Welcome to Good Market Info! Click the logo to go to the directory and marketplace
Welcome to Good Market Info! Click the logo to go to the directory and marketplace
The Good Market commons is for enterprises that prioritize people and planet over profit.
Enterprise: A purposeful project, a bold undertaking
The word enterprise is used to include informal voluntary groups, unregistered startups, mutual aid groups, non-profit organizations, cooperatives, registered companies, networks of enterprises, and other initiatives.
These enterprises are co-creating a new economic story.
Our economy is a human system. It’s based on stories and social rules that we create, and these stories and rules can change over time.
According to the 20th-century economic story, businesses exist to maximize profits for private shareholders, and they are expected to grow these profits at exponential rates.
Social and environmental initiatives can be justified if they attract customers or workers, but the underlying priority is financial returns. There is an expectation of “shareholder primacy,” which means shareholders come first in all decisions.
When profits and growth are prioritized over people and the planet, the negative social and environmental consequences are devastating.
The solution, according to the old story, is to redistribute a fraction of these profits through government, private philanthropy, and nonprofit charities. The underlying assumptions about profit maximization and growth aren’t questioned.
The Good Market commons is for enterprises that question “business as usual.” While they are all part of the broader movement, they can operate according to very different models.
Names and Networks: responsible businesses, impact businesses, sustainable businesses, common good companies, triple bottom line companies, benefit corporations, conscious capitalism
Instead of focusing solely on shareholders, these enterprises value and prioritize other stakeholders like workers, customers, suppliers, communities, and the environment, but they continue to use traditional business structures and take on traditional finance.
Their founders usually have strong personal commitments to social and environmental responsibility, but it can be difficult to maintain this focus over time. Economic downturns, changes in management or ownership, and investor pressure can lead to mission drift and a watering down of socially and environmentally responsible practices.
Contribution to Systems Change
Names and Networks: social enterprises, fair trade enterprises, cooperatives, mutualist organizations, post-growth enterprises, earned-income nonprofits, not-for-profit businesses, social businesses, steward-owned businesses
These enterprises go beyond prioritizing stakeholders. They exist to solve social and environmental problems. Enterprises that put people and planet first reinvest the majority of any surplus towards their purpose and protect their purpose in their governance model or legal structure. The approach has deep roots in indigenous and traditional communities that self-organize to manage resources and solve shared challenges.
These enterprises find it difficult to mobilize investment, but they are able to unlock social and environmental solutions that are not possible within grant-dependent nonprofit structures or traditional business structures that require private profit and continuous growth.
Contribution to Systems Change
The challenges we face are too big for any single organization or network. Climate change, biodiversity loss, rising inequality, political instability, and a growing distrust in public institutions all shorten the runway for an economic transition.
When we work in isolation, it slows our progress and increases the risk of cooptation, but when we recognize and value the strengths of different parts of the broader movement, it opens new leverage points and opportunities for collective action. We can work together to change narratives, social norms, and system-level rules.