Earlier FE research focused on FE 1.0, the assembly of material and providential reliance systems developed after 1850 to meet the current generation’s essential needs and Covid 19 reminds us of the continuing importance of maintaining these systems. But in FE 2.0 we need to build new resource and conversion reliance systems which safeguard the well- being of future generations by reducing the planetary burden.

Our first major FE 2.0 report, Serious about Green, is about building a new resource reliance system, wood economy, where the carbon sequestration benefits of afforestation can be levered by a strategy of downstream value capture for higher value products. The report explains that this opportunity can only be realised through supply chain co-ordination which has been absent in Wales where strategic good intentions have not been carried through into planting and processing.

This report is also a milestone because it is produced by Foundational Economy Research Ltd, a not for profit off shoot of the foundational economy collective. This gives us “skunk works” capacity to work at pace with outside partners on strategic projects which take the foundational agenda forward.

The arguments made by the foundational economy collective overlap with those made by other like-minded groups and individuals. The most obvious synergy is with those pressing the case for universal basic services because foundational thinkers and basic service advocates agree that individual income is not enough when collective consumption matters greatly. The UBS concept is associated with the University College London Centre for Global Prosperity which in 2017 introduced a concept which has since been significantly refined and developed. Our good friend Anna Coote, of the New Economics Foundation, has with Andrew Percy co- authored a book which provides an accessible and up to date statement of The Case for Universal Basic Services. In working paper 7 she summarises the case and explains how it relates to foundational thinking.