Think Act Regenerate

In recent episodes we’ve talked about key approaches to regenerative business strategy and design -  what’s happening.  The growing opportunities, the goal of regeneration, circular design, product as a service, nature-based biomimicry innovation and 3D safety.

Now we’re diving deeper into the how of regenerative business execution – the smarter skills and strategies that enable better results, faster. ‘

In this episode, we’re exploring the power of systems awareness and systems capabilities, including its value in business innovation.  We’ll also dip into a few of the tools available today that you can use to develop and strengthen your systems effectiveness - in ALL areas (not just sustainability).

CREDITS

When the industrial revolution began, humans still thought of nature as "boundless" AND with infinite capacity to absorb and neutralise toxins and waste. Today we're increasingly aware that "there is no away" - for wastes ranging from microplastics to PFAS to hormones.

Since the 1990s, innovators and entrepreneurs have been developing materials and products and processes and design principles that are regenerative and beneficial (not just less bad).

Today, there are growing opportunities to apply 21st century 3D safety developments to innovate and grow businesses - once you learn to see beyond compliance and "less harm".

In this episode, host Leigh Baker of Think Act Regenerate discusses how 3D safety principles and commercial resources can be combined to uncover smart regenerative business opportunities.

CREDITS

Humans have been copying nature for millenia - but we gave it a back seat at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Now it's back - and offering a wealth of regenerative innovation opportunities for products, processes and systems design.

Nature's "superpower" is to create solutions at room temperature, using renewable resources and renewable energy.

In this episode, host Leigh Baker of Think Act Regenerate discusses how Biomimicry-based design can be used to uncover smart regenerative business opportunities.

FULL TEXT: https://thinkactregenerate.com/insight-using-biomimicry-to-find-regenerative-business-opportunities/#text

CREDITS

Andy McCarthy - founder of Gippsland Solar in 2010 - has told his renewable energy business story (so far) in his recent autobiography HERE COMES THE SUN.

I caught up with Andy at the start of October to discuss what he’s learned and where he sees the next big openings in renewable energy opportunity.

Service and value tools for finding business opportunity have been developing for decades - both in mainstream business and sustainability circles.

In Circular Economy circles, they talk about The Service Flip - but there's a much wider toolkit on offer.

"Regenerative business service and value design is not about finding a better or lower cost solution to the existing problem of an industry. It's about redefining the problem itself." Adapted from Blue Ocean Strategy

This podcast episode summarises the third of the Think Act Regenerate INSIGHTS email series on regenerative innovation -and the rich smorgasbord of business and career opportunities it offers.

Circular Economy principles have been a driver of regenerative business growth over the last 1-2 decades - and proving increasingly profitable. A lot of people have heard the term - but think of it as "something about better recycling".

However, assuming that the circular economy is just about better recycling is like assuming that all you can do with a smartphone is make voice calls - because it's called a phone.

This podcast episode explores the full scope of Circular Economy design, with examples from over two decades of real world business innovation.

One of the core propositions of Think Act Regenerate is that today’s regenerative design thinking enables a rich smorgasbord of smarter, faster, funner win/win/win solutions that go WAY beyond 20th century “sustainability” and “efficiency”.

What IS regenerative thinking?

To me, it’s a new place to stand – because we can’t solve 20th century problems with 20th century thinking.

Here’s my take on what regeneration is about and why it has a strong business focus, illustrated with a heap of examples.

A surprising number of people look at “sustainability” and “the environment” as onerous obligations instead of seeing it as a rich smorgasbord of business and career opportunity.

So they miss out on the wealth of commercial solutions coming to market – many of which are already scaling globally.

In the first of 10 Think Act Regenerate INSIGHTS, we explore the scope and scale of today’s opportunities and identify some starting resources.

I began this podcast as an exploration of the wealth of regenerative solutions scaling globally today that just about anyone can be part of. It was initially part of the Climactic podcast family, so it had a focus on climate issues.

However, my passion has always been design for regeneration and accelerating the spread of today's rich smorgasbord of commercial, actionable solutions.

Going forward, Think Act Regenerate will explore the design principles as well as the individual solutions being actioned by entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs and innovators around the world.

The impact of industry-supported climate solutions is not well recognised. The US ratification of the Kigali Accord is one such example - which passed the US Senate with bipartisan support in late 2022. It was a solution supported by the HVAC-R industry and lobbied for by the industry - and is expected to reduce warming in 2100 by 0.35 to 0.5 degrees Centigrade.

