OngoingSince 2020
LFCA Community
One of our key projects for proving the approach in practice. More than 3,000 members work together on climate and environmental goals. Run by our subsidiary, LFCA GmbH.
lfca.earthEconomic Action Lab
Economic transformation isn’t real until it hits a bottom line.
Visions for a new economy that put people and planet first are gathering momentum across Europe. But too often, the most powerful ideas sit in academia, think tanks and policy circles - and rarely filter down to be tested and applied in the spaces that make up much of today’s economy.
What if business could become a driving force in transforming the economy from the bottom up - by rethinking their ownership, finance, governance, product and even culture?
We are a non-profit economic action lab working to bridge this gap.
It's time to build bridges
The middle ground is bigger than the debate suggests
The debate around the economy has sorted itself into two camps. To many, businesses are seen as an intractable problem - extractive by design, incapable of anything but growth - and often left out of the conversation. Meanwhile, within business itself, any serious transformation toward environmental and social wellbeing is seen as impossible to achieve within short-term performance pressures, and even represents a danger to jobs and essential services. Each camp treats the other as an impossibility.
That stand-off is exhausting, and obscures key leverage points for transformation. We can treat the new economy as irreconcilable with business-as-usual and wait for the current model to expire, or we can work to bring those actors into the transition. Within the time we have, only the second is serious.
Reality check
Transforming the economy sounds daunting. Luckily, we’re not starting from scratch.
Businesses are not monolithic actors. They consist of individuals navigating the tension between short-term performance and long-term societal stability every day. That’s where our work begins.
For every 100 companies in Europe, how many are small or medium-sized?
Over 99 - making up almost two-thirds of the 164 million people working in EU businesses.
That's why we work in particular with small and medium businesses. They're the backbone of the economy, more malleable to transform, and the place where a change in practice actually adds up.
Eurostat, structural business statistics, 2024
…and who owns these businesses?
In Europe, ~74% of enterprises are family-controlled - accounting for 40% to 50% of private-sector employment.
Pitch steward- or employee-ownership to a listed giant, and nothing happens. Raise it with a family planning a handover, and you're already speaking their language.
…and what about inside the corporate giants?
Three-quarters of employees at large UK and US companies say a business should take responsibility for its wider impact. But barely a quarter see this happening in their own workplace.
Inside larger businesses, we focus on empowering impact-driven people. They may not make seismic shifts in their current roles but, either way, they will carry it into the next job they take, or the thing they build after that.
Net Positive Employee Barometer, 2023
Business can be a decisive force in its own transformation.
Not out of goodwill, but out of self-interest. What’s missing isn’t the reason to move. It’s the route.
What we do
We equip decision-makers with the skills, tools, proof points and community support to make long-term thinking the default.
Companies don’t change their minds - people do. So we work with the people inside them: the practitioner making the case, the owner carrying the risk, the student who will be deciding what’s next. Different constraints, different starting points, but the same gap between what they know matters and what they’re equipped to make count.
We adapt our work creatively to each audience and their context for maximum impact - whether it’s educational experiences, open-source tools, campaigns or otherwise.
Academia, policy and research
We work with academia, policy and research organisations to test and disseminate new economic frameworks in real-world business contexts.
We also feed back our learnings - both to demonstrate what's possible, and to ensure that emerging transformative ideas in policy, market infrastructure and wider narratives are rooted in the everyday realities of the current economy.
Today's decision-makers
Entrepreneurs, leadership, sustainability practitioners
We introduce today's decision-makers to transformative ideas in the context of their real, everyday challenges. Over seven years we've built a community of 4,600+ professionals in 2,500+ companies across Europe - training X of them, and reaching X million more through our campaigns.
Across this community, we see a recurring pattern. Decision-makers recognise that current models are increasingly inviable, and are open to regenerative, new economic ideas. What they lack are practical ways to translate that awareness into action inside their organisations.
We build a bridge to deeper organisational transformation by identifying realistic leverage points that help them move beyond business-as-usual, increasingly towards governance, ownership and value models that put people and planet first.
Future leaders
Business schools and universities
The future leaders of Europe's companies and institutions are in business schools now.
Using real case studies and practical examples, we introduce them to business models and practices that either centre non-financial purpose, or significantly shift economic value and decision-making power toward the non-investor stakeholders they affect: workers, producers, consumers and community members.
A missing puzzle piece
Our work is not sufficient on its own. Business action doesn’t replace regulation or public pressure - it’s the piece that’s missing, not the whole answer. Luckily we have excellent peers working on the rest, and we build on their expertise as well as our own.
Theory of changeRead our full theory of changeProjects
What we’ve built so far
We started in 2019 as a climate action network for companies. Since then we have built tools, run campaigns and taught thousands of people - always with real companies, and usually learning more from what didn’t work than from what did.
4,562
practitioners in the community
82M+
people reached through public campaigns
1,390+
participants in courses and events
Ongoing
Open knowledge platform
A continuously updated library of guides for climate action. Free and open source - go and try it.
app.lfca.ngoOngoing
Open APIs
Public infrastructure that lets any organisation or individual build on our climate action data and content.
developers.lfca.ngoOngoingSince 2023
LFCA Academy
Education for students, founders, practitioners and leaders, so the thinking reaches people early enough to shape what they build.
Completed
Time for Climate Action
One week, 500+ organisations, 100+ influencers, one goal: reaching 100 million people with climate action.
tfca.earthCompleted
Sustainability clause for venture capital
Together we planted a green seed in every VC-funded startup.
Completed
Sustainable digital infrastructure
Work with our partners at the SDIA towards a more sustainable digital infrastructure.
sdialliance.org