From the Club of Rome to 2013 (and beyond) – regenerative thinking and some developing practices

(Originally posted June 2013. Most recently updated September 2014)

I read a recent blog post which made the claim that “In the past 25 years, only lip-service has been paid to SD, particularly around the use of fossil fuels.”   I don’t agree – I believe that we’re much further down the track than most people know. 

To me, the past 25 years have been the design phase of developing a regenerative economy.    Increasingly, those designs are being translated into innovation in the built and made environments. So I’ve started putting together a list of the developing principles and practices of Regenerative Thinking as I understand them.

Inspirations from Cradle to Cradle…

One of the early books that hooked me into Regenerative Business was “Cradle to Cradle” by Michael Braungart and Bill McDonough.  I loved it – not just for the cool plastic “paper” it was printed on, but for the exciting ideas inside it.

I tried to share it with some of my executive coaching clients, but they handed it back completely uninspired – it was “too detailed” or “too depressing”.  Re-reading it, I had to agree.  The edition in question seemed to start from “your chair is poisonous, your carpet is poisonous and so are your kids’ toys”.

So a little while ago, I went back through it, drawing out the bits that I have found most inspiring.  Here’s a cross-reference to what I have found and loved in it.  It’s a personal perspective, but if you’ve got it on your bookshelf and not got around to it (yet), maybe this will help:

“Inspirations from Cradle to Cradle”