Our History

The New Economy Network was created by a group of networks and individuals working to build communication and coordination capacity for new economic theories, metrics, policies and institutions. The founders represented a wide range of loosely connected communities working for a more just and sustinable economy: sustainable business, sustainable investing, labor, academia, community organizing, civil rights, faith, community banking and development, social enterprise, green jobs, climate activism, financial reform, philanthropy, policy think tanks, local living economies, and others. They all recognized that the collapse of the global markets had, for the first time in many decades, challenged the dominant paradigms that markets are efficient and self-regulating.

They further recognized that the collapse of these underlying assumptions opened new opportunities for those working for more equitable and sustainable economic alternatives. They agreed that there was a critical need: to map, organize and catalyze this field, to move sound practices and policies from the margins to the mainstream of US economic policy, to develop and integrate systemic, scalable theories, metrics and solutions. The founders organized a two day meeting of more than 35 leaders in Washington DC in September of 2009, New Economy Leadership Roundtable, to discuss the need for collaboration. The Roundtable participants committed to build a “meta-network”, The New Economy Network (NEN), to serve as the clearinghouse, coordinator, communication center and catalyst for the new economics we urgently need to support the movement toward ecological sustainability and social justice.

Our Structure

NEN is guided by the thought and vision of its members according to our Charter. We are governed by an Executive Committee of our Stewards, a class of voting members who are formally accountable to each other to see that NEN’s purpose, principles and policies are consistent with its mission and properly implemented in practice. NEN members are welcome to participate in many of our subcommittees, to apply to become Stewards, or to establish Working Groups.