By Jeremy Williams
Banking isn’t a sector generally associated with postgrowth thinking, but then Triodos isn’t a typical bank. This summer they became the first bank to declare its support for a postgrowth transition, which they describe as “transforming our societies in such a way that we are no longer reliant on perpetual economic expansion to be (socially) stable.”
Most banks would consider economic growth to be vital, and see themselves as critical enablers of it. Not so Triodos, who argue that “the relentless pursuit of economic growth is the primary driver of ecological degradation.” As a bank founded on sustainability and the public good, growth is something they need to challenge. But how does a bank do that without immediately going bust? Why would anybody trust them with their investments?
The important thing is to understand what postgrowth means. To many critics, it is simply the absence of growth, which is of course synonymous with recession and something that nobody wants. Misunderstood in this way, postgrowth thinkers sound eccentric at best, and might prove actively dangerous if they were anywhere near power. But that’s not what is meant by postgrowth, as I’ve described before.
Before hailing or despising growth, we ought to be more specific: growth of what? Britain needs less traffic, fewer carbon emissions, less junk food. Fossil fuel use should be declining, with visible degrowth in the number of gas boilers fitted and diesel cars sold. On the other hand we need growth in renewable energy, rising sales in ebikes and electric buses, more affordable homes. It doesn’t make sense to be for or against growth in the abstract and that will always be the case. Economists do not recognise this however. There’s no enough point in economics, no way to see declining consumption as useful or desirable. Hence the need for postgrowth economics and its fifty years of critique.
If you’ve understood this, then it’s not particularly difficult to see how a bank could support a postgrowth future. You just throw your weight behind the things that ought to be growing. As they explain in a positioning paper: “post-growth does not imply everything must shrink. Some sectors must shrink or even disappear completely, such as fossil fuels, mining, cement, fast fashion and livestock farming. Some economic activity, on the other hand, should grow. Sectors that highly impact wellbeing without driving ecological overshoot will need to grow, such as elderly care or education. Similarly, companies that manage to provide useful products or services with lower ecological impacts than current norms, for example renewable energy or circular manufacturing, need to expand massively.”
Triodos are committed to funding the ‘real economy’ of things that matter, rather than speculative financial products. There’s a very practical aspect to this, as their chief economist Hans Stegeman explains. “Every financial decision that a bank makes should be tested with the question: is this really necessary? All kinds of useless things are currently being financed with new growth incentives as a result.” You fund things that are useful and not just things that make money.
Beyond that, the role of finance in a postgrowth economy is an open question and one that Triodos are keen to explore. If you’d like to understand more on their conclusions so far, have a look at their paper and this Q+A with Stegeman.
By Jeremy Williams
This blog has previously been published on the Earthbound Report.
Joy in Enough 