Labs
As an Academy operating in the midst of a metacrisis, we believe in the interconnecting need for both wisdom and action. SGA Labs is our action tank.
SGA Labs incubates new initiatives that accelerate our path to a thriving society within planetary boundaries. Some projects are short-term experiments, while others develop into critical institutions or social infrastructure. These projects emerge from within our community of partners, fellows and friends. SGA Labs creates pathways and opportunities for our community to come together and find new ways of solving systemic challenges.
Watch Kaj Löfgren, our director of Small Giants Academy Action Labs, share our Labs projects over the years at the Wisdom & Action forum.
What is the constellation of humans, with the right set of conditions, that can come together with the direction of travel, towards empathy in the next economy. That’s our lense, and these initiatives are wonderful things in and on their own right, but it’s the ecosystem that matters.
Gross National Happiness Centre Australia
The Gross National Happiness (GNH) Centre Australia is a groundbreaking initiative bringing Bhutan's holistic development philosophy to Australian shores. It offers programs, workshops, and resources that integrate GNH principles across various sectors, reimagining how we measure and pursue societal progress.
This SGA Labs initiative stems from a longstanding relationship between the GNH Centre Bhutan and Small Giants that began in 2012. This connection led to the first Impact Safari, hosted in Bhutan, in 2018.
B Lab ANZ
B Lab is a not-for-profit network transforming the global economy to benefit all people, communities, and the planet. B Lab creates standards, policies, tools, and programs that shift the behaviour, culture, and structural underpinnings of capitalism. B Lab mobilises the B Corp community towards collective action to address society’s most critical challenges.
Small Giants was the first B Corp in Australia, and SGA Labs proudly incubated the B Lab project to the point at which it could be spun out as a stand-alone non-profit organisation.
Regen Melbourne
Regen Melbourne is an engine for ambitious collaboration in service to our city. Founded in the midst of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, Regen Melbourne is now powered by an alliance of more than 200 organisations and provides a backbone function for wildly ambitious collaborative projects.
SGA Labs co-founded and incubated Regen Melbourne until it spun out as an independent non-profit organisation in early 2024.
The School of Life
The School of Life is a passionate group of people on a mission to bring about healing, growth, calm and self-understanding. With ideas derived from psychology, psychotherapy, philosophy, art and culture, The School of Life is here to teach people how life can be lived and what can make it truly worthwhile, effective and fulfilling.
SGA Labs founded and incubated the first School of Life campus outside of London as a pop-up experiment in 2013. In 2014, The School of Life Australia opened its doors and ran in Melbourne and Sydney until its closure due to COVID-19 in 2020.
Think West
Think West was a once-off philosophy and culture festival held in Melbourne’s inner-west in spring 2016. With a gathering of prominent thinkers, local actors, and the general public, close to 50 events were hosted across two weeks.
SGA Labs and The School of Life created and hosted Think West.
Impact Safari
Impact Safaris are transformational travel experiences into leadership for a hopeful future. Participants travel together to destinations around the world to explore principles of the next economy.
SGA Labs founded and incubated Impact Safari before it became an active education program within SGA.
Impact Club
Impact Club is Australia’s first impact investing network created for wholesale investors who want to deploy capital to create positive social and environmental impact.
SGA Labs founded and incubated Impact Club as a way to gather and direct a powerful network of capital holders towards a thriving society within planetary boundaries.
Plan C
Plan C (formerly Resilient Byron) is a community-led initiative to build connection, resilience, and regenerative capacities of Northern Rivers communities in the face of future disasters and crises.
SGA Labs co-founded and incubated Plan C.
Community Well
The Community Well was an experiment that facilitated individuals to invest financial capital in their local community. The Community Well was established in the Northern Rivers and sets criteria for all of its lending that are aligned with positive social and environmental impact, as well as a mandate to lend locally.
SGA Labs co-founded and incubated The Community Well until the experiment ended in 2021.
Next Economy Strategy Team
The Next Economy Strategy Team (NEST) was a project developed during COVID-19 as a way of convening our alliance of friends and partners during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, and to explore opportunities for rapid transformation in the midst of major disruption. Three major NESTs were facilitated, with more than 100 people, across three themes: Sustainable Cities & Resilient Communities, Clean Energy & Healthy Ecosystems, and Jobs, Business & Finance. Nine collaborative micro-projects were established and facilitated as a result of these NESTs.
SGA Labs founded and hosted the NEST program.
