New Economics Foundation

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) is an independent British think-tank.

NEF was founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit (TOES) with the aim of working for a "new model of wealth creation, based on equality, diversity and economic stability".

NEF now claims to be "one of the two or three biggest think-tanks in the UK, with an international profile, an enthusiastic group of supporters, and a high reputation among opinion-formers".

The foundation has 50 staff in London and is active at a range of different levels. Its programmes include work on well-being, new kinds of measurement and evaluation, sustainable local regeneration, new forms of finance and new business models, sustainable public services, and the economics of climate change.

Work

NEF works in the areas of community, democracy, and economics. A number of the ideas advanced by NEF have become public policy. NEF has for example promoted the spread of time banks and NEF's work on sustainability indicators, which measures aspects of life and environment, has fueled a trend to map how economic growth and sustainability are connected.

From 1995 to 2000 NEF made social audits of companies to measure and evaluate a company's social and ethical performance according to their standards. This work was instrumental in the formation of the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability to promote professional standards...
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