To reach new places, we need to explore new paths. Only in this way will we achieve different realities, alternative futures shaped by equitable, collaborative societies committed to the environment. Can you imagine a place where growth is linked to life and justice rather than profit and the economy?
You don’t need to imagine much. There are already communities practising alternatives that prioritise care at their core, offering us hope that other realities are possible.
Today, a country’s economic growth is used as an indicator of living standards. In other words, the higher a country ranks on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) list, the better the prospects for that country. But that is far from reality when the wellbeing of people and nature is considered.
At Greenpeace, we want to keep learning from the knowledge and lived experience of those communities – often marginalised and ignored – resisting the prevalent beliefs and assumptions that profit is the sole path to growth. Our aim is to share the theories and stories that sow the seeds of alternative futures with you.
So, we have invited academics, organisations and activists from around the world to contribute their perspectives, for our three-episode publication called Growing the Alternatives: Societies for a Future Beyond GDP. We have published it in three parts, allowing us to read, absorb, and embrace these ideas. We explore political alternatives and economic scenarios, analyse market facing alternatives, and visit all those examples that exist and work, which set the path for the futures we want to build.
Read and learn with us. Share it, discuss it and tell us: Do you know about any alternatives you want to share with us? Do you have questions about how this could really work? What can we do to make this happen?
Let’s learn. Let’s grow Alternative Futures!
Challenge the idea that there is only one economic model that all countries must follow.