Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution

A collection of company profiles demonstrating how sustainable business ventures operate in practice. Kelly argues that businesses structured to maximize financial returns for a small group perpetuate endless growth and inequality. She explores alternative ownership models she terms "generative"—designed to create conditions supporting life across many generations. Kelly reports from locations worldwide, including a community-owned wind facility in Massachusetts, a lobster cooperative in Maine, an employee-owned department-store chain in London, a foundation-owned pharmaceutical company in Denmark, and a farmer-owned dairy in Wisconsin. Through these examples, she identifies five essential patterns of ownership design that enable these models to function. The book examines how these emerging alternatives might address fundamental economic transformation.