As new ways of thinking and acting grow, a new language always grows with them. Here are many of the words, phrases, and terms you are likely to encounter in discussions of a regenerative future.

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Active Hope : Fantastic deep ecologist Joanna Macy addresses the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous future we face. Not just being blissfully hopeful, but seeking a deep commitment to promoting action for the future. Joanna's work “Work that Reconnects” is a perfect example of finding active hope; acknowledge your pain for what we're missing, find your focus—what you can do to move the community forward to take action.

Agroecology : is the science of sustainable agriculture as well as a political movement that aims to improve the way food is grown and processed​​ globally. Basically, agroecology is about transferring control of land, seeds, markets and labor from big companies back to small farmers.

Agroforestry Management : The Soil Association describes how the combination of forest management and agriculture. There are two main types of agroforestry systems, the silvopastoral system: animal grazing under trees, where animals enrich the soil while trees provide shelter and forage; and the agroforestry system: where the crop is grown under the trees, usually in rows large enough for a tractor to tend the crops without damaging them. This is 3D farming: trees and agricultural crops occupy different levels above ground, and also below ground where tree roots reach deeper levels than crops.

Agroforestry is helping to revitalize degraded cocoa plantations in West Africa, for example.

Anthropocene : name given by scientists to the time that begins in the late 1950s, when the impact of a single species — humans — determined the fate of all other forms of life on Earth.

Biomes are global-scale zones, generally defined by the type of plant life they support in response to average rainfall and temperature patterns. For example: tundra, coral reefs or savannas.

Biomimicry : is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions​​ to human challenges through imitation of nature's time-tested patterns and strategies. Founded by the incredible Janine Benyus, the Biomimicry Institute seeks to promote and develop design and social innovation according to the principles of nature. A famous piece of biomimicry design was the finally banned Speedo swimsuits made from shark skin.

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Bio-region : a term in debate. Here we go to the definition of the World Resources Institute:

“A bioregion is a terrestrial and aquatic territory whose boundaries are defined not by political boundaries, but by the geographic limits of human communities and ecological systems. This area must be large enough to: maintain the integrity of the region's biological communities, habitats and ecosystems; support important ecological processes such as the nutrient and waste transformation cycle, migration and current flow; meet the habitat requirements of key species and indicators; and include the human communities involved in the management, use and understanding of biological resources. It must be small enough for the locals to consider it home.

A bioregion typically encompasses thousands to hundreds of thousands of hectares. It may not be larger than a small watershed or as large as a small state or province. In special cases, a bioregion may cross the borders of two or more countries.

A bioregion is also defined by its people. It must have a unique cultural identity and be a place where local residents have a primary right to determine their own development. This primary right, however, does not imply an absolute right. On the contrary, it means that the livelihoods, claims and interests of local communities must be the starting point and criteria for regional development and conservation. Within this framework, private and public interests must be accommodated.

Bioregionalism is the act of figuring out how to create a regenerative future in any specific and defined bioregion. Cascadia in West America is a great example of a bioregional approach to the future (see map above)

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In the UK, “Bioregional” (Bioregional) is a non-profit consultancy, led by Sue Riddlestone, that supports cities to develop their own “One Planet Living” approach to achieving bioregional stability. We also have the “Bioregional Learning Center” in Devon, which looks at a bioregional strategy for the South Hams.

In the US, the Capital Institute is bringing together several bioregional initiatives and projects under the Regenerative Communities Network and Hubs.

Blending finance: According to the OECD, blending finance is the strategic use of development finance to mobilize additional finance for sustainable development in developing countries. It is a mechanism designed to help meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Blind Spots : Nora Bateson has something beautiful to say about blind spots. Blind spots always appear as the reflex that gives blind faith to authorities and established rules; the other, the quick rejection of apparently irreverent claims. It's a comfort in times of uncertainty and volatility that we all need to be aware of as we work towards a regenerative future.

Buckminster Fuller Institute: Again it's not terminology, it's more of a legend. The institute covers almost everything under the Design Science Revolution umbrella.

