Business Beyond the Bottom Line: Gratitude to Esha Chhabra

At Fifth Element, we’ve always believed that sustainability without justice is hollow. Our work is rooted in embedding reparative justice, reciprocity, and care into the very structure of business. That’s why Esha Chhabra’s TED Talk, “How Business Can Improve the World, Not Just the Bottom Line,” resonated so deeply with us.

In her talk, Esha reminds us that sustainability has too often become more marketing than action. She calls for businesses to move beyond performative compliance and instead commit to regeneration, repair, and values‑driven design. This is exactly the conversation we’ve been building at Fifth Element — that businesses must not only acknowledge harm but actively redistribute resources and embed justice into their operating models.

We are grateful for Esha’s clarity and courage in naming what so many of us feel: that the future of business lies in accountability, not optics. Her words affirm our own journey of designing Circles that resist transactional networking and instead center care, reciprocity, and collective resilience.

By sharing her talk, we invite our community to reflect on how business can be a vehicle for repair. Whether through direct redistribution, partnerships with Indigenous and Black‑led organizations, or subsidized access for marginalized workers, the path forward is clear: justice must be structural, not symbolic.

Thank you, Esha, for articulating a vision that aligns so powerfully with our own. May your words inspire more businesses to step into repair, regeneration, and liberation.