Think Tank Behind Regenerative Capitalism Announces New Project: A Year in the Life of a Regenerative Bank

(GREENWICH, Conn., June 23, 2015)--After launching an alternative framework for capitalism, Capital Institute, a think tank founded by former JPMorgan Managing Director John Fullerton, today launches a unique online documentary project. After getting up close to over 30 regenerative businesses through an ongoing storytelling initiative, Capital Institute is about to work in a more activating way with one of those enterprises with its A Year in the Life of a Regenerative Bank (RegenerativeBankProject.CapitalInstitute.org). The partner is Central Florida’s First Green Bank, a bank with $360 million in assets.

During a transformative cross-country trip after the lucrative sale of his first bank, Ken LaRoe read Patagonia founder’s book, Let My People Go Surfing. He returned home, determined to start a values-based bank that would also be a profitable one. Six years later, First Green Bank is attempting to push the boundaries of values-based banking and is performing in the top quartile of all Florida banks.

Capital Institute’s Year in the Life team will invite mentors to engage with First Green Bank as together they explore the regenerative potential of this pioneering bank as it attempts to operate truly sustainably in the challenging cultural and economic environment of Central Florida.

So what exactly is a “regenerative bank?” “Regeneration is the revitalizing process that all living and non-living systems, including our financial system, undergo as they adapt to changes happening around them,” says Project Director Susan Arterian Chang. “All systems can sustain themselves over the long-term only if they continuously reinvent themselves. That’s what First Green Bank is trying to do with the banking system.”

A Year in the Life will pose a critical question for our uncertain times: Can the tools of finance and banking be used, not just for short-term financial gain, but to support the regeneration of our human communities and economies, and the stressed ecological systems upon which they depend for their very survival? Can a bank be profitable over the long term, and also serve as a regenerative change agent? And if it can, why can't all banks operate like First Green Bank?

About Capital Institute

Capital Institute is exploring and effecting the economic transition to a more just, regenerative, and thus sustainable way of living on this earth through the transformation of finance. http://www.capitalinstitute.org.