Rethink capitalism in favor of caring for the environment

Rethink capitalism in favor of caring for the environment
Europe
GermanyGermany
Interview

 

Capitalism Update: More and more entrepreneurs want more than just personal wealth. Purpose Movement directors want to do something good with their profits and are rethinking corporate ownership . The report tells how. The founders and CEOs of the global Purpose movement believe in transforming society. Presenting themselves as a foundation, they ensure that shareholders cannot withdraw profits, sell the company or change its purpose. Christian Kroll founded the search engine Ecosia in 2009. With the benefits, plant trees against climate change. To date, advertising revenue has funded the planting of more than one hundred million trees. Kroll could have sold his company a long time ago for several million euros, however, he always considered trees to be more important than his own wallet, and he wanted to protect his company from profiteers. That is why in 2018 it converted Ecosia into a responsibly owned company following a foundation model. This made it impossible to sell Ecosia at a profit, withdraw capital from the company or change its purpose, namely planting trees. Armin Steueragel advises entrepreneurs who also want to "give away" their companies. And with his Purpose Foundation he helps ventures that had already wanted to establish themselves as Purpose companies, such as Wildplastic from Hamburg, which makes garbage bags from recycled plastic. Steueragel calls for a rethinking of capitalism. Specifically, as a lobbyist he advocates for the creation of a legal framework that facilitates the transformation into Purpose companies. Michael Hetzer ran a family business that produces sensors and control elements for agricultural machinery. However, instead of eventually leaving the company to one of his children, he turned it into a foundation model. With this he wanted to remove the burden of debt from his heirs. And for him Purpose is important, the meaning of what he does.