Featuring Bill McKibben, Bob Massie, John Fullerton, Deneene Brockington, Alice Maggio, Tom Barefoot and local Vermont organizations on the Middlebury campus.
Day-long summit open to students, faculty, staff and community members.
Many conservative economists consider a capitalist market a self-regulating, self-correcting system. However, in recent years financial crises, the threat of climate change, and growing inequality have all cast this theory into doubt. Yet, what alternatives exist? Those working for fossil fuel divestment contend that enlightened institutions can help avert catastrophe by factoring ethical and ecological concerns into their investment decisions. Surely though, this is only part of the answer and it begs the question “how else might we reorganize money and finance as a means to an end rather than an end in itself?”
Beyond Divestment is a summit that seeks to create space for the Middlebury community to explore the kinds of economic alternatives that are springing up all over the world. Join innovators in the areas of alternative currencies, time banking, impact investing, financial system regulation and reform, and “new economy” coalition building, as well as your own friends and neighbors for a conversation about how we can sow the seeds of a better, more life-affirming, economy.
Organized by an independent group of students, with the support of New Economics Institute and Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship.