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The human system, driven largely by economic decisions, has profoundly affected planetary ecosystems as well as the energy supplies and natural resources essential to economic production. The challenge of sustainability is to understand and manage the complex interactions between human systems and the rest of nature. This conceptual article makes the case that meeting this challenge requires consilience between the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, which is to say that their basic assumptions must be mutually reinforcing and consistent. This article reviews the extent to which economics is pursuing consilience with the sciences of human behavior, physics and ecology, and the impact full consilience would have on the field. The science of human behavior would force economists to redefine what is desirable, while physics and ecology redefine what is possible. The challenges posed by ecological degradation can be modeled as prisoner's dilemmas, best solved through cooperation, not competition. Fortunately, science reveals that humans may be among the most cooperative of all species. While much of the mainstream economic theory that still dominates academic and the policy discourse continues to ignore important findings from other sciences, several sub-fields of economics have made impressive strides towards consilience in recent decades, and these are likely to change mainstream theory eventually. The question is whether these changes can proceed rapidly enough to solve the most serious problems we currently face.

In memoriam for Robert Goodland -- Part I Introduction -- 1. The foundations for an ecological economy: an overview / Joshua Farley -- 2. The world in over-shoot: a celebration of Herman Daly's contributions to ecological economics - the science of sustainability / Robert Goodland -- 3. Toward a sustainable and desirable future: a 35 year collaboration with Herman Daly / Robert Costanza -- Part II Changing the paradigm: what is biophysically possible, and how do humans behave? -- 4. Population, resources, and energy in the global economy: a vindication of Herman Daly's vision / Jonathan M. Harris -- 5. On limits / Arild Vatn -- 6. Toward a science-based theory of behavior: building on Georgescu-Roegen / John Gowdy -- 7. Denying Herman Daly: why conventional economics will not embrace the Daly vision / William E. Rees -- Part III Changing the goals: what is socially, psychologically and ethically desirable? -- 8. The importance of just distribution in a 'full' world / Philip Lawn -- 9. Hicksian income, welfare, and the steady state / Salah El Serafy -- Part IV Changing the rules: institutions for a sustainable and desirable future -- 10. Ecological and Georgist economic principles: a comparison / Clifford Cobb -- 11. Making money / John B. Cobb, Jr. -- Part V The steady-state economy -- 12. The steady-state economy / Peter A. Victor -- 13. Socially sustainable economic degrowth / Joan Martinez Alier -- 14. Politics for a steady state economy / Brian Czech -- Part VI Conclusions -- 15. The unfinished journey of ecological economics: toward an ethic of ecological citizenship / Peter G. Brown.

Both private and public sectors have failed to adequately provide critical ecosystem goods and services or an equitable distribution of wealth and income. To address this problem, the Vermont legislature is considering the creation of a Vermont Common Assets Trust (VCAT) that would make the state's atmosphere, aquifers and other resources created by nature or by society as a whole the common property of all Vermonters, present and future. Under the Trust, a board of trustees would have the legal obligation to manage these assets for the benefit of all Vermonters, including future generations. This paper first explains why certain resources are likely to be managed more sustainably, fairly and efficiently as common property than as private property. It then discusses mechanisms for integrating assets into the trust. Estimates of potential revenue from a VCAT suggest that it could eliminate the state budget deficit, contribute to a better distribution of wealth and resources, and help address critical ecological problems. Survey results suggest that a VCAT is politically feasible. The VCAT promises to be an important pilot project that could later be scaled up to a national or global level.

