Regenerative design

Regenerative design is a process-oriented systems theory based approach to design. The term "regenerative" describes processes that restore, renew or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials, creating sustainable systems that integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature. The basis is derived from systems ecology with a closed loop input–output model or a model in which the output is greater than or equal to the input with all outputs viable and all inputs accounted for. Regenerative design is the biomimicry of ecosystems that provide for all human systems to function as a closed viable ecological economics system for all industry. It parallels ecosystems in that organic (biotic) and synthetic (abiotic) material is not just metabolized but metamorphosed into new viable materials. Ecosystems and regeneratively designed systems are holistic frameworks that seek to create systems that are absolutely waste free. The model is meant to be applied to many different aspects of human habitation such as urban environments, buildings, economics, industry and social systems. Simply put, it is the design of ecosystems and human behavior, or culture that function as human habitats.

Whereas the highest aim of sustainable development is to satisfy fundamental human needs today without compromising the possibility of future generations to satisfy theirs, the end-goal of regenerative design is to redevelop systems with absolute effectiveness, that allows for the co-evolution of the human species along with other thriving species.

History

During the late 1970s, John T. Lyle (1934–1998), a landscape architecture professor, challenged graduate students to envision a community in which daily activities were based on the value of living within the limits of available renewable resources without environmental degradation. Over the next few decades an eclectic group of students, professors and experts from around the world and crossing many disciplines developed designs for an institute to be built at Cal Poly Pomona. In 1992 the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies was built over two years and opened in 1994. In that same year Lyle's book Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development was published by Wiley. In 1995 Lyle worked with William McDonough at Oberlin College for the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies completed in 2000. In 2002 McDonough's book, the more popular and successful, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things was published reiterating the concepts developed by Lyle.

Lyle saw the connection between concepts developed by Bob Rodale of the Rodale Institute for regenerative agriculture and the opportunity to develop regenerative systems for all other aspects of the world. While regenerative agriculture focused solely on agriculture, Lyle expanded its concepts and use to all systems. With regenerative agriculture, the concepts are very straight forward and simple but Lyle understood that when developing for other types of systems, more complicated ideas such as entropy and emergy must be taken into consideration.

Swiss architect Walter R. Stahel developed approaches entirely similar to Lyle's also in the late 1970s but instead coined the term cradle-to-cradle design made popular by McDonough and Michael Braungart

Regenerative versus sustainable

Regenerative and sustainable are essentially the same thing except for one key point: in a sustainable system, lost ecological systems are not returned to existence. In a regenerative system, those lost systems can ultimately begin "regenerating" back into existence. Put more simply, regenerative systems create a "better" world than we (humans) found it, now and into the future.

There is also a linguistic problem with the word "sustainable", which in the strict sense is meant to mean "self-sustaining". Because the word root "sustain" means "last" or "endure," the general public and even many non-experts in the industry define the word only as "able to last" or "the capacity to endure." In popular usage by designers and product manufacturers, "sustainable" has become a relative term referring to any material, process or product (including a building) which is less toxic or environmental harmful than those conventionally used. A product that contains 75% recycled material is often considered "sustainable", but is in fact merely MORE sustainable than a comparable product that contains no recycled material. A truly sustainable material would be one made of 100% recycled material that can, in turn, be completely recycled into a comparable new material or product. This is rarely the case.

"Regenerative" also suffers from a slightly different linguistic problem, the term is still competing with the biological community in terms of its use for the re-growth of limbs etc.. However once the word itself gains wide usage, its meaning becomes more general, much like in the case of the term "sustainable". The base meaning of "re-generative" means the "capacity to bring into existence again." So if an item or system is regenerative the item or system has the capacity to bring itself into existence again. Using the example above, a truly regenerative product would not only be 100% recycled and recyclable, but it would also improve the environmental conditions at the factory where it was made, the business where it was used and so on throughout its life-cycle (creating habitat, filtering water, catalyzing nitrogen-fixation processes in the soil, etc.).

Preservation versus conservation

Regenerists place more importance on conservation than on preservation. It is recognized in regenerative design that humans are a part of natural ecosystems. To exclude people is to create dense areas that destroy pockets of existing ecosystems while preserving pockets of ecosystems without allowing them to change naturally over time. By incorporating people into ecosystems all inputs are pulled from local areas and all outputs are accounted for creating a waste-less system. When human systems cease to create waste, what would once have been considered waste becomes a resource for the input in which the output comes from.

