regenerative business 1.0: beyond sustainability

[Re]Regenerative Business 1.0

Design

by: Matthew K Lynch

Beyond Sustainability

BeyondSustainabilitymag.net

Don’t think of a Happy Cow.Ron and Bev Smith look after the world’s happiest cows; almost by accident.

Thirty years ago, on the advice of his wife, Ron stopped using conventional fertilizers and pesticides on his 90 hectacre dairy farm because of the severe allergic reactions to the chemicals he was experiencing. He read every book he could on organic farming methods, from Fukoka’s ‘Natural Way of Farming’ and ‘The One-Straw Revolution’ to P.A. Yeoman’s ‘'Water for Every Farm: Yeomans' Keyline Plan’.

After much trial & error (and much pressure from the fertilizer & pesticide companies to knock it off), Ron & Bev succeeded in producing some of the freshest, finest organically produced milk (with the lowest heavy metal counts and highest counts of beneficial microbes) in the region... but more importantly, Ron’s health & vitality began to improve markedly. Other farmers in the region noticed the changes - in his personal health, the health of his herd, the productivity increases on the farm - and soon some of them began to follow suit.

A few years, and ten children later (that’s not a typo!), Ron & Bev went on to found the Pure Organics Dairy Co-operative, which is now one of the few bright spots in the Australian agricultural sector - posting healthy growth rates and profits year after year, while conventional dairies (hampered by escalating fertilizer, feed, and veterinary bills) struggle financially, watching profits disappear aongside their pastures’ declining fertility.

When we visited Ron & Bev’s organic dairy farm in 2009, contented cows lazily browsed a diverse pasture salad-bar brimming full of rye grass, chickory, oats, plantain, medicinal herbs, and clover flowers so vibrant that some of us were happily munching them right alongside the happily munching cows, as the rest of the herd calmly watched us marvel at the buzzing biodiversity of their fertile pastures.

In stark contrast, the cows living on the conventional dairy we visited the day before had scattered nervously before we were anywhere near them, retreating to pick from the sparse ground cover which barely covered the compacted and eroding soils of their overgrazed pastures.

Top soil scientists from around the world also visit Ron today, to see what he is doing to grow topsoil at the rate of almost one inch per year - an amount previously thought would take up to 1,000 years to create.

Perhaps most impressive of all, at age 60-something Ron Smith looks like a man in his 40s, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that he believes the only way to eat butter (organic, of course), is to spread it so thickly on your toast, that you can scrape teeth marks into it.

Ron & Bev Smith’s organic dairy operations demonstrate many amazing things, but perhaps most important among these is that with a simple shift in focus - away from ‘minimizing our harmful impact’ and towards maximizing our positive impact - businesses can be profitable, heal the planet, and take care of people.

Business can move beyond striving to achieve ‘zero-impact’, and start to become regenerative forces in the communities they serve. What a concept.

REGENERATIVE BUSINESS 1.0 | 2

#BeyondSustainability BeyondSustainabilitymag.net

Profitability = [Economic] Sustainability.

'Profit' is not a dirty word.

Profits are the surplus income generated by a well-managed enterprise.

Profits are like oxygen: without enough, we suffocate.

Economic sustainability means that we must achieve enough profits to develop our enterprises so that they can flourish. If we can’t pay the rent, we can’t contribute to the world.

However (in case you haven’t noticed), the relentless pursuit of profits in the name of never-ending economic growth simply does not work. The ongoing Global Financial Crises has proved (and continue to prove) that our current business models and economic theory are defunct.

We have before us a golden opportunity to learn from our mistakes, rethink the ways we do business, and replace defunct business models with smarter enterprises.

What if we could create enterprises that restore, revitalize, and regenerate communities and ecosystems, while creating a decent living for the entrepreneurs willing to challenge the status quo?

What kind of world could we create?


“What the rich don't have is anybody who can tell them what to do.”

- Bill Mollison -


Beyond Sustainability.Remember when the word 'Sustainability' was only uttered by long-haried, unshaven treehugger types, and sneered upon by mainstreamers?

Well the word is now firmly entrenched in Webster's (mainstream) Dictionary, and while this is a (mostly) good thing, I firmly believe that it is too late in the game to aim only for becoming 'sustainable'.

