Inquire Within: Realizing Regenerative Design

Sustainable development involves minimal disruption of living things and natural systems, but regenerative development is different: it aims to enhance the ability of life to thrive. If this seems difficult, don’t despair: a new guide offers advice on how to become a “regenerative practitioner.” And it all starts with your inner life.

“In order to draw out the collective potential in others, it is vital to begin awakening the inherent potential of oneself,” notes Becoming a Regenerative Practitioner: A Field Guide, written by Josette Plaut and Emily Amedée. “Self-Actualizing is about realizing the potential of one’s true self to create and manifest benefit through one’s work in the world.” In addition to self-actualizing, the guide identifies four other “practice areas” that a regenerative practitioner needs to pay attention to:

• Systems actualizing—“the process of awakening the regenerative capability embodied in all living systems”
• Framework thinking—because “the mind needs to associate things with frameworks in order to understand the world”
• Developmental facilitating—“a dynamic and adaptive process for helping groups evolve their sense of purpose and their ability to realize potential together”
• Living systems understanding—which “aligns our efforts with the principles and reality of how life actually works”

The guide also offers profiles of five respected regenerative practitioners, who offer insights throughout the piece. “It is an awe-inspiring gift to participate in and learn from the energies that are borne within the reciprocal relationships of all life,” says practitioner Bill Reed, principal of Regenesis.

More on regenerative design

Net-Positive, Regenerative Design, and Other Ways Buildings Can Do Good

Sustainable Design Literacy: A Foundation for Transformed Practice

Three Imperatives to Create the Future of Green Building

For more information:

Colorado State University
colostate.edu