PLACES FOR LIFE
Really Regenerative’s work is to support the transformation from an extractive and degenerative economy and culture to a regenerative, life-centred future in which place-based organisations can create the conditions conducive to life in the places they live, love and work.
Our work – through open and internal learning journeys, convening multi-stakeholder groups, reconciling and harmonising the challenges that arise between multi-stakeholder projects and supporting the development of centres that support the journey of transformation – is entirely focused on actualising the power of transformative change – in place. .
We exist to help you create transformative change towards revitalised communities, regenerative economies, vibrant environments and trusted institutions.
Our Services
EMERGENT STRATEGY FOR TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE.
Discovering the unique evolutionary potential of your organisation or project can be challenging. What is the deep essence of your organisation, your project or at the heart of the change you want to catalyse? What is the role that only your organisation, with all its unique history, culture and qualities, can play in creating the regenerative and resilient future we need – for ourselves, for all species, for the life support systems on which we depend?
We help place-based organisations to develop a vision for the role they can uniquely play in the emergence of regenerative futures in the places in which they are systemically nested. We support them to develop pathways towards that vision that are adaptable and emergent, and bring new viability and vitality across ecology, economy and culture – and sometimes all three!
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR WORK WITH AGENTS OF TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE such as our work with WWF Cymru on developing a Wholescape plan for Pembrokeshire or our work in the EU to support the development of the New European Bauhaus programme.
CONVENING INQUIRY
We cannot navigate our way through the metacrisis that is unfolding, or find effective long-lasting ways to act in the increasing volatility and complexity we face, unless we can find better ways of collaborating and build our capability to work with uncertainty and volatility. We constellate and convene systemic inquiries for multi-stakeholder groups who want to find ways to address complex challenges that are arising in the places they work and love.
Instead of working in silos to create expert-sourced solutions to complexity that is beyond any single source of expertise, we convene multi-disciplinary and transcontextual groups and help them to access the innate collective intelligence that enables them to move forwards with confidence.
We have convened many different kinds of inquiries. For regional authorities into how small business communities can be supported to move towards net-zero. For multi-stakeholders in the food system to explore how to transform the impact of intensive farming on the food system. For place-based business groups who want to take a collective approach to shaping a future-fit resilience economic narrative. For town communities who want to find ways to adapt under-utilised buildings to create centres for learning and change. For regions who want to explore water resilience and security.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW WE WORK WITH ORGANISATIONS CONVENING INQUIRY.
RECONCILING & HARMONIZING PLACE
As the future horizon emerges around the fringes and edges of society and new approaches that are commensurate with the context of the 21st century emerge, there is always tension between those who want to keep the plane flying and those who want to redesign it mid-air. The present works. The future enables. We want to keep the lights on. We desperately need a new kind of light. We are comfortable with what we know. We are often afraid of the future.
The pathway to a transformed future holds many paradoxes, dilemmas, polarities and double binds.
- How do European nations meet the commitment of 30% of land for nature restoration and still build all the housing their growing populations demand? How do we create much needed nature corridors and the kind of homes in which people can thrive?
- How do we fulfil our personal commitment to a regenerative future when the planet-friendly options – train not plane, electric not petrol – always cost more, especially in a cost of living crisis?
- How do city authorities continue to provide more and more services with less and less budget?
- How do we make good choices about land and ocean use between the need for biodiversity restoration, food production, human housing, transport and leisure pursuits?
Finding a reconciling route where creating the conditions conducive to life is put at the centre, creating a new story for the future around which all participants can align, is a new and radically inclusive way to ensure all voices are heard, trust is rebuilt and future potential is realised.
LEARNING JOURNEYS
How does transformative change really happen? Where does it begin? Does it start with an unexpected culture shock like the global pandemic or an individual shock like a diagnosis of unexpected illness? Or does it begin with a commitment to unlearn what we think we know about how the world works, and open up to a leap towards a interconnected relationship to the living systems that sustain us? The regenerative leap oftens starts with un-learning. Our learning journeys are design to provide the cognitive, emotional and somatic pathways to enable place-based organisations to make the transformative leap from the structures that uphold the current dominant culture and economy towards create the new co-creative, collaborative and mutual futures we need.
We have taken more than 500 different organisations from around the world through our open signature learning journey Power of Place: An Introduction to Transformative Change, and have designed many different internal learning journeys for city authorities, national parks, institutions and think tanks and NGOs.
We offer our open learning journeys to all and design bespoke learning journeys to support organisational change. We have supported organisations such as The Crown Estate, The RSA, Doncaster City Council, Sustainable Brands, WWF Cymru, Compassion in World Farming, UN Food Systems Summit, Living Green Spaces, Falkland Estate, Fife County Council, Ziepju, Riga, Knowledge Hub Zeeland, DESIRE Designing an Irresistible Circular City, Royal Danish School of Architecture, InHolland University, SUDA, SEPA, Coastal West Sussex, Experience Sussex, Norwegian National Parks, Natural England, and many other municipalities, tourism bodies, national parks and private estates.
Find out more about all our learning journeys.