Circular Economy: is synonymous with Ellen Macarthur for me. No one has done more to promote the concept and value of shifting from sustainability to a circular approach to tackling our economy of extraction and waste. Your Ted Talk still gives me the creeps

Climate emergency: Thanks to Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg, it seems there is finally a grassroots moment for the government to recognize that we need radical action yesterday. The resurgence of nonviolent activism in the 1960s and 1970s, which inspired Martin Luther King, marks a renaissance in the process of resisting the traditional business model (business-as-usual).

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Complexity : I like author Michelle Holliday's story in The Age of Thrivability and hope she doesn't mind paraphrasing here. Wiring an aircraft is complicated; it would take a long time to figure out where each piece had to go if you didn't know, but you can study and learn. Put a crew and passengers on a flight, match it to the prevailing weather, and you can't predict or find out what might happen on that flight. Even if you studied all people for years. The behavior of the system is unknowable because it is complex.

Co-creative collaboration: it's what nature does and it's how we should approach the future. Contrary to the most popular interpretation of Darwinism, while competition exists in nature, it is not quite the world of law-of-the-law finance that we might have been led to think. A great example is the collaboration between anemones and clownfish, which is also a symbiotic relationship.

Avoiding the Tragedy of the Commons : Elinor Ostrom's book Governing the Commons deals with the management of common pool resources (CPR), for which she won a Nobel Prize in economics in 2009. Ostrom outlines some theories which we normally use to explain why the allocation of common resources will fail without intervention:

Prisoner's Dilemma: A game in which two individuals do not cooperate, even though they rationally should.

Tragedy of the commons: individuals act in their self-interest, depleting resources

Free Passenger Problem: Individuals enjoy a benefit without contributing back because there is no cost associated with doing so.

The underlying assumption is that, without outside intervention, individuals will act selfishly, without regard for collective interests.

Convergence: when the divergent parts of an ecosystem, entity or biological system come together in relationship to form a convergent whole with new characteristics and capabilities

Daniel Christian Wahl : author of Designing Regenerative Cultures, although it's a name and not a narrative word, he is the author of one of the most seminal books on regenerative culture and can't be left out! He has written several articles on this platform, worth exploring.

Divergence : In every living system, there are individual parts — for example, the cells, organs and systems in our bodies or the different departments and people in an organization. The more diverse the parts can be, the more likely the whole is to be adaptable, agile, and resilient.

Donut Economy : Economist Kate Raworth's model for a fair space for humanity, combining the planetary boundaries of the Stockholm Resilience Center and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. A brilliant framework for creative conversations around innovation for a regenerative future. We need bridges like this to help us have the difficult discussions we need to have to move us forward.

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Duality : It can be described in many ways. Here I will use binary thinking, black/white, right/wrong discussion presentation.

Ecological Literacy: v Daniel Christian Wahl says: “Ecological literacy is the ability to understand the organization of natural systems and the processes that maintain the healthy functioning of living systems and sustain life on Earth. An ecologically literate person is able to apply this understanding to the design and organization of our human communities and the creation of a regenerative culture. ” Read more here.

Ecosystem: a biological community of organisms that interact with each other and with the physical environment that surrounds them — for example, a marine ecosystem; a complex network or interconnected system — an enterprise ecosystem like Silicon Valley

Ecosystem services : A disputed term, but a definition is the benefits provided by an ecosystem that make human life possible and enjoyable. Clearly, this is an anthropocentric definition that doesn't work for a regenerative mindset. So I think of it as what ecosystems do for people (which is often not recognized, protected or rewarded in any way), including providing food and water, controlling climate and disease, supporting nutrient cycles, and producing oxygen. and offering cultural benefits to human beings, such as leisure activities.

EcoRestoration Camps — is a non-profit organization founded by a movement of people who wanted an action-based solution to address climate change. Less terminology, more movement in the mission to restore degraded landscapes on a global scale. Made for those who want to get their hands dirty.

