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Type: Themes Page

Amy Burnett | Robyn Owen

Green Farm Africa: Transforming African Agriculture
Fergus Lyon | Richard Bampfylde

Shifting the Rhetoric
Andrew Jackson | Ben Gallant | Christine Corlet Walker | Dario Leoni | Tim Jackson

MAPS | Models, Assessment and Policies for Sustainability
Malaika Cunningham

The People’s Palace of Possibility
CUSP network

WISE Horizons—Wellbeing, Inclusion, Sustainability and the Economy
CUSP network

Social enterprise as a catalyst for sustainable and healthy local food systems
CUSP network

SME FinBio | Nature positive small and medium-sized enterprise finance
CUSP network

Collecting Real Utopias—An exploration of the possible
CUSP network

SIGMA 2.0
CUSP network

Sustainability in Healthcare—Behaviour, Challenges and Policy
CUSP network

The World We Made—An urgent play about our future
CUSP network

Powering Productivity | Exploring links between energy, wellbeing and the UK’s productivity puzzle
CUSP network

TRansit Project | Modelling transition risk: towards an agent-based, stock-flow consistent, input-output framework
CUSP network

Nature Writing for the Common Good—CUSP calling for unpublished writers to contribute to a new online collection
CUSP network

Nature Writing for the Common Good—A collection of essays on nature, ecological challenges, and connections between people and places
CUSP network

CYCLES | Children and Youth in Cities—Lifestyle Evaluations and Sustainability
CUSP network

Investing in the Future | CUSP Sustainable Finance Research
CUSP network

Building An Economy That Works
CUSP network

Systems Analysis to Explore Narratives of Sustainable Prosperity
CUSP network

Social and Psychological Understandings of the Good Life
CUSP network

Political and Organisational Dimensions of Sustainable Prosperity
CUSP network

The Role of the Arts & Culture in Delivering Prosperity
CUSP network

Meanings and Moral Framings of the Good Life

About

The Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) is a cutting-edge research organisation that takes the form of a rich international network, drawing together expert partners from academic and non-academic institutions as co-producers of the work programme. The overall research question is: What can prosperity possibly mean in a world of environmental, social and economic limits?—We work with people, policy and business to address this question, developing pragmatic steps towards a shared and lasting prosperity.

Contact

Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity
University of Surrey
Guildford GU2 7XH

Email: info@cusp.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 1483 684316

Newsletter

A list of past newsletters can be found on the publications page. For future editions, please subscribe via Sender.net.

Instagram

"Everyone talks about peace, but no one educates f

"Everyone talks about peace, but no one educates for peace. In this world, they educate for competition, and competition is the beginning of any war. When educating to cooperate and owe each other solidarity, that day we will be educating for peace."⁠
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—Maria Montessori, 1936⁠
#QuoteOfTheDay #EducationAndPeace

How does everyday language shape our relationship

How does everyday language shape our relationship with nature? A new CUSP working paper by Dr Amy Burnett et al examines how English idioms encode extractive relationships with nature and explores how regenerative language could support sustainability, nature-positive enterprise and ecological resilience.⁠
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🔗 Full paper via cusp.ac.uk/publications (🔝or follow link in bio)⁠
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——⁠
cc #Extractivism #LanguageMatters #Value #NaturalCapital #RegenerativeEnterprise #RegenerativeEconomics @middlesexuniversity @valuingcommunity ⁠@keystonebrandbuilder⁠
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Image: Based on Fitzrovia Mural by Mike Jones and Simon Barber, London. Photo © kultur.work

A recent groundbreaking report from Ernst & Young’

A recent groundbreaking report from Ernst & Young’s New Economy Unit (NEU), with contributions from CUSP co-director @ProfTimJackson, shines a harsh light on the #extractivism that characterises modern #capitalism and highlights the changes needed for corporate sustainability to move beyond incremental improvements towards a more equitable, resilient and regenerative economic system.⁠
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🔗 Full report via cusp.ac.uk/publications (🔝 or follow link in bio)⁠
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—⁠
#PostGrowth #Degrowth #TheCareEconomy cc @wellbeingeconomyalliance @sociologysurrey @institutesustainability

