The regeneration revolution: Part two – hope
Exploring regenerative cultures through resilience, hope and action
The word ‘hope’ is central to the climate movement. It pushes us to imagine a world in harmony rather than the enduring battle between ‘us humans’ and the ‘natural world’. But regeneration reminds us that there is no seperation between us and the natural world – we are nature.
So, how does regeneration provide the solutions and crucially, the hope, that we can integrate regenerative practices into our modern and ever-changing society?
What is involved in regeneration?
To regenerate our ecosystems, we first need to get to grips with what the process entails. From farming to design, just a little digging reveals that the regeneration revolution stretches across all aspects of life:
Regenerative farming
Many of us are aware that agriculture, food transportation and packaging account for up to 37 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions, as reported by the IPCC.
In a nutshell: land use, monoculture and our farming practices put unsustainable pressure on the soil, and this cannot be sustained.
This is where regenerative agriculture comes in, and, despite the movement picking up momentum in recent years, it’s an approach as old as time:
“There is a path forward. New to some but ancient in its roots. Regenerative agriculture and stewardship has been in practice for tens of thousands of years. Through the rise and collapse of whole civilizations, native groups learned how to live harmoniously by working with the laws of nature. They honed the science of regeneration long before there was a name for it.” as explained by Lyla June Johnston in The possibilities of regeneration, a film by Kiss the Ground.
Regenerative agriculture serves to work in harmony with nature. Protecting soil health, boosting biodiversity, improving the water cycle, and crucially, capturing carbon.
Lyla explains that this way of farming has existed for generations, where for example:
“[…] Indigenous farmers have continuously cultivated corn and other crops for over a millennium without exhausting the soil. They placed their fields at the base of small watersheds, and with every monsoon rain, organic rich sediment and water flowed down from the forested mountains and into the fields. By working in tandem with the forces of nature around them, they have no need for outside fertilisers or irrigation.”
But Western colonisation and “the attempted erasure of Indigenous culture has endangered the ecosystems they supported”, leading to environmental and societal collapse.
Changing our food systems, increasing crop diversity and enabling communities to grow food in harmony with nature are the stepping stones to forming a culture of consciousness, connectivity, and care.
Circular economy
Waste is a significant contributing factor to the degradation of our ecosystems. From our plastic-filled shores to the eye-watering reality that 92 million tons of clothing end up in landfill annually, whilst 40 percent of the world’s food goes to waste every year.
Statistics like these are gross – it’s clear that a system that extracts, drains and depletes can’t continue. So, what’s the alternative?
Transitioning to a circular economy means moving away from a linear system that takes and gives very little back, into a circular system. Here, we can learn from natural cycles and apply them to our processes. This makes for a waste-free economy, reflecting what nature has done from the very beginning: fruitful trees feed insects, birds and other beasts only to shed their leaves and nourish the forest floor, making fertile soil for new life, for example.
We’ve seen that food and land practices can move forward to the aforementioned regenerative model, but other industries can contribute positively to a circular economy too – keeping things in motion, and constantly in use. This can generate a plethora of benefits, for example:
Boosting soil health: It’s all about repairing our ecosystems – where there’s no need for fertilisers, there’s increased carbon storage and the ability to hold water
Rewilding: Utilising raw materials and keeping them in motion enables land once used to source and extract finite materials to be returned to nature
Cutting emissions: New business models in the world of fashion and beyond can reduce emissions by ensuring products are durable, whilst offering an alternative to the consumer culture we have today. This could be through clothing and product rental or sharing and subscriptions, preventing landfill and burning cycles
Regenerative architecture
The way we live has been in constant motion, particularly since the Industrial Revolution. For many, our cities have grown up around us, shrinking the size of our homes with little to no access to nature.
Meanwhile, findings discussed at COP27 in November 2022 detailed that the buildings and construction sector accounted for “37 per cent of energy and process-related CO2 emissions in 2021.”
The press release from the UN environment programme went on to explain, “Decarbonizing the buildings sector by 2050 is critical to delivering these cuts. To reduce overall emissions, the sector must improve building energy performance, decrease building materials’ carbon footprint, multiply policy commitments alongside action and increase investment in energy efficiency.”
It’s clear that the building and construction sector needs to act fast to combat the damaging effects it’s having on the climate – and a new path rooted in regeneration could be the answer.
Whilst green innovation and sustainable design has played a key role in the industry in recent years, a regenerative approach pushes past the idea that buildings can exist simply just to maintain their surrounding environment, and instead supports the idea that a building can be part of the ecosystem, by emulating nature's processes.
In effect, where sustainable structures attempt to limit their impact on the environment, regenerative structures have a net-positive impact on the ecosystem – it’s community-centred, self-sufficient, breathable and adaptable.
Yet, visualising this concept is difficult. For many of us, our buildings and structures have just been there, seemingly plonked on what was once common land. Some of us have paid little to no attention as to how they might contribute positively to the environment.
So, here are some examples of what might be incorporated into a regenerative building:
It’s all in the planning
The location of the site needs to be carefully considered before getting the go-ahead. Plans might entail selecting a location with an existing community where urban agriculture or stewardship takes place, following soil protection guidelines, or finding a pre-existing structure to prevent new development on wild land.
Energy
All energy is net zero, meaning 100% of the building’s energy consumption has to be accessed through a renewable energy resource such as onsite wind turbines or solar panels.
Water
The building needs to collect its own water. This could be through rainfall, and water may be filtered through incorporating a living roof as a natural filtration system. It might also include composting toilets to ensure they are not reliant on water systems connected to the grid.
Building materials
Paying close attention to the longevity of the building, sustainable materials such as fast-growing wood, bark, bamboo and hemp must be used and acquired locally as much as possible. It’s important that there is no waste – so off-cuts should be used in other parts of the building or on future projects.
New technology
Utilising new innovation such as second skin, where membrane technology that could be comprised of solar, water collection, LEDs and ventilation systems may be put in place depending on the building’s needs.
It’s about emulating natural processes and incorporating it across all industries, as Lyla June explains:
“If we expand this mindset beyond just land and apply it to all aspects of life, what else is possible?”
The third and final blog in this series will explore how we take this knowledge applied on a larger scale, and put it into action within ourselves. Regeneration is only possible when we take steps on an individual basis for the collective good. So, read ‘The regeneration revolution: Part three – action’, here.