Beyond Profit: Redefining Business for a Regenerative Future

Date: Thursday, February 26th, 2026, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. CEST 

With her Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellowship at RIFS, Adina Deacu is exploring a redefinition of business as “an entity that solves social issues and creates social value in a financially sustainable way.” This framework challenges traditional profit-driven models and aligns with regenerative principles that prioritize ecological balance, community resilience, and human well-being.

To further this research and enrich her upcoming book, the online conference “Beyond Profit: Redefining Business for a Regenerative Future” will:

1. Showcase real-world examples of regenerative business models.
2. Highlight diverse social issues across different geographies.
3. Foster connections among mission-driven entrepreneurs.
4. Generate additional case studies for the upcoming book.

Conference scope

1. Feature 10-minute presentations from 12 entrepreneurs from different geographical areas operating regenerative businesses.
2. Include a panel discussion on measuring social impact and pivoting strategies once the issue a company was set out to resolve through its business model is resolved.
3. Emphasize regional diversity to illustrate how social challenges vary globally.
4. Challenge the traditional obsession with scaling by highlighting context-specific, sustainable solutions.

Programme

Opening Remarks (10 min) – Introduction to the Beyond Profit framework.
Speaker Presentations (120 min total) – 12 speakers, 10 min each.
Panel Discussion (40 min) – Metrics for social impact & pivoting strategies.
Q&A with Audience (30 mins) – The audience is encouraged to ask questions to the speakers

Registration

Please register here: https://eveeno.com/beyondprofit
You will receive the link to join the event with the confirmation e-mail after registration.

Beyond Profit Online Conference Speaker Info

Angela Juliana Odero (Kenya)
Rio Fish Limited CEO, Co-Founder
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-juliana-o-82207b163/

The Rio Fish Initiative
Rio Fish leads the transformation of Kenya’s aquaculture sector by empowering smallholder farmers through innovative solutions. Our strategic approach combines smart-farming technology with direct market access, creating a sustainable ecosystem for fish production. At the heart of our model is a robust network of women fish traders who drive our aggregation, processing, and distribution systems, ensuring fresh fish reaches consumers efficiently. Our work actively combats ‘jaboya’ – a predatory practice where male fishermen sexually exploit women traders in exchange for access to scarce fish. This exploitation has fueled both gender-based violence and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Lake Victoria region, where infection rates stand 4.5 times above the national average. Through our sustainable supply chain and direct market access, Rio Fish empowers women traders to operate independently and safely. We are building a future where fisheries thrive, women are economically empowered, and communities prosper through dignity and equal opportunity.
Website: https://riofish.co.ke/

Claudia Guerreiro (Estonia)
Conscious Marketing Movement Founder
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudiabarrosguerreiro/

Conscious Marketing Movement
Marketing is often seen as a necessary evil: a driver of consumption, pressure, and manipulation. Manipulative marketing tactics are also a lead cause of mental health issues. But Claudia, believes marketing can be part of the solution and a key driver of systemic change. She founded the Conscious Marketing Movement (CMM) to redefine the field — putting people's wellbeing and the planet first. Through community-building, education, and direct support for organizations applying conscious marketing in practice, her team champions a new marketing standard rooted in ethics, impact, and responsibility. Their work advances SDG 12: responsible consumption and production and SDG 3: Mental Health and Well-being.
Website: https://conscious-marketing-movement.com/

Jorge Gonçalves (Portugal)
Minga Cooperativa Integral Co-Founder
Intro Link: https://mingamontemor.pt/project/jorge-goncalves/

Minga Cooperativa Integral
Minga is a multi-sector cooperative leading the regeneration of rural life in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal. Founded in 2015, it brings together local farmers, artisans, builders, and service providers to co-create a resilient, community-based economy. Our model redefines rural development through cooperation rather than competition—integrating agriculture, commerce, housing, and services under one participatory structure. Through our flagship initiative, the Loja da Minga, we connect local producers directly with consumers, ensuring fair prices, transparency, and reduced environmental impact. By sharing resources such as logistics, accounting, and distribution networks, we help small producers and independent workers overcome systemic barriers that often make rural livelihoods unsustainable.
Minga’s approach is rooted in the principles of the solidarity economy, circularity, and degrowth. Beyond being an economic project, it is a living experiment in how communities can self-organize to meet their own needs with dignity and autonomy. Today, more than 150 cooperators contribute to and benefit from this ecosystem, proving that collaboration can replace scarcity with abundance, and that prosperity can be shared without exploitation.
Website: https://mingamontemor.pt/

Brian Lined (China)
Linden Centres Founder
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-linden/

Linden Centres
We are a social enterprise, whose founding was inspired by our desire to share the richness of China's cultural traditions with the world. Our hotels are living museums. Our restoration efforts have breathed life back into neglected heritage sites, giving these tangible cultural monuments dignified existences that are commensurate with their original architectural grandeur. The hotels, which are sustainable businesses, serve as our social enterprises- platforms from which we develop educational and economic programs for the local communities. We partner only with local governments and have taken on no private investment. The government supports us because of our social impact, not because of our desire to maximize profit for outside investors. We now have five sites and future sites are currently being planned and developed. We are constantly refining our social mission to ensure that we have a larger impact on our communities.
Website: https://www.linden-centre.com/

Host: Adina-Iuliana Deacu (China/Germany)

Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellow at Research Institute for Sustainability at GFZ (Germany)
Tianmei’s World Academy Founder\
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adinadeacu/

Tianmei’s World Academy is a decentralized “network of classrooms” cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary educational platform using environmental psychology knowledge with the aim to redefine where and how learning happens, while promoting personal growth, diversity and inclusion. By understanding what are the elements that combine to create a nurturing learning environment, Tianmei's World Academy is able to turn any available space (e.g. coffee shops, offices etc.) into an alternative learning environment. By experiencing the different learning environments the academy designs, individuals can better understand what kind of learning environments and methods are most suitable for their own learning and self-development needs, apply them in their daily lives and maximize their individual potential beyond a “one-size-fits-all” approach. In doing so, we aim to take high quality learning opportunities where the learners are and not have learners come to the so-called “school”. Our mission is to turn access to high quality educational opportunities into a right, instead of a privilege. 
Website: https://www.tianmeisworldacademy.com/