I mean really, how inspiring is that word to you?

'I have a sustainable relationship with my kids.' 'My husband and I have a sustainable relationship.' 'I have a sustainable relationship with my community.'

What if we used words like nurturing, flourishing, or regenerative instead? Surely we can aspire to so much more, with a simple little shift in focus.

Human beings are the only species on the planet capable of stepping into the custodial role of caring for Mother Earth. It's not just our opposable thumbs; we are the only creatures with the cognition and ability to consciously decide that we will be good stewards of our home, and leave this planet better for having walked on it.

It’s time to move beyond Sustainability.


#BeyondSustainability

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again,and expecting different results.”

- Albert Einstein -


Regenerative Design ([Re]Design).

Regenerative Design is based on the Permaculture ethics of Earth Care, People Care, and Resource Share.

Examples of [Re]Design are all around us in nature, if we have the eyes to see:

- One tiny acorn can sprout a giant oak tree capable of producing enough seeds in one season to give rise to an entire forest of oak.

- Autumn leaves which fall insulate the ground and decompose to feed soil microbiology, cycling energy so that a waste product from one element of the system becomes a valuable nutrient for other elements in the system: the diverse forest ecosystem supported by healthy topsoil.

- Symbiotic planting relationships such as the ancient ‘Three Sisters Guild’: Corn provides a support structure for the Beans, which feed nitrogen to the soils (which the hungry corn thrives upon), while the Squash loves to crawl along the ground in the shade of the Corn, providing a living mulch which maintains soil moisture & temperature at optimal levels for all three plant species to thrive.

[Re]Design develops human systems (such as agriculture, architecture, economic, industrial and social systems) which renew and revitalize their own energy and materials sources, so that they produce positive restorative impacts upon their environments.

[Re]Design emulates healthy & productive ecological systems, to create human systems that increasingly flourish over time.


“How do we love all the childrenof all the species

for all time?”

- William McDonough -

#RegenerativeDesign BeyondSustainabilitymag.net

Business is a Tool.Businesses are not evil.

Businesses are run by people, and people are inherently good (well, the vast majority are anyways).

Business is a vehicle we design and build to: - create more income. - create more options and choices for our families. - create personal liberty. - manifest our passions.

Why not design (or [Re]Design) our businesses to help us to make our world a better place?


“Whenever I wanted to address a social or economic problem I came out with a business solution. I started creating a series of companies to address social problems.”

- Muhammad Yunus -

#RegenerativeBusiness1.0 BeyondSustainabilitymag.net

The secret about Money.Money is like water.

Without enough, it is difficult to live a healthy, productive life.

Too much water, and it becomes a destructive force, wreaking havoc upon people, communities, and our planet.

We can harness the forces of money towards constructive ends, but only if our ethics demand it.


“Money is to the social fabric as water is to landscape. It is the agent of transport, the shaper and mover of trade.

Like water, it is not the total amount of money entering a community which counts;

it is the number of uses or duties to which money can be diverted,and the number of cycles of use, that brings financial independence

to a community.”

- Bill Mollison -

#ConsciousCapitalism BeyondSustainabilitymag.net


#ConsciousCapitalism BeyondSustainabilitymag.net

‘Wealth’ ≠ ‘Acquiring More Money’.

‘Wealth’ can mean meeting your Physical, Emotional & Spiritual needs.

Hierarchy of Wealth:

4. Sense of Fulfillment. 3. Personal Income. Social Security. 2. Quality of Work. Quantity of Work. Environmental Quality. 1. Emotional Health. Physical Health. Spiritual Growth. Personal Security. [each level builds to the next]

[source: Manfred Max-Neef, Chilean economist]

You can redefine ‘Wealth’ to create something more meaningful than Consumption & Accumulation.

What if ‘Wealth’ was a measure of how much we can Create & Contribute to the world?

Redefine Wealth.


“We take health care, a safe society, peace, creative education and a clean environment as our ideas of wealth, and we direct our money to these ends.”

- Rosemary Morrow -

#RedefineWealth BeyondSustainabilitymag.net

Reclassify your Assets.Financial institutions don't tell you the whole story.

