Moving from sustainability to regeneration

Greetings dear friends.

We are all part of the world we live in and everything we need for our survival depends directly or indirectly on taking resources from the planet, but to ensure our continuity in the world it is not enough to try to mitigate our impact on the environment but to try to recover the affected environments.

It is not enough to mitigate our impact on nature, we must reverse it. Source: pixabay.com

Sustainability

A term that we have been hearing a lot in the last decade, especially with the objectives addressed in the Paris Agreement of 2016, is "sustainability" which refers to the ability to remain over time, and is used as a way of expressing that human beings must coexist in balance with the environment to ensure our coexistence over time.

In other words, it is a model that seeks to continue satisfying our current and future needs as a society, in terms of economic growth and social welfare, emphasizing that we should not compromise natural resources by making a rational consumption of them.

To be more sustainable and environmentally responsible, we must control and manage water consumption, avoiding at all costs the contamination of our water sources; manage and control the generation of hazardous and non-hazardous waste, make better use of transportation, recycle and save energy.

But sustainability is not enough

We should keep in mind then that sustainability is about responsibly managing and consuming the planet's resources, however we can read between the lines that it is still about only taking what we need.

Consider for example that the most ambitious goal of the Paris agreement is to try to limit global warming to less than 2 °C by the end of the century, this is extremely important for our planet, but it is also a very conservative goal. We have already shown that with renewable energies and electric means of transport we could achieve carbon neutrality and slow down global warming, but instead of seeking only carbon neutrality wouldn't it be better to pursue a positive net balance from agriculture and industrial activities?

A new philosophy could be the key to this, manifesting itself in recent sustainable regeneration projects, a philosophy that takes into account that natural resources are limited and therefore their recovery, rather than just rational use, must be sought.

With sustainability we seek a balance, which is not a bad thing because it puts us at a point where we do not subtract anything from the planet, but the point is that we do not add anything to it either.

We must go beyond the simple elimination of emissions. Source: pxhere.com.

Regeneration tries to incorporate as a variable in development projects the recovery of the damage caused to the environment, trying to recover the initial conditions or to facilitate that the affected elements can regenerate and be resilient, with the purpose of improving our approach to the use of natural resources.

Sustainable regeneration projects

This philosophy is already being implemented and is having a great impact in some areas, such as energy, construction and agriculture. Here are some examples:

Regenerative Viticulture

In the agricultural world, viticulture is leading this movement of sustainable regeneration, some important wineries have supported the creation of the Regenerative Viticulture Foundation, whose mission is to promote the transition from a model of degenerative soil agriculture based on the use of chemical products in the vineyards to regenerative agriculture, which includes the regeneration of soils by incorporating plant covers that were traditionally considered weeds, to improve the balance between plants and soils, and improving the biodiversity of insects and microbial fauna.

Regenerative viticulture tries to go beyond the simple substitution of agrochemicals in the vineyards. Source: pxhere.com.

We even seek integration with livestock, so that the animals graze among the vines and in this way a natural fertilization of the soil can be carried out, which is more than simply replacing chemical fertilizers with another product.

Regenerative architecture

Although construction has long been one of the industries that most claims the use of more environmentally friendly materials, and although some important steps have been taken, perhaps regenerative architecture will help us move forward faster.

One of the initiatives in this sector is being carried out by the International Living Future Institute, an organization that has developed the "Living Building Challenge" in which they have proposed a series of requirements to incorporate regenerative design in buildings, such as integration with the environment, positive use of water and energy, zero carbon footprint in materials, among others.

The concept of regenerative architecture seeks to integrate buildings into the environment. Source: pxfuel.com.

Regenerative industries

An interesting example is being carried out by Interface, a carpet manufacturer, whose project called Factory as a Forest led them to build a factory that cleaned the air, purified water and sequestered carbon.

This company took the bold decision to go beyond carbon neutrality, they redesigned their zero emissions model to have a positive and restorative impact on the environment, their idea was that the factory would function as a forest.

Interface's approach is to move from a zero footprint to providing the benefits of an ecosystem. Source: Adapted from Interface.com.

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As we can see, this is a change of philosophy that can bring great benefits, because it is not only about stopping consuming irresponsibly and being a burden to the planet, but also about integrating ourselves better with our environment and functioning as an important part of the ecosystem, which not only takes something but also contributes and adds value.

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Thanks for coming by to read friends, I hope you liked the information. See you next time.

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