Recap
If you are joining this topic new with this post, to aid your reading, I supplement the content of this post with an excerpt from Part 1. So, rather than sending you off to read Part 1 now, which I recommend you do at some point, as a brief recap, in Part one (1) I defined regeneration as: ….. a self-driven – inherently originating – process of enhancement, ultimately leading to a positive state of wellbeing for an identified agent, unit or entity. I argued that we can describe this positive state of wellbeing with the words ‘thriving’ and ‘flourishing’.
While equally a complex topic, I highlighted that consumption is an extended process and set of behaviours involving the degeneration and conversion of resources by all parties, organisations and end consumers alike, over the lifecycle journey of products (goods and services). For a given product it includes all stages of its life journey from the extraction of resources used in its production through to its’ (the product’s) actual consumption by an end consumer. It also includes the product’s post life decline, whether exposed to some form of a waste management strategy, such as recycling, or not.
Regenerative consumption
Now, let’s combine the two words ‘regenerative’ and ‘consumption’ together and extending on the above, develop an understanding about what they mean when combined.
What it is
Regenerative consumption includes the process and behaviours involved in the consumption journey of a product that lead to an outcome of thriving and/or flourishing, rather than simply the degeneration of the product’s originating resources. Put simply…..creating and causing more to positively result from the process than is removed.
Examples of regenerative consumption
Now let’s have a look at a couple of examples to see what this looks like in real life.
- Example 1: The removal of vegetables from the garden for consumption purposes whereby only a part of a plant is removed, which in so doing creates the space for continued, and in many cases, accelerated growth and productivity. This process of partial plant removal assists the plant, and even potentially its immediate surrounding ecosystem, to inherently thrive and flourish. Extending on the above example, regenerative consumption here would also include retaining any discarded parts of a plant in the soil, either in situ or after conversion to compost. Doing so naturally continues soil fertility by either maintaining or adding the necessary minerals and nutrients required for ongoing productive species growth.
- Example 2: This example presents ‘True pigments’, a US-based consumer goods firm that offers paint pigment for artists harvested from acid mine drainage found in local waterways in the Appalachia region of the USA. Many of the coal mines in this region were long ago abandoned but the reality of pollution continues exacerbating an uncertain future of environmental and economic deprivation for the regional environment and resident communities. Not only does the process employed in harvesting the paint pigment help restore the waterways from the presence of harmful pollutants, thereby making them more habitable for aquatic life, but in so doing, it also creates direct and indirect working opportunities for local communities. The link above provides a more detailed insight into the process involved.
Regeneration benefits socio-economically as well as environmentally
The above example extends the benefits of regeneration beyond the environmental level to local communities too, with the addition of socio-economic gains arising from the creation of new working opportunities. In doing so it highlights a key characteristic of regeneration at the broader system level, namely, as in this example, the benefits of regeneration extend beyond those accrued by businesses and the natural environment to include those experienced socio-economically too.
Conclusion
In this post I have presented two diverse examples demonstrating how we can consider consumption to be regenerative when at least a couple of conditions are met. First, the net production result is greater than the related consumption cost, and second, the benefits are experienced by multiple object recipients including local communities.
This latter point, which implicitly highlights the presence and importance of interconnection, is critical in advancing our understanding of regeneration. Interconnection is relevant not just at the process level but also at the level of outcome.
Future posts on regenerative consumption
In future posts I will expand on the relevance of interconnection in respect to regeneration, as well as provide further examples of regenerative consumption across a range of diverse international settings. Please refer back to Part 1 using the link below if you haven’t visited that post yet. Otherwise, see you in the next post, until then, please think regeneratively. Many thanks. Dave.
*Featured image courtesy of Dr Susan Prescott