PRIORITY ISSUES > FOR PURPOSE BUSINESS

What if business-as-usual is
the real risk?

Our current economic system incentivises businesses to profit from social and environmental harm. It rewards businesses for maximising shareholder value, even if it means exploiting workers, depleting natural resources, and externalising environmental costs. It promotes a culture of consumerism that encourages endless consumption and waste. It breeds individual greed, short-term extraction, commodification, and waste disposal, fueling a race to the bottom. It does not have to be this way. The transition is already happening.

What if more businesses had a purpose beyond profit?

What if ownership was shared, and power was distributed?

What if accountability meant answering to people and planet, not just shareholders?

What if climate collapse was treated as the true business risk it is?

We believe businesses are a key agent for change in the transition to a wellbeing economy. Businesses can lead the reorientation away from profit towards a social and ecologically sustainable purpose. As drivers of norms and culture, they can reshape these around the wellbeing of people and place.

We are here to support the adoption of global best practice and to advocate for enabling policy settings.

  • "The purpose of business is to solve problems profitably, and not to profit from causing or exploiting problems."

    Oxford Professor Colin Mayer

  • 86% of surveyed UK businesses support post-growth business principles but believe only 53% of their peers do

    The Hidden Business Majority, 2025

  • WEAll estimates that 75% of S&P 500 companies would be bankrupt if they had to pay the true cost of their environmental damage.

    WEAll Global, 2023

Businesses could consider…

Certifications and accreditation

Such as B Lab, Future Fit, Economy for the Common Good, People and Planet First, Wagemark, or Eco Choice Aotearoa. (There are many others - more coming soon!)

Alternative ownership models

Like Steward Ownership, Employee Stock Ownership Models, becoming a cooperative.

For purpose business in action

  • Generous Ventures - Steward Ownership

    Generous  Ventures is a charitable trust dedicated to advancing steward ownership models, where businesses transition ownership from shareholders to mission-driven trusts, ensuring that profits support social and environmental good rather than being extracted for private gain.

    Currently, it is overseeing the transition of Thankyou Payroll into steward ownership over the next several years.

  • Kaiwaka - Lifetime Warranty

    An estimated 180,000 tonnes of clothing and textile waste is thrown away every year in New Zealand landfills.

    To combat this issue, Kaiwaka clothing offer a free lifetime warranty and repair service for consumers. Operating since 1975, Kaiwaka also promote their “buy once, buy right” philosophy, fighting against mass consumption and the take-make-waste culture.

  • Perpetual Guardian - 4 Day Week

    Perpetual Guardian, a trust management firm, ran an eight‑week pilot in 2018 where its 240 employees worked a four‑day week (32 hours) while receiving full five‑day pay.

    Auckland University researchers found that stress levels dropped from 45 % to 38 %, work–life balance rose from 54 % to 78 %, and engagement and commitment climbed markedly. All this with productivity remaining steady or rising ~20 % and customer engagement jumping significantly.

    Encouraged by these results, the company adopted the four‑day week as permanent policy in November 2018.