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Emergence: in systems theory it refers to how collective properties arise from the properties of parts that come together. I see emergencies happening when I run creative strategy workshops, where the collective intelligence in the room can create a solution to a problem that no single individual could have created alone.

Gaia Theory: was written by scientist and environmentalist James Lovelock alongside microbiologist Lynn Margulis. The tenet of gaia theory is that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic, self-regulating and complex system that helps maintain and perpetuate the conditions of life on the planet. Life creates favorable conditions​​ life.

Green New Deal : Brought back to life by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Green New Deal is a proposed US stimulus package that aims to address climate change and economic inequalities. The deal is against current President Trump. It is growing globally as a movement for people who want to take control of their environmental and economic future, as well as change the rules for providing the investment and shifts in economic power to make the Green New Deal a reality.

Holistic Agriculture — home to the Savory Institute, which has done much to pioneer regenerative land management through holistic approaches. Reinvigorating the grasslands by shifting from industrial farming to rotational and mixed farming—primarily livestock—on his family's farm was the work of Will Harris of White Oak Pastures. You can hear Will and Danielle

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Indigenous Wisdom: Regenerative culture recognizes the wisdom and knowledge that exists about life, creating conditions conducive to the lives of the world's indigenous peoples — and speaks respectfully about their culture and contribution to the future. Equally ancient wisdom also has a place in regenerative conversations.

Interbeing: the quality of not being separate, means to coexist interdependently. To be able to recognize and live with another life in partnership. The suggested replacement word for the verb “to be”, coined by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and scholar Thich Nhat Hanh. The meaning of being human recognizes the dependence of any person or thing on all other people and objects.

Liminality: period of time or state of mind characterized by ambiguity and disorientation. We've all been there as teenagers. Standing with one leg in a world and the other in an unknown future.

Maker Movement : The Maker Movement is a cultural phenomenon and is highly inclusive as everyone is welcome, regardless of race, financial status or origin. It is also changing the way we learn, discover and innovate and is seen as a valuable contributor to our local economy.

A makerspace is a workshop where professionals, newbies, entrepreneurs or students can come together under one roof to collaborate and share ideas or work on individual projects with a firm focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects. There are almost 100+ manufacturer spaces across the UK. Now this movement has also been firmly embedded in well-known universities and colleges and is seen as a key selling point when talking to prospective students and makes a compelling case for learning through hands-on exploration.

Creator spaces are also called hacker spaces and Fab Labs and in certain cases provide common facilities in an open and accessible space giving access to resources including digital and electronic fabrication.

Midwife : Has become a popular term for bringing out the new regenerative future we desire — just as a medical midwife helps create new life.

Natural capital : Another hotly debated term and idea that may not have a real place in regenerative language, but is included because it has growing support in the business world, so we need to examine its place. According to the World Forum on Natural Capital  World Forum on Natural Capital), natural capital can be defined as the world's stocks of natural assets, which include geology, soil, air, water and all living things. It is from this natural capital that humans derive a wide range of services, often called ecosystem services (see above), that make human life possible. Should we use the language of capitalism to put a price on what is priceless? Although nature is priceless, it has no value. By placing a monetary value on nature's services to us, it allows the world to allocate the cost of 'externalities', i.e. damage caused​​ by primary production and processing companies, to the environment. This could, in the future, lead to better legislation and financial measures to hold organizations to account and prevent further degradation.

New Deal for Nature: is closely related to natural capital. Alongside WWF and Prince William, Sir David Attenboroug called for a new deal for nature at WEF 2019. The World Economic Forum (WEF) aims to produce a report to be released before the 15th CBD COP meeting in Beijing in 2020 , which establishes a framework for mobilizing governments and which would essentially redefine the biodiversity agenda so that the very technical framework of protecting biological diversity expands into a movement to establish a “New Deal for Nature” — something that captures publics broader, business and political imaginations.

