Next economy lab (NELA) e.V.

NELA envisions a “Next Economy” that ensures a dignified life for all, while remaining within planetary boundaries. Our mission is to drive socio-ecological transformation by supporting companies, municipalities, trade unions, and civil society actors. We focus on three key areas:

1) Just Transition & ecological trade union policy: Supporting workers and unions in shaping fair, socially balanced pathways to climate neutrality.

2) Sustainable development on local and regional level: Helping municipalities build resilient, inclusive and climate-neutral local economies

3) Sustainable transformation in companies: Developing strategies, business models and organizational structures for long-term ecological and social sustainability.

We translate socio-ecological economic ideas into practice through three complementary levers:

a)       establishing transformation laboratories:

·       Transformation or living labs / real-world experimentation

·       Development and testing of alternative business models (e.g. CSX)

·       Co-design and co-creation processes with local and organizational partners

b)      strengthening transformative capacities:

·       Capacity building & competence development for socio-ecological transformation

·       Participatory process design & facilitation

c)       fostering new alliances among progressive and diverse actors:

·       Stakeholder dialogues & multi-actor governance facilitation

·       Conflict resolution and mediation

·       Dissemination & communication strategy development

Guided by the principle "Think global, act local," we develop local solutions, assess their scalability, and connect them to global challenges. We want to make the transformation measurable and manageable using the doughnut economy model.

Our multi-discplinary team brings many years of experience in national and international sustainability projects, including developing and leading Horizon2020 projects and work package. Our background is in pluralistic economics, as well as in social sciences and humanities (SSH).