Many entrepreneurs start companies wanting to make the world a better place. The real challenge is designing a company to protect that mission for the long term.

Today's concepts of infinite growth and short-term incentives are not sustainable, neither from a business perspective, nor from a planetary one. To make a real impact, we must evolve towards a regenerative approach: a model where companies, by force of their legal DNA, seek to contribute to the health of the planet, not just their bottom line.

eXo's vision is of a world where "no stream is left behind". To succeed in that mission, it is vital that our company structure is fundamentally aligned with that purpose. For a technology like ours, ultimately enabling the regeneration of ecosystems, this structure shouldn't be a detail: it's a safeguard for our mission.

We see eXo as a vehicle to achieve two things:

1

Providing a new membrane technology that purifies water. We design, produce and sell membranes for the most challenging waters.

2

Co-creating a world built on regenerative principles. We build and share our blueprint to accelerate the transition to this new way of living, leading and creating.

As we seek to safeguard this dual mission for the long term, we're drawn to the governance form of Steward Ownership, based on two principles:

Hands holding steering bar
Original source: Purpose Economy - purpose-economy.org

Self-determination

Voting rights are held by the people closest to company's operation an mission: stewards. These rights cannot be sold.

Cyclical Euro
Original source: Purpose Economy - purpose-economy.org

Purpose-orientation

Profits are a means to the purpose, not a goal in itself. Investors are fairly compensated, with their returns eventually capped in both time and magnitude. Remaining profits are reinvested, used to cover capital costs or donated.

For our investors, this is a safeguard: it guarantees that their investment is supporting a mission that will never be sold or compromised.

Steward ownership strikes us as a governance structure that is fit for the 21st century. In this model, a company's profits are reinvested to accelerate its impact, ensuring resources are always focused on what matters most.

While investors still receive a fair, risk-adequate return on their capital, the focus is not on maximizing profit for its own sake, but on using it as a tool to scale our positive contribution to the world. We see this model as a way to create a new kind of company: one that can grow and thrive while always staying true to its founding purpose.

We're in good company! Visionary steward-owned businesses like Patagonia (US), Bosch (DE) and Novo Nordisk (DK) are already combining long-term impact with profitability.

Interested in learning more about Steward Ownership? Check out Purpose Economy! If you’d prefer concrete, detailed and hands-on steward-owned cases or implementation, check out their case studies here.