Just Bond offers return of a brighter future for the planet

Priced at £500 each, the Just Bond is being issued by nef (the new economics foundation) to support its work in building an alternative, viable future of environmental and economic sustainability, individual well-being, and social justice.   The money raised will be used as a fund to catalyse real and rapid progress towards creating a new kind of economy in which people and the planet matter. The fund will help nef create a vision of what the new economy will look like, create a ‘model’ of how the various parts (such as pensions, banking, public finances and services) could work and fit together, and build public support for the scale of changes needed.

The world faces a daunting set of challenges. We are living well beyond the planet’s capacity to support us; there is the very real prospect of catastrophic, runaway climate change; and the long-term stability of our financial systems is seriously in question.

Stewart Wallis, nef’s Executive Director said, “Massive change is coming. The question is whether it happens through disasters with no pre-planning or because we start to make the future and prepare for what might come. There’s a great clamour for action to tackle climate change and protect vital ecosystems but we can’t create the radical changes required to do that without also reforming our economy and society. What’s needed, and needed urgently, is a new economics.”

All holders of Just Bonds will be part of a Just Associate network, with a benefits package including regular strategy discussion breakfasts with senior nef staff, special mailings, and invitations to exclusive events.

Liz Sutton, Head of Fundraising and Communications at nef said: “We’re deliberately playing with the language and imagery of financial products to make a serious point: that there are things more valuable than money that we should all be investing in, such as human well-being, equality and a healthy environment.  Public bodies have long used bonds to raise funds for major infrastructure projects.  The Just Bond gives people the chance to invest in the most urgent project of all: pulling humanity back from the brink of climate disaster and creating an economy that enables us to live well within the Earth’s limits.”

nef is issuing £200,000 Mandatory Convertible Just Bonds due on 30 June 2010. The Mandatory Convertible Just Bonds shall be mandatorily converted into support for nef’s work to lead the way to a sustainable, more socially just economy. Participation in this offer does not bestow any rights of ownership or any form of economic rights with respect to nef but will constitute a non-refundable charitable donation to nef (registered charity no.1055254)

For queries about the Just Bond issue, or to receive a prospectus, please contact nef’s fundraising team.

Email: lily.swan@neweconomics.org   tel: 020 7820 6359.