The Regenerative Business: Redesigning Work & Cultivating Human Potential

What Is a Regenerative Business?

By definition, regeneration simply means that something is brought into a renewed existence. Carol believes that “regeneration is the means by which enlightened disruptive innovation happens.” Businesses can harness this idea by becoming a living laboratory, an evolution incubator, considerate of and responsive to all the changing parts. 

A regenerative business acknowledges its place in the entire system where it operates—its community, its industry, its resources— and uses that knowledge of interdependence in their strategic decision-making. Much like a plant only thrives if its soil provides the necessary nutrients, an employee’s potential and behaviors are best cultivated in a healthy work environment. All parts of the system work in unison to support life and growth. Regenerative businesses actively shift mindsets to become more attuned to the spaces in which they function so that they can cultivate growth in all levels of operation, be it corporate, social, or environmental.

Regenerative Business Principles

A 2015 white paper written by the Capital Institute, an organization that aims to transform the future of the economy and the evolution of capitalism, and where Carol Sanford is an active board member, defined the essential principles of a regenerative economy. 

The following eight principles are the guiding methods that businesses can use to consider all stakeholders to achieve extraordinary outcomes, regeneratively.

In Right Relationship

As living beings, humans are all connected in a web of life. No matter where we live, what we do, or where our businesses operate, damage in one part of the web ripples to other parts. For example, if a clothing brand is using a factory overseas with poor working conditions, that damage can affect the quality of the final product and worse, the reputation or long-term stability of the business.

A regenerative business would consider ethical questions during their selection of manufacturers because they realize how working conditions can affect the rest of the supply chain and eventually, consumer trust. They rely on corporate accountability to meet consumer expectations and foster the health of their supply chains.

Views Wealth Holistically

Wealth isn’t just money in the bank or rising stock prices. Instead, other elements of wealth must be integrated to ensure the well-being of a business. For example, social capital is just as important as financial gain, and yet many businesses underappreciate and underutilize the true skill set of their employees. Investing in the well-being of employees will translate to other valuable assets like increased productivity or decreased turnover, for example.

Innovative, Adaptive, Responsive

Adapting to a changing environment is something most businesses think about from time to time, but how ingrained is it in their operational framework? The world is constantly changing and in order to provide valuable solutions, businesses must be adaptable. We’ve seen this through the COVID-19 pandemic as businesses quickly shifted to accommodate the changing needs of their consumers. Businesses must have a diverse portfolio and be able to pivot when necessary.

Empowered Participation

Regenerative businesses encourage a collective mindset that by contributing to the larger whole, individuals serve the system which invariably affects, in a positive feedback loop, the wellbeing of their own work and role. 

Think of the busy bees! Each bee in a hive works to contribute to the greater good, which in turn provides the sustenance and protection of each individual bee. 

By nourishing our individual talents to contribute to a meaningful system that we ourselves are a part of, everyone benefits.

Honors Community and Place

Place matters, as do the cultures and traditions that have shaped mankind for millennia. Pretty obvious, right? A regenerative business and a regenerative economy value the inherent nature of these influences because they’ve shaped who we are and how we operate. Community and place must be honored not only within employment practices, but in supply chains and resource management as well. Consider the history of coffee production.

All Arabica coffee plants used to be shade-grown, but in the late 1900s, outside entities like the World Bank showed African and South American farmers how to grow sun coffee in order to increase crop yields. These practices completely depleted the land and forced farming communities, who are reliant on fertile land, to migrate to other areas of the world or to new plots of land to farm, disrupting their traditions, economic security, and ways of life. 

The coffee plant was programmed by nature to thrive in a certain environment, but interference for the sake of short-term profit ignored this and disregarded the detrimental impacts that followed the change. In choosing to not honor the community, place, and traditional nature of the plant and its cultivators, the environment and societies producing coffee will never be the same.

Edge Effect Abundance

Imagine where a river meets the ocean. Separately, each ecosystem operates according to their own rulebooks. But when they’re forced together, an interchange of behaviors and individual livelihoods are altered or enhanced. 

Estuaries are some of the most biodiverse and fertile places on earth. So naturally, we can imagine how the edge of systems is where heightened innovation can occur. Diversity, inclusion, and flexibility help businesses move beyond the binds of their and society’s constructed narratives so they can thrive in new and unexpected ways.

Robust Circulatory Flow

Without the constant circulation of contributing entities, any system is apt to fail. Likewise, economic health cannot become stagnant, it constantly needs a flow of information, money, goods, and services to function. By finding alternative ways to use and reuse economic information or resources, regenerative businesses can strengthen their business, individuals, and overall financial health.

Seeks Balance

It is generally accepted that balance is the basis of any healthy system. That’s why most humans seek balance in their lives, whether it’s a balance of spending time with others versus spending time alone or deciding what’s for dinner. Businesses need to strike a balance as well and uniquely define complex ideas like collaboration and competition or efficiency and resilience.

Regenerative Business Practices

In the business world, constant evolution is key. In addition to the principles needed to become a regenerative business and support a regenerative economy, there are a number of practices that can enhance productivity, meaning, and profit.

Regenerative businesses go beyond sustainability practices in business and support an entire ecosystem of change with these tactics.

• They use systemic design to nest within established systems, like how our friends at Badger are creating a net-zero campus and serve as a leader for companies fighting climate change.
• They use available materials, like how A Good Company makes an eco-friendly phone case using excess flax.
• Their business model creates more than just a product, it creates a community and multiple benefits. Shout out to Tablas Creek Vineyard who doesn’t just make wine, but sequesters carbon and promotes animal and human welfare through their regenerative organic farming practices.

Regenerative Business Examples

In Carol’s book, The Regenerative Business, she shares ‘case stories’ or examples of how businesses are using regenerative practices to unlock potential. Here are a few regenerative businesses who are using a regenerative business model to thrive.

All Good

Founded by reluctant entrepreneur Caroline Duell, All Good is a company that seeks to do right by people and planet. All Good follows a regenerative business model and is a Certified B Corp. All Good openly practices the principles of a regenerative business, especially the Views Wealth Holistically tenant by making mindful decisions about partners in their supply chains. This company is using business as a means to make positive change in the world, while delivering ethical and affordable beauty products.

Seventh Generation

One of the most recognizable environmentally friendly companies, Seventh Generation is on a mission to make the world a more sustainable and equitable place for the next seven generations. Not only do they accomplish this through their plant-based products, but their mission is embedded in their company practices. From transparency to advocacy, thoughtful partners in sustainability, and an ever evolving commitment to waste reduction, Seventh Generation is raising the bar for paper, personal care, and cleaning companies everywhere. Carol has worked with Seventh Generation and their founder Jeffrey Hollender to further develop their team and elevate the company’s innovation.

Dean’s Beans

Founded in 1993 by Dean Cycon, this fair trade coffee brand based in Massachusetts was created solely for the purpose of introducing people to good coffee and making real change. Instead of leaving that change in the hands of third-party certifications (many of which the company has anyway), Dean’s has their own People Development Program. Through this program, Dean’s employees travel the globe to set up projects in coffee-growing communities that suit the community’s own needs. In addition to using the Edge Effect principle of a regenerative economy, this coffee globalization models how not one company can change the world, but shows how any industry can do the same thing.