The Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance

Looking to change the world a little

Today, two colleagues and I are launching the Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance. We are a global think tank dedicated to normalizing the issue of degrowth and ecological economics in the minds of the finance, corporate, and policymaking communities.

We will produce research and education that targets financial, business, and policymaking professionals to help foster discussions of degrowth, and ecological economics as viable paths leading to a well-being economy.

My partners and I all come from the financial world, and we see that not enough of finance understands these issues or has even heard of these issues.

We aim to change that.

Work We Will Do.

We see ourselves a bit like Prometheus, bringing knowledge to the people that need it so that we can change the way finance is run and thereby change the world. At least that’s the rough plan.

We know plenty of people in the financial world and in the sustainability world that are disillusioned by the current system and simply don’t know that there is an alternative.

To balance that Roman mythology with some Greek mythology, we understand that our task is a bit of a Sisyphean one, but it is work that needs to be done all the same. (I originally wanted to call the thing the Sisyphus Institute but was outvoted).

Our ultimate goal is to influence investment research, corporate strategy, and policymaking to change how the professional world values nature. We hope to shift finance, business, and policymaking from exploiters of the natural world to a steward of our natural resources.

What you can do.

Check out our website, and the work we are doing. You can join the newsletter there if you want, but you don’t have to. The Arketa Institute newsletter will be more finance and sustainability focused, but I will keep writing in this space. There will be more sarcasm and flippancy here, so if that is what you like, it will still be here.

We want to talk to any group that will have us, from investment banks and investment managers to college students and small groups that just want to know more about degrowth. If you know of any such groups that you think we should talk to, please make those introductions.

If you happen to know any large foundations that want to help fund degrowth financial people tilt at windmills, let us know as well.

“Arketa” is the Greek word for enough. We chose that world to signify that we have enough as a society to live well, and as well as saying firmly, enough of this self-destructive growth for this sake of growth shit.

You can find me over on LinkedIn or on the Arketa website, or here. I’ll be at all those places.

Thank you again for your support here. We could not have built Arketa Institute without your validation and interest. So, keep spreading the word and I will do the same.

It is a community we have to build to save ourselves. Hopefully, this will help it get a little bigger.

Take care,

Matt