Compost or Accumulation

Why regenerative business starts with how we think about money

As we move into autumn, I’ve been thinking about compost - and how it might offer a better metaphor for business than accumulation.

Traditional economics celebrates constant growth: the ever-upward arrow of revenue, targets, GDP. But life doesn’t work that way. Compost shows us a different rhythm - one of transformation and return. We take the cuttings, the leftovers, even the waste, and turn them into new nutrients. Nothing is lost; everything feeds the next cycle.

At TO FOCUS, we’re trying to run our business like a compost heap. Yes, there are profit and revenue goals - but they’re in service of building living material: relationships, learning, courage, creativity. Profit isn’t the destination; it’s the pile that feeds future work.

This idea connects directly to what I’ll be exploring at the Blue Earth Summit on 15 October 2025:

• In conversation with Octopus Money about democratising financial planning - making it possible for more people to grow healthy financial soil.

• Moderating a session with Cool Farm on regenerative farming, where soil health becomes a shared lens for leadership, sustainability, and systems change.

Compost reframes profit: not as something to accumulate or hoard, but as nutrient to reinvest - thoughtfully, rhythmically, in service of something larger.

As E.F. Schumacher wrote, “An economy is healthy when people matter.”

So perhaps this season’s challenge is to ask: what am I returning to the soil?

If you’re attending Blue Earth Summit (15–17 Oct, London), come say hello.

👉 Tickets and programme here

Warm regards,

Mark