How the community regeneration can co-opt everyone in addressing nature and climate crises

"Nature is saying: This is it. Join me as partner. Deepen, not change so much but deepen, work on more levels and together we can take the changes and make them into transformation and not total collapse."
- Jean Houston

The most effective community regeneration model - socio-green infrastructure – the origin snapshot

In the late 1990s, my co-visionary partner and I set off to prove a hypothesis that it is feasible to induce a type of collective change in awareness and behaviour that is capable of creating an 80-20 shift. This shift, we postulated, was not only possible but vital to combat global warming as the climate crisis was known them. It would also achieve another incredible feat. And that is, it would bring the humanity closer to realising its potentials, which we have yet to see. A superstructure that this model would create in every community, we claimed, would also give rise to new greening templates that could enable us to solve many interrelated socio-economic issues simultaneously. So in order to demonstrate how these concepts could unravel in practice, we proposed the creation of green lifestyle and action hubs. So, this is how regeneration - as part of this big idea for the community and a broad societal greening – entered the green space and collective psyche.

The 'HOW' of the community regeneration – inducing a global paradigm shift by moving away from the 'old' ineffective mindset to envisioning a new regenerative model

 So, looking back at this proposal, we can unequivocally say that we proved our hypothesis hands down. The sheer uptake and instigation of many of our big strategy concepts, both commercially and intellectually, has been the testimony to this. Following the initial introduction of some parts of this work in the UK, the work had been shared and gone viral before we even managed to deliver a single word on the subject, publicly. In fact, the only presentation of this pioneering methodology and vision took place inside the COP climate and the IUCN environment conferences. These were at the time the only camps that were open to exploring this new
paradigm.

It also ignited the popular collective imagination by staring at numerous high-profile culture, art and film events in the US. This was this work's yet another debut five years after its first official introduction in London, in 2004 and earlier in Brighton. Next is a very short overview of a methodology we had developed to prove our hypothesis. The big strategy is the result of us pooling together our findings from cross-examining an international multidisciplinary body of research spanning many fields of applied science. Our own self-funded experimental projects and ventures, that we set up and ran in the UK, provided practical proof-points and further case studies.

The community regeneration – what it is and what it is not

What our research and findings proved was that the prevalent cognitive approach that was universally accepted to be the answer to then global warming was not enough to solve it. We needed a powerful catalyst to stimulate such a profoundly radical shift at a societal level. Essentially, helping everyone to break away from one dominant paradigm that stifled progress and innovation. The paradigm that negated any logical attempt to evaluate its efficacy. My co-visionary partner and I could see that many thinkers and leaders, including those in green camps, kept moving in circular thinking traps. Semi-consciously following others in front of them, who lost the direction themselves.

I felt that we needed something truly effective. A thinking baseline that shakes the foundations of the old model and transition us fast into a more ethical and ecological reality. A socially led regenerative model to address the climate and create green economies. So, I knew and sensed that before we could affect nature and climate change, the world's operating system and mindset needed a fundamental re-think and adjustments. We called these adjustments - incremental changes. They would eventually lead to a sum total of all eco and socially inspired actions creating a more equitable and safer world to live. We see this in action, today manifesting as the regenerative and rewilding approaches.

Ecoplaza - an eco-social and economic answer, boosting the effectiveness of the existing hubs

Although many innovative eco hubs have sprung up to date, to my knowledge, none of them operate to the potential of ecoplazas. If they did, we would see an unprecedented level of social and green improvements in our communities. Equally, we would also see the co-opting of everyone in the climate and ecological action across all sectors, whether they believe in climate change or not. What is not happening is joining the dots on the climate, the sustainable economy and community engagement. At least not to an optimum potential that this work had envisaged.

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 This article presenting the original award-winning concepts is the work of the Earthvoice editor, Kinga Monica. She is available for consulting on practical instigation of these concepts, sustainability, and ecotourism consulting, internationally.

To learn more on this topic and the solutions that have helped shift some gears of the climate change action to date, please follow my innovative work on Earthvoice blog and on Medium.