䷉ Making healthcare and pensions growth-resilient⁠

䷉ Making healthcare and pensions growth-resilient⁠
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A new MAPS/CUSP report looks at whether European healthcare and pension systems can remain sustainable if economies stop growing or begin to shrink. More broadly, it examines how these systems can be made resilient and capable of supporting wellbeing in a #postgrowth economy.⁠
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It examines healthcare and pension systems in the UK, Italy, Finland and the Netherlands, combining country case studies with economic modelling of the UK.⁠
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Christine Corlet Walker and Dario Leoni show that wellbeing and environmental sustainability do not necessarily require endless economic growth. Achieving this, however, will require significant changes to how welfare systems are designed and funded, so that they can support people’s wellbeing without relying on continued economic expansion.⁠
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🔗 Full paper via cusp.ac.uk/publications (or follow link in bio)⁠
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—⁠
cc #WellbeingEconomy #GrowthDependency #BeyondGDP #WelfareWithoutGrowth #HorizonEurope⁠
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Artwork by kultur.work—built with imagery from Unsplash (licensed with Canva).⁠
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🎧 For decades, economic success has largely been m

🎧 For decades, economic success has largely been measured by growth and short-term returns. But what happens when those measures fail to account for the depletion of the natural systems businesses depend upon?⁠
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This question sits at the heart of the latest #SustainabilityMatters podcast episode. Host Nadia Woodhouse from the EY New Economy Unit speaks with renowned economist and author @ProfTimJackson and Kiara Konti of @eygreece about the risks of an extractivist economy, why "doing less harm" is no longer enough, and what organisations can do to create long-term value while strengthening resilience. ⁠
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🔗 Listen to the full episode on the usual podcast platforms (🔝 or follow link in bio)⁠
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—⁠
#Extractivism #PostGrowth #TheCareEconomy #WellbeingEconomy #Degrowth HT @ey_global ⁠cc @ffc_commission ⁠

"We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human being

"We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other’s only hope."⁠
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—James Baldwin, 1971⁠
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#QuoteOfTheDay #ARapOnRace #JamesBaldwin #MargaretMead cc #TheCareEconomy

Time Use in a #PostGrowth World—New peer-reviewed

Time Use in a #PostGrowth World—New peer-reviewed study by Seán Fearon et al, modelling ambitious sufficiency-based lifestyle scenarios for Finland, France, and the UK to 2050.⁠
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The research, now published in #EcologicalEconomics, shows that while changes in how we spend our time can improve wellbeing and reduce emissions, further radical transformations in provisioning systems are still needed to stay within planetary boundaries. Without them, even positive social shifts in time use may have unintended negative environmental effects.⁠
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🔗 Full paper via cusp.ac.uk/publications (or follow link in bio)⁠
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—⁠
#Degrowth #WellbeingEconomy #PlanetaryBoundaries cc @icta.stories @sociologysurrey @institutesustainability⁠
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Image: ©kultur.work (designed with i.a. Adobe Firefly)⁠

Community-rooted social enterprises are transformi

Community-rooted social enterprises are transforming local food systems by combining trading with social impact and reaching underserved communities. They should be recognised as essential food-system partners.—New policy briefing from the SEFS project. ⁠
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🔗 cusp.ac.uk/publications (🔝 follow link in bio)⁠
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—⁠
#Groundswell2026 #TUKFS #FoodSystem #CommunityFood #SocialEnterprise #SocEnt ⁠cc @institutesustainability @ffc_commission @sociologysurrey @socialenterpriseuk @sharedassets
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Image © istock.com / nadia_bormotova (modified)⁠

"Hard times are coming… We’ll need writers who c

"Hard times are coming... We’ll need writers who can remember freedom—poets, visionaries—realists of a larger reality... We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable—but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words."⁠
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— Ursula K. Le Guin, 2014⁠
#QuoteOfTheDay #ArtAndResistance

Parliamentary Work

CUSP is acting as the secretariat for the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Limits to Growth. The APPG provides a platform for cross-party dialogue and collaboration on shared and lasting prosperity in a world of environmental, social and economic limits. It aims to contribute to a growing international debate on redefining prosperity and developing new measures of progress. Membership for the APPG is drawn from both Houses and all main political parties.

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