Food systems

Regenerists call for the creation of demand on agricultural systems to produce regenerative foods. This is often compared to the creation of the demand for organic food. Organic foods have a relation to regenerative foods in that regenerative food is all organic, but not all organic food is regenerative. Organic food is not regenerative if the byproduct of the food crop is not a resource for the next seasons crops and if other inputs for the crop did not come from other resources within the farm which it is grown in.

Size of regenerative systems

The size of the regenerative system effects its regenerativity. The smaller a system is designed the more likely it is to be stable and regenerative. Multiple small regenerative systems that are put together to create larger regenerative systems help to create supplies for multiple human-inclusive-ecological systems.

Quantifying regenerativity

Due to evolution and the continuing and largely unpredictable changes that occur over the lifetime of Earth, it is impossible to create a 100% regenerative system. One can only reach 99.999% efficiency^{[citation needed]}, the ultimate goal. However, with the energy material interchange, it is possible to create enough energy to potentially create the equivalent amount of material used to create the system in the first instance.

A completed object (an object with emergy, or embodied energy) can however create more energy than was used to create it. I.e. a solar panel outputting more energy than its given embodied energy. However the system used to make up the solar panel: the inputs such as the materials for the object (silicon) and the solar radiation can only be regenerated if enough energy is produced to generate the materials used to make up the solar panel. However, today's solar panels are not yet that energy efficient ^{[citation needed]}.

External links

v t e Sustainability
Outline Index
Principles	Anthropocene Environmentalism Global governance Human impact on the environment Planetary boundaries Development
Consumption	Anthropization Anti-consumerism Circular economy Durable good Earth Overshoot Day Ecological footprint Ethical Green consumption Micro-sustainability Over-consumption Product stewardship Simple living Social return on investment Steady-state economy Sustainability Advertising Brand Marketing myopia Sustainable Consumer behaviour Market Systemic change resistance Tragedy of the commons
World population	Demographic transition Family planning Control Sustainable population
Technology	Appropriate Environmental technology Natural building Sustainable architecture Sustainable design Sustainable industries Sustainable packaging
Biodiversity	Biosecurity Biosphere Conservation biology Endangered species Holocene extinction Invasive species
Energy	Carbon footprint Renewable energy Sustainable energy
Food	Civic agriculture Climate-smart agriculture Community-supported agriculture Cultured meat Sustainable agriculture Sustainable diet Sustainable fishery
Water	Air well (condenser) Bioretention Bioswale Blue roof Catchwater Constructed wetland Detention basin Dew pond Footprint Hydroelectricity Hydropower Infiltration basin Irrigation tank Marine energy Micro hydro Ocean thermal energy conversion Pico hydro Rain garden Rainwater harvesting Rainwater tank Reclaimed water Retention basin Run-of-the-river hydroelectricity Scarcity Security Small hydro Sustainable drainage system Tidal power Tidal stream generator Tree box filter Water conservation Water heat recycling Water recycling shower Water-sensitive urban design
Accountability	Corporate environmental responsibility Corporate social responsibility Environmental accounting Environmental full-cost accounting Environmental planning Sustainability Accounting Measurement Metrics and indices Reporting Standards and certification Sustainable yield
Applications	Advertising Art Business City Climate finance Community Disinvestment Eco-capitalism Eco-cities Eco-investing Eco-socialism Ecovillage Environmental finance Green economy Construction Fashion Finance Gardening Geopark Green Development Infrastructure Marketing Green roof Greening Impact investing Landscape Livelihood Living Market Organic movement Organizations Procurement Refurbishment Socially responsible business Socially responsible marketing Sanitation Sourcing Space Sustainability organization Tourism Transport Urban drainage systems Urban infrastructure
Sustainable management	Environmental Fisheries Forest Humanistic capitalism Landscape Materials Natural resource Planetary Recycling Waste
Agreements and conferences	UN Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm 1972) Brundtlandt Commission Report (1983) Our Common Future (1987) Earth Summit (1992) Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992) Agenda 21 (1992) Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) Lisbon Principles (1997) Earth Charter (2000) UN Millennium Declaration (2000) Earth Summit 2002 (Rio+10, Johannesburg) UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20, 2012) Sustainable Development Goals (2015)
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