Contents: Foreword by Jacqueline Mcglade -- Preface -- In memoriam: Eric Zencey 1953-2019 -- 1. Introduction: what is ecological economics and why do we need it now more than ever / Robert Costanza, Jon D. Erickson, Joshua Farley, and Ida Kubiszewski -- Part I: The future we want -- 2. Creating positive futures for humanity on earth / Robert Costanza, Elizabeth M. B. Doran, Tatiana Gladkikh, Ida Kubiszewski, Valerie A. Luzadis, and Eric Zencey -- 3. Work, labour, and regenerative production / Kaitlin Kish and Stephen Quilley -- 4. The role of technology in achieving the future we want / Stewart Wallis, Lindsay Barbieri, Alice Damiano, and Matthew Burke -- 5. Ecological economics in China: from origins, to inertia, to rejuvenation / Xi Ji -- 6. Taking evolution seriously: the role of ecological economics in escaping the anthropocene and reaching for the ecozoic / Peter G. Brown and John Gowdy -- Part II: Measuring and achieving wellbeing -- 7. Frameworks and systems thinking for measuring and achieving sustainable wellbeing / Elizabeth M. B. Doran, Lindsay Barbieri, Ida Kubiszewski, Kate Pickett, Thomas Dietz, Michael Abrams, Richard Wilkinson, Robert Costanza, Stephen C. Farber, and Jeannine Valcour -- 8. How ecosystem services research can advance ecological economics principles / Rachelle K. Gould, Taylor H. Ricketts, Richard B. Howarth, Svenja Telle, Tatiana Gladkikh, Stephen Posner, Jesse Gourevitch, and Yuki Yoshida -- 9. Wellbeing in the more-than-human world / Kristian Brevik, John Adams, Benjamin Dube, Lindsay Barbieri, and Gabriel Yahya Haage -- 10. From measurement to application: wellbeing indicators in socio-ecological systems / Kati Gallagher, Michael Moser, Mairi-Jane V. Fox, and Jane Kolodinsky -- 11. The struggle for equality and sustainability / Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett -- 12. Human health and ecological economics / Martin Hensher -- Part III: The institutions we require -- 13. Cultural evolution, multi-level selection, and institutions for cooperation / Joshua Farley, John Gowdy, and Stephen Marshall -- 14. Moral and ethical foundations for ecological economics / Dan Spethmann and Valerie A. Luzadis -- 15. Governing for sustainable development: rethinking governance and ecological economics / Christopher Koliba, Megan Egler, and Stephen Posner -- 16. Money, interest rates and accumulation on a finite planet: revisiting the 'monetary growth imperative' through institutionalist approaches / Romain Svartzman, Joseph Ament, David Barmes, Jon D. Erickson, Joshua Farley, Charles Guay-Boutet, and Nicolas Kosoy -- 17. The nature and role of business in an ecological economy / Mairi-Jane V. Fox, Abigail B. Schneider, Marilyn T. Lucas, and Beth Schaefer Caniglia -- 18. Principles of stakeholder engagement for ecological economics / Madhavi Venkatesan, Jon D. Erickson, and Christine Carmichael -- Part IV: Integrated, dynamic analysis and modelling of socio-ecological systems -- 19. Integrated ecological economic modeling: what is it good for? / Alexey Voinov, Pascal Perez, Juan Carlos Castilla-Rho, and Daniel C. Kenny -- 20. Designing participatory decision support systems: towards meta-decision making analytics in the next generation of ecological economics / Asim Zia and Roel Boumans -- 21. A research agenda for ecological macroeconomics / Peter A. Victor and Tim Jackson -- Part V: Making the transition -- 22. Local economies: leading the way to an ecological economy / Sabine O'Hara and Daniel Baker -- 23. Systemic design and systemic crisis in the United States: the pluralist commonwealth / Gar Alperovitz and Joseph Ament -- 24. Creating a wellbeing economy alliance (weall) to motivate and facilitate the transition / Robert Costanza, Lorenzo Fioramonti, Ida Kubiszewski, Deborah Markowitz, Christopher Orr, Katherine Trebeck, and Stewart Wallis -- Part VI: Surveys of the larger community about the research agenda -- 25. Ecological economic goals from emerging scholars / Kaitlin Kish and Sam Bliss -- 26. Assessing ecological economics at 30: results from a survey of isee members / Benjamin Dube -- Index.