Resource scarcity, a sweltering climate, social inequality, added workplace stress, and recruiting challenges—oh my! Faced with these issues, companies have a decisive choice to make. Option 1: carry on with business as usual, with a business model focused on short-term profit. Option 2: rethink and adopt a business model that responds to today’s environmental and social challenges. One model stands out for those who choose the latter option: the regenerative business.
Where the traditional company seeks only to generate growth, the regenerative company sets goals that go beyond mere profit. It aims to have a positive impact on the ecosystems and communities around it, helping them to regenerate.
Several pioneering companies (Walmart, Patagonia, Timberland, Interface, to name but a few) have already adopted regenerative practices. So why shouldn’t you?
In this article, we explain everything you need to know about regenerative enterprise, its benefits and key principles. Then, for those of you who are ready to dive in, we share some best practices for getting started.
What’s a regenerative business?
Definition
If this is the first time you’ve heard of regenerative companies, this definition should help you make sense of it:
“A regenerative business is one that regenerates the natural, social and human resources it uses by drawing inspiration from living things.”
Regenerative versus sustainable companies
Careful not to confuse regeneration with sustainability: in a sustainable company, the emphasis is on reducing the negative impact the business generates.
The regenerative business, on the other hand, aims both to reduce its negative impact and to create a positive impact on the environment, society, and the people around it. For example, in addition to taking action to limit its carbon footprint, it will also develop solutions to help other companies do the same.
A company that wants to have meaningful positive impact must therefore adopt a regenerative approach—not just a sustainable one.
Also read: Sustainable performance: the art of combining productivity and social responsibility
Guiding principles
To create this positive impact, regenerative companies rely on several guiding principles:
- Interconnectedness and interdependence: regenerative businesses recognize that all stakeholders in their ecosystem are interconnected and dependent on one other. It takes a holistic approach, then, to improve the ecosystem as a whole.
- Resource regeneration: they seek to regenerate the natural and social resources we use. For example, they support regenerating agriculture and community development programs.
- Equity and justice: they treat all their stakeholders fairly and promote social and economic justice by correcting resource imbalances.
- Resilience and adaptability: they can adapt more quickly to change by diversifying their sources of income and developing employees’ skills.
- Biomimicry: they seek inspiration in nature’s patterns to design regenerative products and services and continuously innovate. For example, Interface drew inspiration from nature to create carpet tiles with a negative carbon footprint.
Why take an interest in this approach?
Adopting a regenerative approach offers many advantages for companies, which go far beyond mere corporate social responsibility. Here’s why this approach deserves your full attention:
- Social and human impact: Switching to a regenerative model will improve your employees’ well-being as well as your local community. It’ll also help develop more inclusive and equitable practices, and reduce social inequalities.
- Impact on employee commitment and performance: employees who report satisfaction are on average 13% more productive in their work. By implementing actions that promote well-being, regenerative companies can boost employee commitment and performance.
- Economic impacts: Investing in the environment and the communities that depend on it can encourage innovative practices, thereby strengthening companies’ long-term viability.
- Impact on reputation: 80% of American consumers prefer “regenerative” brands over “sustainable” ones. Becoming a regenerative business can help you attract a loyal customer base that reflects your own values.
- Environmental impact: Climate change is already affecting a whopping 3.6 billion people worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates that if we fail to steady this phenomenon, 250,000 more people could die by 2030. Adopting regenerative practices is one way of reducing these figures and protecting our planet.
How can I make my company regenerative?
Are you convinced of the benefits of implementing a regenerative approach? Here are a few best practices to get you on your way.
Work on your purpose
To get regenerative, the first step is to find your purpose. In other words, why are you even in business? To define it, ask yourself what positive impact you want to have on the world. What’s your ultimate goal (aside from generating revenue, of course!)
Thanks to this purpose statement, you can start to set environmental and social regeneration goals. Make sure you line them up with your intentions.
Take Patagonia’s mission statement, for example. It begins with, “We’re in business to save our home planet.” That perfectly underlines the company’s desire to put the environment at the very heart of their concerns.
Bring all stakeholders on board
Next step: align your employees with your purpose statement, and involve all stakeholders (both internal and external) in your regenerative approach. Here’s how:
- Organize training sessions to explain the importance of this transformation.
- Create workgroups on your collaborative platform (there’s Talkspirit for that!), where everyone can suggest regenerative best practices.
- Involve your customers, suppliers, and partners in the process, and collaborate with NGOs and associations to maximize your impact.
- Clarify everyone’s roles to ensure alignment of all your stakeholders. (Our dynamic organizational chart‘s great for this.)
Finally, don’t forget to loop in feedback systems to continuously improve your practices.
Measure your impact
Before implementing regenerative practices, it is essential to assess the negative and positive impacts generated by your company on several levels (social, environmental, economic…).
By tracking progress over time in real time, tools such as life cycle assessments (LCAs), carbon footprint audits, or CSR reports can help you identify your strengths and areas that need improvement.
For a more structured framework, you can also turn to standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative standards (GRI) and the B Impact Assessment (BIA, from B Corps, with “B” meaning “benefit fo all)).
Reduce your negative impact
You now have a good understanding of your company’s overall impact and the areas you wish to prioritize. Now it’s time to implement initiatives to reduce that impact! Here are a few examples to inspire you:
- IKEA recovers customers’ used furniture to give it a second life.
- Apple powers 100% of its sites worldwide with clean energy.
- Unilever offers detergent capsules that contain biodegradable active ingredients.
What will your first goal be?
Generate positive impacts
Finally, to truly become a regenerative company, you need to implement actions that generate a positive impact on your ecosystem. To do this, don’t hesitate to adopt a biomimetic approach, in other words, observe what you see in nature and reproduce it in your company.
Here’s how some companies are creating a positive impact:
- Patagonia supports regenerative organic farming practices.
- Walmart connects companies and suppliers of sustainable packaging solutions via its Packaging Circular Connector platform.
- Veja produces sneakers with Amazonian rubber to discourage cattle ranching—the main cause of deforestation in the Amazon.
And don‘t forget to communicate about all your new initiatives. This may even inspire other companies to adopt similar regenerative practices!
A final word
The regenerative enterprise presents itself as an innovative response to today’s environmental, social and economic challenges. Drawing inspiration from biomimicry, it adopts practices that help regenerate ecosystems and local communities—and help others to follow in your footsteps.
Of course, not all is rosy for regenerative business. The lack of regulations and standards can sometimes lead to greenwashing on the part of companies—more so when they’re not sufficiently well-informed on the subject. The best way to avoid this is to enlist the help of people with expertise in the field. Last but not least, don’t neglect digital tools: they’ll be essential in providing transparency, measuring your impact, and communicating your approach.
PS: Wondering what tools regenerative companies use? Download our white paper below to find out. 👇
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In our white paper “What Software Tools Are a Must-Have for the Next-Generation Enterprise?,” you’ll discover: how tools shape organizations and their culture, what collaborative and governance tools next-generation companies are using, and what the latest adoption trends for enterprise software platforms.
