The Capital Institute is a non-partisan, transdisciplinary Collaborative Space, founded in 2009 by former JPMorgan Managing Director John Fullerton.

Our mission is to explore and effect economic transition to a more just, resilient, and sustainable way of living on this earth through the transformation of finance.

About Us

Capital Institute was born out of an observation of nature, a premise, and three questions.

Observation:  Exponential growth of the macro economy is in conflict with the physical limitations of a finite planet.  The incompatibility of the current economic and financial paradigm, one that operates without ecosystem limits, has caused immeasurable social and environmental damage and threatens the future health and well-being of the planet. 

Premise:  The economic system is an integral part of the natural biosphere within which it sits.  Our financial and economic systems, while continuing to provide for society’s needs, must evolve to work in concert with the planet’s systems.  Although challenging, such a transformation is possible through innovative thinking, the pioneering of new designs and solutions, and bold and decisive action.

Question 1:  What would an economic system that operates within the physical boundaries of the biosphere, while more equitably serving the needs of people, look like?

Question 2:  How must the practice of finance and the financial system itself evolve in order to fuel and sustain the transition to such an economic system?

Question 3:  What is the purpose of capital in such an economic system?

 

Our Challenge: Economic and Financial Systems Are Not Sustainable

Our economic system is driven by short-term profit maximization and financial wealth accumulation. It depends on the continuous depletion of the earth's resources and escalating aggregate consumption. This brand of capitalism, exported around the world with its many notable achievements, has two fundamental flaws:

The World is Full: The $60 trillion global economy now uses up 1.4 times the Earth’s capacity to regenerate resources per year, a condition known as ecological overshoot. Multiple symptoms of this ecological deficit, most notably climate change, have begun to manifest themselves in ways that can no longer be ignored. Basic physics tells us that business as usual is unsustainable. We cannot invent our way onto a perpetual, indiscriminate growth track. Instead, systemic changes in our growth model will be required that prioritize economic activities based on how well they support the long-term health and well-being of the planet.
 
Wealth Disparity: Ecological and societal collapse often go hand-in-hand, with reinforcing feedback. An equally disturbing trend, and one that is heightening societal tensions, is increasing wealth disparity. The top 2% of the world’s population now controls more than half of global financial wealth, while the poorest half of the world owns a mere 1%. Income gaps between rich and poor have more than doubled in the past half-century. Historically, income disparities of this magnitude have brought on revolutions.    
 
Read more about the context of the challenges we face here.
 

The Capital Institute will:

  • Look to an understanding of natural systems and the emergence process as a metaphor and model for the transformation unfolding in the global economy
  • Embrace human potential, ingenuity, and courage for achieving this transformation
  • Publicize the imperative of balancing our prior unsustainable objective of “economic efficiency” with a renewed appreciation for the imperative of resiliency that is present in all sustainable systems 
  • Explore a shift in the goals of the system from misguided GDP growth to metrics of well-being which include limits to inequality and ecosystem health 
  • Recognize that there is a universal “purpose of capital” which will fuel this transition
  • Embrace a holistic decision making where social, environmental, and economic factors are consistently valued and managed
  • Advocate for a world that respects and embraces collaboration while maintaining a healthy balance of competition and the benefits it can bring, rather than competition at all costs
  • Promote an economic and financial system that puts the commons, upon which we all depend, first and individual needs and wants second

 

Differentiation

As a Collaborative Space, the Capital Institute operates within a network of innovative financial institutions, investment practitioners, businesses, and trans-disciplinary academic and non-academic experts focused on the intersection of sustainability and finance.

Capital Institute works to identify, examine, initiate, and illuminate the qualities of a financial system that will drive and support prosperity through a socially and ecologically resilient economy.  We begin by drawing on natural systems science to understand the patterns and principles of resilient economic and financial systems, and engage with practitioners of working, scalable models that are incubating elements of this emergent system.  By bringing our trans-disciplinary network of experts together around these models, we seek to identify and synthesize broader principles and practices of finance that can fuel the transition to a sustainable economy. 

Ideas + initiating practice + trans-disciplinary thinking = emergent framework. 

 

Our Great Challenge and Joint Responsibility

Our generation’s challenges will be many.  We must redefine our understanding of wealth, and set new goals for our economic system.  This will require establishing new objectives for policymakers and leading institutions, as well as formulating improved metrics of success.  Each of us at a personal level will also need to question our values and summon the integrity needed to preserve what we hold dear.  At the core, we must ask, what kind of world do we want to leave for our children and future generations, and do we have the will to shift our present course?

 

Imagine the wisdom and power the Capital Institute will draw to its vision:

Capital fueling the transition to a just, resilient, and sustainable economy

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