When they tell you that your house is the biggest asset, they neglect to tell you that it is their biggest asset. You pay them every month, and they let you keep the house. As long as you keep paying on time.

Would your priorities change if you reclassified your assets in this way:

1. Knowledge-based. Knowledge is the ultimate renewable resource; the more you know, the more you know what you don't know. Knowledge is power, but only if you apply it.

2. Skill-based. Our skills are what allow us to express our creative contributions to the world. Best of all, skills are an asset that can continue to grow over time, but only if we nurture them.

3. Regenerative. Regenerative assets grow slowly and steadily over time, and can give back far more energy than it took to establish them. Just as a well-tended family fortune can increasingly flourish over centuries, so too can a fruit orchard... ...if we are good stewards of these assets.

4. Degenerative. Degenerative assets steadily decay over time, demanding more and more energy to keep them going than it took to establish them. Just as a brand new car or house can require much more energy to run and maintain it than it took to build it, so too can a family fortune... ...if we are poor stewards of these assets.

Reclassify your assets based on how they can improve your life, and the lives of those around you.


“An Asset will feed you.A Liability will eat you.”

- Robert Kiyosaki -

#RegenerativeAsset BeyondSustainabilitymag.net

[Your most powerful Regenerative Asset.]


BeyondSustainabilitymag.net#RegenerativeAsset

Regenerative Business:A [Re]Business expresses the following Principles of Regenerative Business:

1. Invests in Regenerative Assets. Most regenerative technologies are very simple:

Greenhouse Restaurant in Sydney uses composting worms to turn kitchen scraps into fresh herbs and veggies for their menu, while The Wool Shed, and The Old Vicarage Dolfor restaurants use small flocks of chickens to turn their food scraps into a renewable supply of fresh, free, organic eggs.

Businesses and organizations from Cuba to Canada have been using worms for at least the last 14 years to process organic waste safely into nutrient-rich compost.

Veta La Palma Fishfarm focused on restoring degraded grazing lands to their original wetlands state, and now produce some of the world’s tastiest, most organic fish - without requiring growth hormones, antibiotics, or other artificial inputs - that is sought after by some of the world’s most innovative restaurants.

Green Wave Energy develops renewable energy technologies which hedge wind and solar power, and can be deployed to deliver electricity to locations previously considered too remote, dangerous, or difficult. Imagine the possibilities for the developing world.

Real estate developers can construct wetlands to filter stormwater runoff biologically and restore ecosystems. Mining companies could apply their earth-moving expertise and equipment towards constructing swales to regenerate the landscapes they currently leave devastated in their wake.

What kind of Regenerative Assets can your business invest in?


“All human beings have the inner capacity not only to care for themselvesbut also to contribute to increasing the well-being

of the world as a whole.”

- Muhammad Yunus -Principles of


A [Re]Business expresses the following Principles of Regenerative Business:

2. Contributes to communities. When a business cycles economic energy back into the communities it serves by hiring locally, procuring locally, and supporting community-based projects, everybody wins.

Willie Smits restored a rainforest to create habitat for orangutans, and in the process creates economic opportunity in food production, agroforestry, and biofuels for his local communities.

Paul Newman’s businesses have given away over $300 million to thousands of charities since the company was founded in 1982.

When the people a business serves can flourish, so too can the business.

3. Collaborates before competing. When an unethical client approached Bamboo Living to enter a new market and undercut the existing market leader, the company contacted CO2 Bambu personally to discuss the situation.

The result? An international, mutually-benefical strategic partnership has now been formed between these two Regenerative Companies, who have now expanded their ability to create positive impacts in the communities they serve with minimal expense (and far less stress!).

The unethical client was discarded - life is too short to waste time working with sleezebags.


Regenerative Business:Principles of


“Prosperity is a shared endeavour.”

- Tim Jackson -

http://fora.tv/2010/06/09/Tim_Jackson_Prosperity_Without_Growth

http://fora.tv/2010/06/09/Tim_Jackson_Prosperity_Without_Growth

Cycles

Energy

Your Community

Your Business

Profits Money

#RegenerativeBusiness1.0REGENERATIVE BUSINESS 1.0 | 14



4. Competes constructively. The greatest fighters of all time understood that their true opponent does not lurk in the opposite corner, but instead lies within. The fight is an event to prepare and train for, an opportunity to be the best they can be - a proving ground to test their abilities.

