Harmonizing human developments
with living systems.
Regenerative Design and Development
Gregory Bateson offered us the insight fifty years ago:
“The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.”
Regenerative design and development seeks to create conditions conducive to realigning human activities with the continuing evolution of life on our planet. Using dynamic systems frameworks to enhance comprehension of complex living systems, this approach focuses on:
potential emergence rather than problem solving;
essence of place rather than place making;
the wisdom of the whole rather than knowledge of the parts.
Working regeneratively implies moving beyond doing less damage and engaging to create new potential for life to evolve. It is possible, through our work, activities and projects, to actively engage in the resiliency of the ecosystems where we live, in a way that develops our own capabilities to contribute evermore meaningfully. This approach nurtures reciprocal relationships and deep collaboration, essential conditions for the ecological transition.
Services
Whether you are looking to apply this approach to a specific activity, process or project, or you are seeking to develop your teams’ ability to work systemically, Eco Transition can assist you.
Thinking Regeneratively
2 hour intensive workshops, each focusing on a specific systems framework.
These bite size intensives can be planned weekly, twice a month or even monthly, as part of employee educational plan.
- Develop your ability to work with living systems and their processes
- Build motivation within your team/company to use systems frameworks
- Use workshops to address specific punctual needs or opportunities
Working Regeneratively
Structured pathway to engage in an in-depth and encompassing regenerative approach for your activity, process or project.
This service is specifically tailored and will vary in length and frequency of assistance, but will always consist in three integrative phases: Co-discovering, Co-creating, Co-evolving.
- Understand how to structure a road map for a regenerative approach
- Co-discovering introduces you to essence of place and nestedness of systems
- Co-creating introduces you to working with emergence of potential instead of a problem-solving mindset and reciprocal relationships
- Co-evolving clarifies roles and levels of engagement to cultivate continuous, meaningful and beneficial impacts, transformations and developments
A Driving Vision
Envision a world of human activity where compromising the health of one system for the convenience of another was utterly inconceivable;
Where every project demonstrated its multi-facetted beneficial contributions to its ecosystem before proceeding to a development phase;
Where the intensity of our endeavours was proportional to the intensity of healing and regeneration of the living systems they impacted;
Eco Transition’s raison d’être is sourced in this driving vision.
Meet the Founder Nancy Picard
Avid nature admirer ever since I can remember, undeniably outdoorsy, it made sense and felt fulfilling for me to be an actor in the sustainable building movement, contributing to more than sixty certified projects.
As time went by though, a clearer framing of this work started to emerge: it was focused on incrementing better practices and reducing negative impacts. Important and critical! But not nearly enough to call this work sustainable. As I studied with Regenesis Group, it became obvious that sustainability was a by-product of giving more than you take, of creating conditions conducive to a thriving living system with more vitality, viability and evolutive capacity with your project, than without it.
I’ve since focused on developing the ability to work creatively with ambiguity, uncertainty, complexity and diversity; to work with living systems.
Meet our Core Collaborator
Bill Reed | Regenesis Group
Bill is an internationally recognized planning consultant, design process orchestrator, lecturer, author and a founding Board Member of the US Green Building Council, and co-founder of the LEED Green Building Rating System. He is a principal of Regenesis Group – whose work centers on regenerative design and development. This meta-discipline uplifts people, building design, and community planning into co-evolutionary relationship. The more immediate benefits of this process include higher efficiency, lower costs, reduced waste, faster time to market, and the realization of exponential value to the social, ecological, financial and human qualities of the project, the community and its ecosystem.
And as many can attest, Bill is a genuinely inspirational speaker, seamlessly walking us through the complexities and beauties of living systems, inviting us to engage, and helping us see our role in a future filled with new potential.
“Our relationship with the Earth involves something more than pragmatic use, academic understanding or aesthetic appreciation. A truly human intimacy with the Earth and with the entire natural world is needed.”
—Thomas Berry
Social Engagement
1% of Eco Transition’s profits are donated every year to organizations working towards the care of people and planet.
David Suzuki Foundation catalyzes and supports efforts, builds awareness, educates and provides means for engaging in socio-ecological transition, as well as contributes to optimized collaborations for even greater transformational potential from coast to coast to coast.
Territorial Acknowledgement
Essence of place is paramount to regenerative work – it calls upon us to remember its story and history amongst other things. I live, work and play on the unceded indigenous territories of the Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ, Omàmìwininìwag (Algonquin), Ho-de-no-sau-nee-ga (Haudenosaunee), and Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk). I seek to listen and learn how we can restore relations and work together to steward all that is local – now and for future generations.