This section introduces Rudolf Steiner’s ideas on associative economics (one facet of his vision for a threefold social ordering of society) with particular attention to their intersection with salient issues in the contemporary discourse on sustainable development. The article shows how ideas of an associative form of economics from a century ago, and large scale projects they inspired, focused on central questions dealt with in the contemporary discourse on sustainable development: developing economic theory and practices that include ecological and scientific awareness of natural boundaries and systems; a unique critique of economic theory that focuses entirely on growth; ways of framing, and working together, while managing common pool resources and associated dilemmas of the commons; and the inherent requirement of global thinking and action in economic and ecological matters. Steiner’s suggestion that an imaginative and pictorial method in economic science is also presented, which he described as akin to certain forms of thinking in the life sciences and botany, and necessary for revealing certain corrections of pseudo-economic judgments. Besides revealing the commodification of land, labour and capital as such pseudo-judgements, this variety of thinking leads to a proper estimation of the role of value destruction through the widespread funding of education and culture, and an implicit shift in focus from quantity and consumption to quality and meaning.