My name’s Jeremy, and I’ve helped the world economy grow for the past 30 years. There, that feels good to say. Especially as, thanks to the support of many friends, family members, and a few heterodox economists, I’ve undergone a thorough treatment programme and can say I am now—personally and professionally—‘post growth’.

That isn’t to say all growth is bad: it’s clear from the climate science that the world needs much more organic agriculture, universal services, and renewable energy. But it also needs deep cuts to industrialised agriculture, fast fashion, and air travel. We must learn to be much more selective in deciding where to pursue expansion. 

I’ve been feeling this in an uninformed way for the past few years: as a consultant and company executive working on growth strategy and innovation I’ve become less and less compelled by the essential worth of many of the ventures I’ve helped approve and build. Too many startups focus on achieving a high financial valuation rather than addressing a legitimate big problem. Many brilliant minds are at work on novel technologies, but too often these are pointed at banal or derivative value propositions such as niche social networks (hey, no judgement if that’s your thing) or internet-connected gas grills (I cannot bear to cook with out of date firmware). The economic mantra that growth is per se a good thing has kept me in work helping companies chase such will-they-buy-it novelty in pursuit of profitable growth.

Covid lockdown helped me rediscover economics, and I found that much has changed. The public popularity of books like Doughnut Economics and Post Growth shows that reframing mainstream economics to take into account the biophysical limits of the Earth to support economic activity is a notion whose time has come. This got me fired up to really dive into the ecological science, behavioural psychology, and economic alternatives being explored by the sustainable development community.

I spent 2022 at the University of Surrey, studying for a Masters in Sustainable Development, because I think with problems of deep and systemic complexity some investment in knowledge is crucial to get you from paralysis to actionable pathways. Inevitably, once I began to see the Matrix, I started to see the flaws in our current model of capitalism, especially our collective obsession with GDP growth. A ‘post growth’ view means, as Kate Raworth puts it, being agnostic to growth: our economy should help people thrive whether or not it grows. That simple shift in thinking invites us to value human prosperity outcomes over financial ones, to prioritise people and nature over arbitrary capital accumulation.

Over a series of posts, my goal is to share some of what I’ve drawn from my studies, filtered through my work experience, about the crisis with capitalism and what we business folks can do about it. Unlike the accounts of climate scientists, my chronicle will have a bias to it: my angle (which I freely confess) is corporate transformation towards sustainable development. If I were 25 I’d probably go into public policy, as the macro leverage is high in that world. But I’m a corporate strategist and innovation specialist, and I believe that experience is useful against the new target: deep dematerialisation of production, rapid transition to renewable energy, deep and committed action on biodiversity protection. I will suggest meaningful actions anyone in business can take to help the cause, whether you feel you have power or not, whether you’re in finance or customer service.

I hope you come along on the journey with me.