Organic: When we think of organic, we mostly think of food. Food grown without pesticides and fertilizers. Organic farming is part of the regenerative agriculture movement as it does not deplete the soil. It doesn't have to be fully regenerative in terms of providing high levels of animal welfare or caring for biodiversity, but in general, an organic farm will be much more likely to provide both of these things.

Permaculture — the practice of producing food, energy, etc., using ways that do not deplete the Earth's natural resources. Permaculture design principles are a great way to protect biodiversity in your own built environment. The Permaculture movement has spread across the world. You can learn the basics in the UK in many places; start your journey of discovery at The Permaculture Association.

Regenerative : Regeneration is an interconnected process of becoming something in which all living systems participate, where the healthy development of all life forms is intrinsically connected to the healthy development of everything else. This interconnected process includes the development of everything from small bacterial cells to insects, trees, animals and humans, to schools, organizations, societies and the Earth as a whole. The regenerative movement encompasses all major systems such as agriculture, energy, business, oceans, land management, but also regenerative culture. Check out my Regenerative Visualization Series — Regenerative Series — from the Connectle platform.

Ash Buchanan summarized the different regenerative fields in his article on regenerative wellness:

Regenerative design and development ; “A process by which cities, towns and other human communities return to the alignment that gives life to the ecological systems that sustain them. As a practice, it seeks to create a built environment and human systems capable of co-evolving with nature. ” (Bill Reed, Pamela Mang, Ben Haggard and Regenesis)

Regenerative economy based on observation; "We can — and must — align our economic theory and practice with our latest understanding of how the universe and our humanity really work." (John Fullerton). EU RESTORE cost action, concerned with rethinking sustainability, provides a regenerative economy defined as a product of human and social vitality, rooted in ecological health and the inclusive development of human capabilities and potential.

Regenerative businesses that explore how the concept of regeneration applies “to business strategy, with an emphasis on: human potential, work systems, resilience and growth”. (Carol Sandford)

Regenerative cultures that ask; “How can we collaborate in creating diverse regenerative cultures adapted to the unique biocultural conditions of the site?” (Daniel Christian Wahl)

Regenerative agriculture that seeks to “provide food, water, clean air, a stable climate, biodiversity, good health, security and happiness”. (Commonland)

Resilience: In 1973, CS Hollins published research on the complexity of ecosystem change. He observed that while complex systems exist within a variety of different equilibrium states, after receiving a shock they can either revert to their original state or degenerate into a smaller state. In ecosystem services, resilience refers to the ability of a system to withstand shocks and have the innate elasticity to return to its previous state. You can read more about this specific resilience app at Designing Cultures Regenerative of Daniel Christian Wahl or here on their profile page.

Sacred Reciprocity : Regenerative entrepreneur Maya Zuckerman describes this as a concept that most traditional societies have used. It is a practice of being reciprocal with nature and all relationships and relationships.

Salutogenesis : regenerative health — a project for the built environment that focuses on improving health, not just the absence of health problems or just reducing health impacts

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Stewardship : Brings the idea of care, responsibility, duty, and reverence for the impressive yet simple fact that, as far as we know, we are still the only planet in the vast ocean of the universe that contains life. Stewardship offers a sense of a spiritual calling not only to future generations of humanity, but also to future generations of life. To protect the idea of life on earth. As Kenneth Mikkelsen said in his talk at the House of Beautiful Business — To be a good descendant and a good ancestor.

The symbiocene : a name proposed by Glenn Albrecht for the post-anthropocene era. The main organizing principles of a symbiote society include:

complete and benign recycling and biodegradability of all inputs and products;

safe and socially just forms of clean and renewable energy;

full and harmonious integration of human systems with biogeochemical systems at all scales;

using renewable resources​​ the location and bioregion;

the elimination of toxic waste in all aspects of production, consumption and business;

all species, large and small, having their interests and sharing of life understood and respected;

evidence of a harmony or balance of interests where the conflict is recognized as a subset of large-scale cooperation;

protection of symbiotic bonds between and within species at all scales;

re-establishing symbiotic bonds where they were severed in the Anthropocene.

