{"id":1315,"date":"2020-01-16T16:15:21","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T00:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/events.sustainablebrands.com\/conferences\/sb22\/?p=1315"},"modified":"2020-12-15T12:08:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T20:08:55","slug":"dispelling-5-common-myths-about-regeneration-and-regenerative-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/events.sustainablebrands.com\/conferences\/blcc22\/dispelling-5-common-myths-about-regeneration-and-regenerative-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Dispelling 5 Common Myths about Regeneration and Regenerative Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Dimitar Vlahov, Director of Knowledge & Insights at Sustainable Brands<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether the new decade starts in January 2020 or January 2021, one thing about it is clear \u2013 it will need to be a decade of reconfiguration and transformation for business, governments and indeed human civilization as a whole. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherwise, we may not be able to achieve a good quality of life in the decades that follow, as thousands of scientists from around the world representing a variety of disciplines keep telling us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The multitude of crises we\u2019re facing \u2013 around climate, water, species extinction, infrastructure, inequality, migration, corruption, cyberattacks, information manipulation, and governance, to name a few \u2013 are not only real, but also strongly interconnected and converging more and more as we go. This is clearly illustrated by the 2020 Global Risks Interconnections Map<\/a> of the World Economic Forum\u2018s latest Global Risks Report. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Just a few days ago, as the world had been glued to the\nAustralian fires for weeks and weeks on end, grieving the death of more than\none billion animals (and counting), the UN issued yet\nanother stark warning<\/a> through its Convention on Biological Diversity, in\nlight of the fact that a million of the world’s eight million species are\ncurrently facing extinction and the global rate of species extinction is thousands\nof times higher than it has been on average over the past 10 million years.\nYes, you read that right \u2013 species now are disappearing thousands of times\nfaster<\/em> than they had been in the last 10 MILLION<\/em> years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter regeneration and regenerative business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is\nregeneration? And why now?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Regeneration means restoring and renewing a system \u2013 an\necosystem or any other system \u2013 so that it is healthy, resilient and producing\ndesirable results again. Importantly, it also means improving a system\u2019s\nability to restore and renew itself effectively<\/em> \u2013 an essential\ncharacteristic that comes up again and again. Simply put, regeneration is about\nleaving nature and society healthier, better off and more resilient than we\nfound them. It\u2019s the future of sustainability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, the same way sustainability has become a business\nimperative in the last fifteen years, so is regeneration now \u2013 in fact,\nregeneration hides even more benefits than sustainability (more about that\nbelow)! The business case for regenerative business and regenerative leadership\nin all aspects of life has never been stronger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That being said, there is still a lot of misunderstanding\nabout regeneration and regenerative business practices out there. We at SB keep\nhearing the following five myths again and again, and we think it\u2019s time to\nhave a serious conversation about them and dispel them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth 1: Regeneration\nis a luxury. We need to focus on sustainability above all.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Why, one might ask, do we need to go for regeneration? If we\ncan keep nature and society the way they are now \u2013 that is, if we sustain<\/em>\nthe current way of life — isn\u2019t that a pretty good life already? The answer\nboils down to this: While we (people) have had it more or less good for the\nlast several decades, on average, that has come at a huge cost \u2013 the kind of\ncost reflected in the extinction warnings and global risks map referenced\nabove. As much as we don\u2019t like admitting it to ourselves, we have largely run\nthe last few centuries based on degenerative systems \u2013 that is, systems that\nmay produce beneficial results in the short term, but undermine and degrade\nnature and society in the long run. So no, we can\u2019t just sustain the status\nquo, because it is simply not sustainable the way human civilization is set up\ncurrently. Therefore, we need to regenerate first, and then sustain the new\nregenerated status quo<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To use a handy analogy, we need to heal back to health\nfirst, before we can talk about staying in shape.