Six Capitals

Fully revised and updated

'A fascinating read. Gleeson-White artfully captivates the reader as she explores the fast-evolving language, metrics, actors and laws that are profoundly reshaping "capital" in the 21st century.' KATE RAWORTH, author of Doughnut Economics

Climate change is here and capitalism is implicated: it's programmed to privilege profit and growth over human communities and the living earth. We need to change this system - and we need to do it now. Six Capitals charts the rise of four movements designed to overthrow capitalism as we know it: multi-capital accounting, for society, nature and profit; the push for a new corporation legally bound to benefit nature and society while making a profit; ecosystem accounting for nations; and legal rights for nature, which resonate with indigenous earth-centred laws. These movements are critical for the future of human life on this planet. Together they override the profit-driven modern corporation, the growth-driven nation state and the legal status of the natural world as lifeless property.

Multi-capital and ecosystem accounting, benefit corporations and the rights of nature movement are here to stay. Six Capitals tells their story, from their first emergence in the postwar era to today. This revised, updated edition is for the new generations of business leaders, entrepreneurs, activists, accountants, economists, scientists, farmers, food growers and distributors, teachers, parents, politicians, bureaucrats and concerned citizens everywhere.

'Broaden financial reports to include measures of social and environmental issues and just watch how it changes the behaviour of business people.' ROSS GITTINS, Sydney Morning Herald

'Six Capitals reveals the critical role of accounting in reimagining the way we do business and make policy in the twenty-first century.' CARL OBST, lead author, United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting

'Double Entry was a wonderful work of accounting history, Jane Gleeson-White's Six Capitals is an ambitious look at what we will account for in the future.' DYLAN SCHLEICHER, 800-CEO-READ

'This is a seminal work on sustainability' STANLEY GOLDSTEIN, New York Hedge Fund Round Table