The most powerful place you can take climate action may well be in your own industry. For example, the computer games industry has a powerful role to play - one outlined by Project Drawdown's A DRAWDOWN-ALIGNED FRAMEWORK FOR THE GAMING INDUSTRY.

The more you know about today's wealth of regenerative business solutions, the better your chances of being a powerful change agent.

LINKS

ReGenOmics Down Under is a podcast by Leigh Baker of Balance3 exploring the wealth of climate solutions happening on the ground in Australia and New Zealand, as well as around the world. This episode explores what the human race already knows about how to reverse global warming – starting with the commercial, scaling solutions modelled and ranked by the independent not-for-profit Project Drawdown in 2017 (and updated in 2020) Project Drawdown’s findings include: We CAN reverse global warming – even if we just use the quantifiable, multi-benefit commercial solutions that WE ALREADY HAVE and are already scaling. NONE of the 80 solutions require further policy change from national governments (while it would help, all the solutions ARE  commercial and  ARE scaling) 79 of the solutions are multi-benefit solutions that make the world BETTER (the only harmful solution of significance was nuclear). The 80 solutions are WHOLE-OF-ECONOMY solutions that go way beyond electriciy generation and transport to include food, agriculture, construction, education, health and materials. The high-potential new solutions that they didn’t have numbers for are likely to be every bit as powerful and even more regenerative than what we have now. The list of 80 commercial, quantified Drawdown solutions can a bit overwhelming, and each one only gets 2 pages of explanation.  So in this episode we dive in to a couple and see how they’re happening in Australia, with examples from two past Climactic episodes. Tropical forest regeneration Insulation Forest regeneration ranked #5 and #12 on the original Drawdown top 80.   And here’s an example of what a small group of concerned Australian researchers created, told by Jess Panegyres from The Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network Insulation ranked #21 on the original Drawdown list. We explore the action that one Perth insulation installer began back while Drawdown was still doing their modelling. Drawdown only modelled solutions where they could find a robust, peer-reviewed data sets – so there are many, many more powerful, existing solutions that aren’t  that well-measured yet – from vortex water processing to cellulose-based building materials.   So it’s more useful to think of Drawdown as a guide book of highlights rather than a definitive encyclopedia. We live in a world where most of the mainstream media coverage on climate action is focused on either: high-level action where big government and big business do big things; OR low-level actions about consumers using less or spending more on expensive alternatives. That’s barely beginning of the story.  Those two themes like the pastry layers on a vanilla slice – necessary, but not the main event.  There’s actually a wealth of accessible action when you get out and start looking for problems that need solving and the opportunities they create. Solving the challenges we face has created a quiet design revolution –  the development of systems and processes that regenerate communities and ecosystems.   It’s a whole lot easier to see the best, multi-benefit solutions when you understand the straightforward principles regenerative design.   Re-gen-omics Down Under explores the solutions happening and the thinking behind them – so if you’re interested in solutions, learn to find your action opportunities and listen to your gut.  LINKS Paul Hawken, founder of Project Drawdown, speaking on Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOTLtrt6OIE Key pages from Project Drawdown's website (where their open-source finding are published): Their current list of evidence-based solutions https://drawdown.org/solutions Their downloadable updates https://drawdown.org/drawdown-review The Climactic Live episode BZE - Fight for Planet A Panel for the forest regeneration story  https://www.climactic.fm/show/climactic/climactic-live-bze-fight-for-planet-

INTRO

This podcast is called Regenomics Down Under - "Regenomics" is short for Regional Regenerative Economies – and in previous episodes we’ve looked at what’s happening – mostly locally in Australia.

Today’s a bit different – we’re looking at “What IS regeneration anyway?”  and “How can you learn to enable regeneration?”

I interview Kathleen Davies of Ekkremon – a freelance engineering HAZOPS facilitator – who recently finished a course called The Regenerative Practitioner with the Regenesis Group.

We took a deep dive into the practice of regeneration – from regeneration of self to global regeneration.

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LINKS

Want a materials solution that replaces fossil-based styrofoam with a compostable alternative AND reduces greenhouse gases by turning agricultural “waste” into valuable packaging?

It’s being delivered in Melbourne – by mushrooms. Not the “fruit” that we eat as mushrooms – but the mycellium root system that they grow on.

Today we talk with Amanda Morgan of Fungi Solutions about how they’re turning wastes into beautiful, elegant packaging solutions.

Join us to hear more about the future of myco-materials ...

LINKS