Competition is a necessary part of the business game, and is a force which can be harnessed to propel people towards peak performance.

It can also be a destructive force, as we have seen. You can choose what ‘competition’ will mean for you.

5. Crafts products that last, and delivers remarkable services. My Dad always taught me that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well.

Yvon Chouinard founded Patagonia Clothing Company in 1953 to make his own high-quality, reusable climbing hardware. Since then, Patagonia has grown into a major supporter of environmental groups. The company commits 1% of their total sales, or 10% of their profit (whichever is more) to environmental groups, and has donated over $25 million to over 1,000 organizations.

Sweet Beginnings not only creates high-quality, all-natural line of raw honey and honey-infused body care products, the company invests in the people that society most often leaves behind. Transitional job opportunities are created for area residents who struggle with barriers to employment, strengthening the community with each transaction.

What kind of niches can your high-quality products and services fill to enhance your communities?


“Fight Club isn’t about winning.”

- Tyler Durden -




6. Focuses on nurturing People, Planet, and Profit. In that order. The planet doesn’t need saving. If humanity manages to extinguish itself, Mother Earth will continue to exist happily without us. After all, she’s managed just fine (and arguably better) for billions of years before we arrived on the scene.

It is people who run our business, lead our countries, create our wars. Only people can solve our problems.

Healing begins with ourselves: if we are not healthy, happy and positively expressing our wholeness as human beings, than it is difficult to positively contribute to our community and the world around us. In the massively intricate web of life that is our life on earth, we are all intimately connected not only to each other, but to every other life form on the planet. Therefore when we are outward-focussed and concentrate on how we can create positive collaborations and contributions to the world around us, we are simultaneously nurturing our inner well-being; our soul. When we turn our focus internally and focus on constant, never-ending learning and personal growth, we begin to take responsibility for our actions, and to take accountability for becoming the best versions of ourselves that we can be.

This is the essence of Regenerative Design: when we focus on being the best self that we can be, we help to create the best world that can be around us. When we focus on creating the best world that can be around us, we help to create the best selves that we can be. It is a simple, powerful, and fundamental pair of truths that create the Regenerative Cycle of a positive feedback loop. It is a simple, powerful, and fundamental tool that you have now begun to develop, which can equip you to be the change you want to see in the world, and contribute to the wellness of ourselves, our communities, and our planet.


“Although the problems of the world are increasingly complex,the solutions are embarrassingly simple.”

- Bill Mollison -



We get what we focus on.When a motorcyclist enters a corner at high speed, he must focus on where he wants to be, or else he will end up suddenly hugging a tree at 100km /hour.

Quantum physicists are only now starting to discover the power of the observer’s intention to influence the result of their experiments. If our thoughts are powerful enough to affect protons and electrons flying around a particle accelerator, than surely they are powerful enough to create different results in our lives.

What if, instead of focusing on how to minimize our impact on the planet, we focused on maximizing our positive impact upon the planet?

What kind of world could we create?


“We can reconfigure our world if we can reconfigure our mindset.”

- Muhammad Yunus -


How to use this eBook.Regenerative Business is an idea whose time has come. It is an idea that is bigger than you and me.

Here’s how to get the most value from this eBook:

1. Share this idea. Email this copy to your friends and co-workers. Post a copy to your blog. Retweet it on Twitter.

2. Discuss and explore how your current or future business will express the Principles of Regenerative Business.

3. Brainstorm other Principles that you feel are important to designing your Regenerative Businesses.

4. Subscribe to our free eMag at BeyondSustainabilitymag.net.

5. Tell us about a Regenerative Business that you know of. Send us an email titled ‘[Re]Business: The Business’ Name . Copy and paste the Principles of Regenerative Business from the next page into your email, and describe how the business expresses each principle. The business may even get featured in an issue of BeyondSustainabilitymag.net.

6. Collaborate with us. We are assembling a multi-disciplinary team of analysts to create this century’s Regenerative version of the book ‘Good to Great’. If you are as passionate about the power of business to heal the planet as we are, then we’d love to hear from you. Send an email titled ‘[Re]Business: Shameless Agitator - Your Name’ to us.

