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The Green Economics Institute was founded in the United Kingdom in 2004 and has grown into one of the largest green research centres in the world. It is an international non-governmental, non-profit organisation which operates in 47 different countries, leading a global movement for change through green economics. It is operated by a core team of 20 economists and researchers, including Miriam Kennet and Volker Heinemann, and directs a network of 5000 professionals on whose work it can draw for specialist inputs into bids and projects. It publishes an international networking magazine, The Green Economist. The Institute also offers training programmes and examinations to obtain a Masters in Green Economics, and runs a large international internships programme during the summer. Its central offices are based in Reading, Berkshire.
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Green Economics
As defined by the Green Economics Institute, green economics is "Progressive Economics, reclaiming economics for all people everywhere - women, nature, other species, the planet and its systems".
Green Economics Institute Founder and CEO Miriam Kennet describes green economics as:
Green Economics is the green movement's challenge to mainstream orthodoxy in economics and it is gaining ground globally and in the corridors of power as the best alternative to solving climate change, the credit crunch, poverty and biodiversity losses. It is about providing reclaiming the practices and policies of economics, for all people everywhere, nature, other species, the planet and its systems. It is about provisioning for the needs, impacts, effects and responsibilities, for everyone and everything on the planet.
Founders
The Green Economics Institute was founded by Miriam Kennet and Volker Heinemann in 2004.
Miriam Kennet, co-founder, director and CEO, received an MAIB in Economics and International Business from South Bank University, and most recently an MSC in Environmental Science and Economics from the University of Oxford. She has researched into environmental economics at South Bank University, Oxford University, and Keele University.
Volker Heinemann, co-founder and director of the Institute, holds a master's degree in Economics. He is a former German Green Councillor and is currently an associate editor of the International Journal of Green Economics. He is author of Die Oekonomie der Zukunft, a book that investigates future economic trends in the developed world. It is based on the idea that a new economic science, free from any neo-liberal or other normative bias is needed: green economics.
Research
The Green Economics Institute's research is focused on three key aspects:
- The reform of mainstream economics by means of robust research into alternatives and existing theories, and how these can be made more relevant and practical.
- The creation and development of the new "Greening the Economy" discourse of green economics.
- Research into policy formulation and implementation which would provide economics with the philosophy, methodology, ontology and instruments to bring social and environmental justice.
The Institute's philosophy is summarized as follows:
"The aim is that as a result more people enjoy a better quality of life. There is a focus on corporate activities and the globalisation process and their impacts on a range of stakeholders including indigenous peoples, minorities, women, people in less developed countries and non human species and the biosphere and also the conventional wisdoms of trickle down theories, growth and development."Conferences
The Green Economics Institute runs several international conferences. The main one is the annual Green Economics Conference, held every summer at Oxford University. Other conferences include the Women's Unequal Pay Conference in March 2009, the Green Built Environment and Long-Termism Conference in January 2011, the Green Economics Methodology Conference in October 2011, the One World Conference in October 2011, and the South Africa Conference in December 2011.
Publications
The Green Economics Institute produces several publications, such as its magazine The Green Economist and books the Green Economics Reader and the Handbook of Green Economics - A Practitioner's Guide.