Principles of Regenerative Development

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There are key interlinked principles that structure regenerative development. The most important are outlined below.

 

The whole world is now the only relevant unit of problem solving

Globalization has, whether we like it or not, made us all one. We have always been voyaging on one ship, the SS Earth, but globalization has transformed this philosophy into an economic, technological, political, and ecological reality that is unavoidable, no matter how high the walls on our gated community or how far removed from the centers of civilization we choose or are forced to live.

 

Long term is the framework in which we must operate

A short temporal focus is both ineffectual, costly, counter-productive, and more than likely destructive to the wellbeing of the whole system. The short term is often at odds with the wellbeing of the whole over the long term. Investments in renewable energy, affordable health care, and universal education are positive examples of how a view to the long term can help out in the short term. The larger the temporal frame of reference, the more possibilities there are and the deeper is our understanding of the past and its implications for the future. In addition, looking at the world through the long-term lens makes prevention, rather than treatment or cure, the logical and most economical option.

 

Everyone is needed

The old way dictated that to build a bridge you needed an engineer. Building a bridge today, we need the engineer but also the people who are going to use that bridge; those who are going to build it, manufacture the parts, and obtain the raw materials; the ecologists who will tell us where it can be placed so that it does the least damage to the environment; and most important, the citizens who will decide if they want the bridge in the first place and who will pay for it, in one way or another. This is a pragmatic, cost-effective essentials for regenerative development. The day of the technological expert riding roughshod over culture, ecology, and values is over. Everyone is an expert on what they want and know.

Global corporations, cities, nations, NGOs, and private citizens all need to work together on getting what the world wants.

 

If the ‘problem’ being addressed is to be solved (and stay solved), decision making at the local level and input from all sectors of local society are needed. This provides learning and growth opportunities for the larger system of which the problem is a part. Every development strategy is an opportunity to increase the knowledge and capacity of the society in which development is occurring.

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Everybody wins

Regenerative development is not a win/lose economic strategy. Neither is it what is called a win/win strategy. This implies a two-party dynamic and there are always more than two players or stakeholders in any problem of global scale. Getting what the world wants is a win/win/win solution. Or more accurately, it is a winning solution. A successful strategy will have at least national, local, corporate, environmental, economic, and global winners. A successful strategy will ripple through many systems, helping resolve other problems or eliminating the causes of them.Like adequate nutrition eliminates health care problems caused by lack of food and renewable and clean supplies of energy lessen the global buildup of carbon in the atmosphere and global warming. If social indicators of wealth go up but there are pockets of poverty where these trends do not hold, we are all impoverished—just as your heart, brain, and nervous system might be in great shape but if there is a cancerous growth in your lungs, you are not healthy at all.

 

Transparency is key

All government processes, decisions, and actions, as well as business practices, industrial processes, environmental impacts, and accounting of ingredients, waste, and costs must be subject to open disclosure and public access. Transparency in decision-making will go further toward getting what the world wants faster. When everyone knows the budget numbers it’s hard to hide corruption. 

 

Capacity, not problems, must be our focus

We must transform the art and science of problem solving into building capacity. We need to see ‘problems’ not as something that needs to be ‘solved,’ but as a symptom of something larger— the need to enlarge the capacity of a system. Another way of looking at this is to say that we need to focus on creating wealth, not just reducing poverty. When we focus on building capacity, it becomes apparent that wealth is in the whole, not the parts.

 

The world’s needs are actually potential markets

In the capacity-building principle, what we see as ‘problems’ are markets awaiting the enterprising entrepreneur who can figure out how to meet those needs. Problems are unmet needs that can often be met through creative products.  Meeting the basic human needs of people in emerging markets requires that the product and its marketing and financing be creative and well-thought-out. In a world where the world’s needs and problems are perceived as markets, the market economy becomes a tool for regenerative solutions. In this context, poverty is a mandate for entrepreneurial innovation and creativity, not just government intervention

 

The need to make a profit forces solutions to be products and services that are valued by customers and which customers will pay for and, not incidentally, puts the customer in charge, rather than a government bureaucracy. Becoming informed, active, and involved consumers—and voting with their currency, local communities invest their valuable resources in projects that benefit their families and in which they have a stake in making sure they stay viable. The poor are transformed from victims into consumers—and when informed consumers are in charge, a market place is one of the better tools for ensuring power and control is in the hands of the community.

