Hans Stegeman on Making Money Work for System Change

“We want to scale up those sustainable, valuable initiatives and phase out everything that pollutes and destroys our world.”
— Hans Stegeman, Chief Economist and Group Director Impact & Economics, Triodos Bank

In this episode of Journey to Regeneration, I talk to Hans Stegeman, Chief Economist and Group Director of Impact and Economics at Triodos Bank. Hans brings an unusually valuable perspective to the regenerative business conversation because he works from within finance while asking some of the most fundamental questions about what finance is for. His career has taken him from conventional economics and public finance analysis to Rabobank and then Triodos, where he now works on impact strategy, sustainable finance, post-growth economics, and the role of money in systems change.

Our conversation explores Triodos’ dual mission to “finance change” and “change finance.” Hans explains why the bank focuses on the real economy, why money should be understood as a social relationship, and why sustainable banking cannot stop at excluding harmful activities. It must also actively direct capital toward the next frontier of transition. We discuss fossil fuel exclusion, fast fashion, microfinance, battery storage, carbon reduction targets, central bank digital currency, and the importance of coalitions such as the Global Alliance for Banking on Values and the Sustainable Finance Lab. But the deeper theme is about paradigm change: Hans argues that the economy cannot be made regenerative if it remains structurally dependent on endless growth.

What makes this episode distinctive is its refusal to treat finance as a neutral technical system. Hans asks listeners to see their bank accounts, pension funds, investments, and professional choices as part of a wider social and ecological relationship. For business leaders, investors, and citizens, the episode offers a practical but demanding reframing: regeneration is not only about better products or greener operations. It is also about changing the flows of capital, the incentives behind them, and the economic paradigm that decides what counts as value.

Key Takeaways

1. Money Is a Social Relationship
   Hans argues that money is always doing something somewhere else in society. Regenerative finance begins by asking where money goes, what it enables, and who is affected by it.

2. Finance Must Do More Than Avoid Harm
   Triodos uses exclusions, but Hans is clear that impact does not come only from refusing to finance harmful sectors. The harder task is directing capital toward activities that accelerate transition.

3. The Real Economy Matters
   The conversation challenges financialization by emphasizing money’s connection to tangible activities: housing, farming, energy, care, culture, and other forms of social and ecological value.

4. Small Institutions Can Influence Larger Systems
   Triodos may be small compared with global banks, but Hans describes how front-runners can shape practice by pioneering exclusions, impact products, financial visions, and coalitions that others later copy.

5. Sustainable Finance Can Become a Comforting Illusion
   Hans offers a sharp critique of sustainable finance when it allows investors and institutions to feel virtuous while leaving the underlying growth-dependent system intact.

6. Personal Action Starts with Knowing Where Your Money Goes
   Hans’ practical advice is to examine one’s bank account, investments, pension funds, and career choices. The point is not individual blame, but conscious participation in changing the system.

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The regenerative business practices and sustainability innovations highlighted in this week’s Regenerative Insights directly tackle the critical issues of corporate responsibility explored in my recent book explored in my recent book, The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profit and Socializes Cost.