18 which Kevin describes as “beyond sustainability, beyond impact” to “coming back to life.”
During the conversation Kevin describes the difficulty he has had in explaining the connection between profit and good to investors (including Bill Gates); his path to launching the popular SOCAP conference; motivations for his interest in regeneration and a vision of building economic bio-regions that can work for everyone.
Kevin speaks about the necessity of evolving better frameworks enabling investors to recognize and track community-held assets, and the relevance of this for Indigenous communities. He explains how this has enabled ‘non-timber forest products’ economic development which is carrying out the largest reforestation project in Mexico, and where the Indigenous community receives the bulk of income generated.
Kevin describes a number of efforts he has underway including the upcoming Neighborhood Economics “local capital street fair” and plans for “sense making tools” that include a regenerative “due diligence” tool to help investors understand return as well as a project dashboard to track progress and impact.
There’s a lot in this podcast — check out the lists below. Enjoy!
Some favorite phrases to watch for include:
- see beyond the trees to the people
- the market as a partner
- SOCAP arose because i failed to solve malaria
- Ad hoc non-profit merchant banking
- a space for hip hop rather than long-form sonatas
Organizations and Events:
- Social Capital Markets (SOCAP)
- Good Capital Project
- Regen18
- Warren Wilson College
- Better World Books
- Off-Grid Electric
- Alter Eco
- Bitwise, Fresno
- Anchors for Resilient Communities (ARC), FoodService Partners, Richmond CA
- Neighborhood Economics
- Ejido Verde
People
Topics:
- black cohosh
- sovereign land tax in Oakland, CA
- Blended value
- Ecotone
- Pine resin
- Subsidiarity
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Disclaimer – Thanks for your patience with (at times) “kitchen table” recording quality. It’s our hope that you will enjoy hearing our interviews as if you were sitting in on the conversations. As we further develop our resources and capacity, we will be bringing the audio closer to studio standards. Meanwhile, thanks for listening!
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This was really interesting, Erik, and inspiring of hope around investment-by savvy people coming up with new ways of doing business with great objectives. Thanks!