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Design replaces politics

If politics is the art of the possible, design is the art of making the impossible real. That is, design sees what is needed, not what is just expedient or politically easy and figures out how to make it happen. It starts with a vision of what is needed, not what is popular. ‘Design science,’ as Buckminster Fuller called it, would seek to find or design an artifact that solved a problem or built the capacity of a system in such a way that the source of the problem was eliminated. Fuller’s unique contribution was in seeing design as a way around the power structure. Instead of fighting it in a bloody revolution to more ‘fairly’ redistribute the world’s wealth, he pointed out the radical concept that the designer needed to consider all of humanity as the client, not just the person with the most economic wherewithal.

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More with less must be the design ethic

Getting ever-higher performance out of every gram of material and erg of energy invested in every function performed by our human-made life-support is critical to making the world’s limited resources meet the needs of our growing population and to reducing our impact on our environment. Fuller pointed out that the sum total of the world’s technology was operating at around 4% efficiency. More up-to-date analysis has put the efficiency of the US economy at around 6%. By raising the efficiency of how we manufacture, use, and dispose of our products, we could raise the overall efficiency of our technological life support systems four-fold. Many products can be made five, ten, even one hundred times more efficient in their use of materials and energy.

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Biology replaces mechanics

The models we use shape the way we see the world and our reality. Using mechanistic models for problems has led the world to mechanistic solutions—solutions that fail when one of the cogs in the machine fails, that are seen as ‘independent’ of their environment, and that regularly create as many new problems as old ones they solve. Viewing the world as a living system fosters a respect for a problem’s complexity, an awareness of the context or environment in which it is embedded, and the possible solutions that can result in strengthening the health of the system and the elimination of the problem.

 

Development, not growth is our goal

We need to transform society, not just enlarge it. As Russell Ackoff succinctly put it, “Growth is an increase in size or number. Development is an increase in competence, the ability to satisfy one’s needs and desires and those of others. Growth is a matter of earning; development is a matter of learning. Development is not a matter of how much one has but how much one can do with whatever one has.” The implications of this are profound, not the least of which is that if development is a matter of learning, then one cannot do it for another.

 

Scalability is essential

If a solution to a problem or a product or service for a market cannot be scaled up from the prototype stage to wide-spread adoption and use, it is stillborn. A brilliant local solution that doesn’t scale up is only half complete. The job of regenerative development is to move good solutions from local prototype or proof of concept to full-scale global implementation. Scalability works both ways: the discipline of looking to scale enriches the prototype by making it more universal, robust, and adaptable.

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Vision drives action. Money follows vision

The ideal—what we want—trumps what politicians think is practicable, expedient, or currently affordable. Society’s goals (the ‘preferred state’) are determined by what we want, not what we are afraid of; this is a statement of values and a definition of health. Regenerative development’s long-term and global perspectives focus on building capacity as a way of realizing our dreams, rather than solving problems as a way of avoiding our nightmares.

 

Creating an ideal future is a powerful tool for integrating multiple stakeholders into a cooperative team working together on making real what they want. It allows people to let go of tightly held positions and valued turf as the vision of the greater win replaces the meager holdings of the problem-laden, present-day situation. Brought together, their joint capacities enlarged, the participants—even the more cynical or pessimistic—can see within reach an ideal that once seemed far-fetched.

 

Regenerative development uses an ideal vision of the future to organize the resources needed to achieve it. The vision needs to be grounded in present-day technological feasibility—no “we’ll get our energy from fusion” or “we’ll dispose of our pollution on the moon” fantasies. The regenerative development approach is grounded in real world capabilities and informed by a pragmatic vision of what is desired.

 

Summary

The principles of regenerative development construct a frame of reference for looking at the world—at our problems, resources, and options—in a way that can lead to a future of ecosystem health, economic wealth, and human prosperity. It is a ‘big picture’ framework for design, planning, and action that will solve our global problems in ways that not only respect the Earth and its life-support systems, but that enhance them, ensuring that the next generation’s world is richer in every way than ours.

 

Regenerative development is characterized by a global and longterm perspective and approach that builds our capacity for qualitative growth. It values and needs input from all stakeholders; is transparent so that everyone can see how they win and what they might need to give up to gain a greater good; sees problems and needs as markets for social and economic entrepreneurs; and utilizes design that relies on doing more with less to accomplish its ends. It is focused on the vision of what is desired, not what is expedient. Driven by that vision of the ideal, rather than reacting to what is thought possible given current limitations, regenerative development is in tune with nature, with what the world wants, and with the resources and technology that can take us there.

 

Note: This article is reprinted from a paper by Medard Gabel ©2005 with edits.

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