By Scott Ragsdale
Now that more of us are acknowledging the climate crises, how about some of the solutions? There is a good deal to know about the next economy that places people and planet first.
The great turning is found in many places and some of those turning points are in companies whose business models drive social justice and ecological equity for fun and profit. So a huge kudos out to Dr. Tiffany Jana, Raj Sisodia and David Marshal for the broadcast of 10 days of far-forward leadership in presenting us with People- First Economy Online Summit. No airfare carbon here – the entire event is online with hosts and guest speakers making use of Kajabi video conferencing.
The conference is going on now and while it remains “live: for the next 7 days it’s free. Just look up People-First Economy Online Summit (https://peoplefirsteconomyonlinesummit.com). Disclaimer: I have zero 1st person knowledge of anyone responsible for this production – and zero financial ties. I am becoming a fan of the program hosts from afar. Tiffany, co-author of The B Corp Handbook, is a blue haired multiracial biz Aphrodite and Raj Sisodia is an establishment worldly academician. These interviewers are high contrast and 
it’s not hard to prefer Tiffany’s energy, however it’s early in the co-hosted program.
Through MP3 audio or MP4 video you can listen to three speakers each day as they impart imperatives, business shifts and transformations that are rebalancing of people over profit. If Unilever is going B-Corp you know it’s not fringe anymore. Personally, I’m delighted to see regenerative business establishing itself ahead of the tsunami of fossil fuel asset shift. Those asset managers will be looking for the forward thinking business/policy leaders to replacing old-school EPS holdouts. It is fast becoming their fiduciary responsibility to do so.
The UC System and our own communities here in Davis are going to have to go in for more than just the farm to fork moment. Comfortable? You won’t be with the cathartic no shame bottom’s up business world view of entrepreneur Miki Agrawal’s, or B Lab CEO Jay Coen Gilbert’s well delivered message describing the inevitability of massive financial asset shift mentioned above.
All credit for my “discovery” of People-First to our local next economy connection and UC Davis Alumnus Andrew Baskin of Lift Economy (www.lifteconomy.com). Andrew circulates the Lift Economy newsletter with a multitude of program and next economy livelihood opportunities, which can also be found on their website. Andrew, last I looked, was an Advisory Board Member of the UC Davis Center for Regional Change and the UC Davis Agricultural Sustainability Institute. He knows us as well as anyone and I have looked to him to bring home what might carry the most impact for us here at home.
The People-First Online Seminar is a balance between the unvarnished telling of social inequity, climate change urgency and hands-on positive livelihood. The People-First Online Seminar lets you get to know some of the leaders, that have embraced this positive future. It is cheap, easy, potent and hopeful; and may just give you the nudge you need to open up and make some of this next economy for yourself and others