7. Support our work with a book donation; Knowledge-based assets are powerfully regenerative!


“There is no delight in owning anything unshared.”

- Seneca the Younger -


Regenerative Business.How does your enterprise:

1.....Invest in Regenerative Assets? 2.....Contribute to your communities? 3.....Collaborate before competing? 4.....Compete constructively? 5.....Craft lasting products & deliver remarkable services? 6.....Focus on nurturing People, Planet, Profit - in that order?


Principles of


About the author.Matthew Lynch is a reformed capitalist exploring [Re]Design Sciences at the forefront of human innovation.

By age 29, he made a small fortune in real estate. By age 31, he managed to lose it all.

Matt spent the next two years wandering the planet, in search of people, places, and projects working to make our world a better place.

His work in [Re]Agriculture, [Re]Business, and [Re]Economic Development has taken him (so far) to Australia, New Zealand, Mongolia, Germany, and now Hawaii. These journeys inspired him to redesign his life around the principles of Creation, Collaboration, and Contribution (with a healthy dose of Celebration sprinkled in!).

In January 2011, Matt founded The Asia-Pacific Center for Regenerative Design.

He blogs at BeyondSustainabilitymag.net.


Insert sexy (but not too sexy) photo here.

Secret Beach, somewhere on Kauai -April 2009.

@daGreenBackpack BeyondSustainabilitymag.net

Acknowledgments.The launch of this eBook would not have been possible without the collective genius, inspiration, and collaboration of the following mavens:

1. Lucie Voelcker, Shining Light at LuciesLighthouse. 2. Gary Hironaka, Fearless Innovator at Legacy Villa and Nikkei Koi. 3. Laurens Laudowicz, Chief Greendrinker at Juicies. 4. Kevin Vaccarello, Systems Thinker at SustainHawaii. 5. Dean Steele-Bennet, Chief Connector at re-generate.com.au. 6. Rick and Naomi Coleman, Stalwart Instructors at Southern Cross Permaculture Institute. 7. Tilyeubyek Ye, Director of Food Security at ADRA Mongolia. 8. Alyce Santoro, Artistic Explorer at The Center for Improbable and [Im]permacultural Research. 9. Erik van Lennep, Shameless Agitator at TEPUI Ecological Design 10. Seth Godin, Chief Disruptor at The Domino Project. 11. Ev Bogue, Pioneer at the Intersection of Humanity and Technology.


“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too), those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

- Charles Darwin -


Resources.Here’s a list of online resources for further exploration of [Re]Design:

1. ‘Permaculture for Millionaires’, Bill Mollison 2. ‘The Global Gardener’, Bill Mollison 3. ‘Social Business’, Muhammad Yunus 4. ‘The (un)Happy Planet Index 2.0 TEDtalk’, Nic Marks 5. ‘Poke the Box workbook’, Seth Godin 6. ‘Prosperity Without Growth TEDtalk’, Tim Jackson 7. ‘Cradle-to-Cradle TEDtalk’, William McDonough


“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

- Sir Isaac Newton -

And here’s a list of books for further reading:

1. ‘Introduction to Permaculture’, by Bill Mollison2. ‘Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture’, by R. Morrow 3. ‘Social Business’, by Muhumed Yunus 4. ‘Prosperity Without Growth’, by Tim Jackson 5. ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’, by Robert Kiyosaki6. ‘Your Money or Your Life’, by Vicky Robin7. ‘Worldchanging’, by Alex Steffen

8. ‘Poke the Box’, by Seth Godin 9. ‘Cradle-to-Cradle’, by William McDonough


Legal stuff.This eBook is for sharing; we want you to make lots of money with your ideas about how to create Regenerative Businesses.

Do whatever good you want to do with the content.

Don’t do dodgy things. Do create better businesses.

Do contribute to creating a better world.

And, tell us about it.

Thank you.




“An animal is equipped for sustaining its life; its senses provide it with an automatic code of action, an automatic knowledge of what is good for it or evil... Man has no automatic code of survival. His particular distinction from all other living species is the necessity to act in the

face of alternatives by means of volitional choice.”

- John Galt -


regenerative business 1.0: beyond sustainability

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