Symmathesy:​​ new word for “System”, proposed by Nora Bateson. Symmathesy specifically refers to living systems and their ability to interact and learn from each other.

Symbiosis : is a relationship between two different biological entities and can be mutual commensalism (anemone and clownfish/bees as pollinators), parasitic (mistletoe and host tree), or amensalism. There are many excellent case studies on symbiotic relationships on Ask Nature.

Synthesize : I am a human synthesizer. I see life in patterns of interconnected ideas. I can easily connect the dots and make a simple idea bigger and bolder, immediately connecting it to other parts of a system where it can have an impact. Synthesizers like humans are polymaths, neo-generalists — people who have many layers of experience held together by a thin red thread. These are people whose skills are much more in demand than for this age of complexity, but we are still addicted to our notion of experts.

Systems thinking: a simple but profound idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Systems thinking is interested in the interrelation of parts and in synthesizing what happens or what impact occurs through the pattern of interaction between an organism and the environment in which it lives. Systems thinkers who have influenced me the most include Fritjof Capra, Donella Meadows, Nora Bateson, biologist Humberto Maturana, Peter Senge. But there are many more.

Tensegrity: Buckminster Fuller couldn't be left off this list! Tensegrity is an elision of 'tension + integrity'. Buckminster Fuller, building on Kenneth Snelson's highly original sculptures, coined the term, to indicate that the integrity of the structure derives from the balance of the tension members, not the compression arms. Tensegrities can be built into hierarchies — each element of a tensegrity can be built up from smaller tensegrities — making more efficient use of materials an evolutionary imperative. This efficiency is also a very important property, because the rule of biological evolution is efficiency—getting maximum performance with minimum material.

Theory U — another model, but one that allows us to think and feel about the emerging future as we use it to develop transformational change. As it's based on the creative process, I find this easy to use in almost all circumstances as it's highly adjustable in terms of the audience's level of awareness. You can go as “deep” or light as you like. You can learn more through The Presencing Institute or ULab. Thank you Otto Scharmer et al!

Thrivability: Seb Paquet, co-founder of the innovative Enspiral network of initiatives, describes thrivability like this:

Thrivability is a work philosophy centered on taking actions that are generative. This contrasts with sustainability. I associate thrivability with spirals. Something that is capable of spiraling will spiral, constantly improving, becoming prettier, cleaner, or more pleasant. It is a continuous unfolding.

Author Michelle Holliday describes this as “an ongoing, intentional effort to create fertile conditions for life to thrive at the individual, organizational, community, and biosphere levels.”

Transition Network: again a movement that is not a noun, but should have been there from the beginning. One of the most successful experiments in community activation and imagination for a fossil-free future, Transition has many active communities around the world, achieving genuine grassroots and regional impact in city and town communities. In Europe, Belgium and France have been particularly successful and, of course, Totnes in Devon is the main city of the movement.

Unintended consequences: Some governments are freezing (IMHO) from taking the measures they need to take. In a complex world, it is almost impossible to predict the results of an action within a system. Of course, the precautionary principle applies, but even so, unintended consequences are everyone's worst nightmare. This video is probably the best I've ever seen to describe UC.

The weaving of connections and collaborations replicates the way nature brings different communities together for mutual benefit. You will often hear people in the regenerative community refer to themselves as weavers—a recognition of the complexity in which we live and work, but also the value of people who bring polymatic approaches to regeneration.

Hot Data: Recognizing that complex problems are not susceptible to predetermined solutions, the International Bateson Institute took on the task of generating a category of information specifically dedicated to the description of contextual relational interaction, called “Hot Data”. The units of knowledge by which reasoning and calculations are made, data, information and facts, suggest research processes in which we place our hopes for a better understanding of the world we inhabit.

Xenophilia — Consciousness and understanding that enable inclusive design for the 'other' i.e. not just human centered design but design as part of nature, not apart from nature, also an important holistic design for everything that is socially just, not just for the wealthy, influential in our culture.

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Author:  Jenny Anderson

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