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth 2: Regeneration is mostly about agriculture and forests, and therefore not all industries need to worry about it. <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although there is \u2013 justifiably! \u2013 a lot of buzz about regenerative agriculture, the extent of what needs to be regenerated<\/em> goes much beyond land and forests. Those are vital, of course, and they alone touch a big number of industries, having recently led to initiatives such as General Mills\u2019 intention to convert 1 million acres<\/a> of farming to regenerative ag, or Timberland\u2019s new focus on regenerative sourcing<\/a>. However, there are several other essential dimensions to regeneration, including restoring the vitality and abundance of oceans, lakes, and rivers; renewal of companies\u2019 relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, local communities and other key stakeholders; reimagining a healthier balance between material and non-material pursuits and values; cultivating systems-thinking win-win-oriented leaders who pursue the success of all stakeholders at the same time; and stepping away from prioritizing the values of extraction, exploitation, and separation \u2013 to name just a few. It\u2019s the kind of systemic reconfiguration and transformation that definitely touches all industries.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth 3:\nRegenerative business is really difficult to explain and communicate to\nconsumers and other stakeholders.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Incorrect. A number of brands \u2013 Fortune 500s as well as\nstartups of various types \u2013 are reporting that as soon as they tried, they\ndiscovered that regeneration lends itself really naturally to attractive and\neasy-to-understand marketing. Just think about the main concepts \u2013 restoration,\nrejuvenation, renewal, replenishing, healing, nurturing, revitalizing,\nreenergizing<\/em>\u2026! Community, diversity, inclusion, harmony, balance, trust,\nconnection, health<\/em>! This is all warm, pleasant, stimulating, hopeful,\naspirational and highly intuitive language that makes communicating\nregeneration and regenerative business a pleasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth 4:\nOnly brands with really advanced sustainability credentials can practice\nregeneration. <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Wrong. This myth is based on a common perception that it is\nharder to practice regeneration than it is to practice sustainability. Since\nmost companies don\u2019t have a great handle on sustainability yet, the argument\ngoes, only a select few sustainability leaders, such as Patagonia, Unilever,\nDanone and IKEA, can venture into regeneration. None of this is true. Any\nbusiness can start following regenerative principles, no matter how far along\nthe \u2018sustainability journey\u2019 it is. If it\u2019s helpful, think of regeneration as a\ntype of sustainability \u2013 the type that seeks not just to sustain, but also to\nrestore, renew and nurture. From that point of view, even basic sustainability\nactions can be turned into regenerative with the right understanding of desired\noutcomes, and from there the right tweaks.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if your company is thinking of making changes\nto its products so they can become circular, think about picking the type of material\nflow that results in both circularity and restoration + renewal + resilience for\nas many systems along the way as possible. Or, if your company is switching to\nrenewable energy, think about all the stakeholders that will be touched in the\nprocess and whether restoration + renewal + resilience will feature in the\noutcomes. The \u201crestoration + renewal + resilience\u201d test comes in very handy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myth 5: The\nROI of regeneration hasn\u2019t been researched and documented well yet. We don\u2019t\nknow if it sells.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Actually, we do know. The ROI of regeneration is at least as\ngood as the ROI of sustainability \u2013 and the ROI of sustainability has already been\nshown to be consistently positive and lasting. Why is regeneration at least as\ngood, you ask? Because it invests in the long run in even more robust ways and\nit strips away even more externalities and risks \u2013 simple as that! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will explore these topics, and many more, in-depth at one of our upcoming events.<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Dimitar<\/figure>
\n

Dimitar Vlahov<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Director of Knowledge & Insights
Sustainable Brands<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether the new decade starts in January 2020 or January 2021, one thing about it is clear \u2013 it will need to be a decade of reconfiguration and transformation for business, governments and indeed human civilization as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDispelling 5 Common Myths about Regeneration and Regenerative Business - Sustainable Brands Brand Lead Culture Change<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/events.sustainablebrands.com\/conferences\/blcc22\/dispelling-5-common-myths-about-regeneration-and-regenerative-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dispelling 5 Common Myths about Regeneration and Regenerative Business - 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