Regenerative Economics

Regenerative economics moves beyond extractive models to create economic systems that enhance life, restore relationships, and build community wealth.

If Regenerative Culture is about creating cultures that heal, regenerative economics asks: How do we design exchange systems that support life rather than extract from it?

The Current System: Extractive Economics

Our dominant economic model:

• Extracts resources faster than they regenerate
• Externalizes costs onto communities and ecosystems
• Concentrates wealth in fewer hands
• Commodifies relationships
• Values financial capital over social and natural capital
• Measures growth (GDP) not health
• Assumes infinite growth on a finite planet

This is fundamentally a degenerative economic model.

Principles of Regenerative Economics

1. Life at the Center

Economics should serve life, not the other way around.

Ask: “Does this enhance the health and vitality of the whole?”

• Measure well-being, not just wealth
• Value ecosystem health as fundamental
• Recognize economy as nested within society, nested within biosphere
• Prioritize life-supporting activities

2. Wealth as Thriving

Real wealth is:

• Clean air and water
• Healthy soil and ecosystems
• Strong communities and relationships
• Cultural richness and creativity
• Knowledge and wisdom
• Time and freedom
• Beauty and meaning

Money is a means, not the end.

3. Multiple Capitals

Recognize different forms of capital:

• Natural capital: Ecosystems, resources, living systems
• Social capital: Relationships, trust, networks
• Cultural capital: Knowledge, stories, traditions
• Built capital: Infrastructure, tools, buildings
• Financial capital: Money, investments

Regenerative economics builds all capitals, not just financial.

4. Circular, Not Linear

Nature has no waste. Regenerative economics mimics this:

• Outputs become inputs
• “Waste” is food for something else
• Cycles, not straight lines
• Closed loops, not extraction-disposal

5. Place-Based

Economies rooted in [[ bioregion ]]:

• Local resources → local production → local consumption
• Economic activity enhances local ecosystems
• Community wealth stays in community
• Adapted to unique conditions of place

6. Distributed Ownership

Wealth and power distributed widely:

• Cooperative ownership
• Community land trusts
• Employee-owned businesses
• Shared resources
• Democratic governance

7. Reciprocity and Gift

Not all exchange is transactional:

• Gift economy
• Mutual aid
• Time banking
• Resource sharing
• Relationship over transaction

Regenerative Economic Models

Cooperative Businesses

Worker Cooperatives

• Owned and governed by workers
• Democratic decision-making (one worker, one vote)
• Profits shared among workers
• Incentive to create good jobs, not maximize extraction

Consumer Cooperatives

• Owned by customers
• Serve member needs, not profit
• Examples: food co-ops, credit unions, housing co-ops

Multi-stakeholder Cooperatives

• Include workers, consumers, community
• Balance multiple interests
• Rooted in place

Tampa Bay examples:

• Food cooperatives
• Worker-owned businesses
• Community-owned solar projects

Community Land Trusts

Concept: Community owns land, individuals own buildings

• Land removed from speculative market
• Permanently affordable housing
• Community control of development
• Land as commons, not commodity

Benefits:

• Prevents displacement
• Builds community wealth
• Enables stewardship over speculation
• Intergenerational equity

Local Currencies & Time Banking

Local Currencies

• Money that circulates within community
• Encourages local trade
• Builds local resilience
• Examples: Ithaca Hours, BerkShares

Time Banking

• Exchange services based on time (1 hour = 1 hour)
• Values all contributions equally
• Builds social capital
• Activates unused capacity

Gift Economy

• Give freely without expectation
• Strengthens relationships
• Creates abundance mindset
• Example: Tool libraries, seed swaps, skill shares

Benefit Corporations & Social Enterprise

B Corps: Certified to meet high standards of:

• Social performance
• Environmental performance
• Accountability and transparency
• Profit and purpose

Social Enterprise:

• Mission-driven businesses
• Profits reinvested in mission
• Measuring social/environmental impact
• Example: TOMS shoes, Patagonia

Regenerative Agriculture as Economic Model

Growing food regeneratively:

• Builds soil (increases natural capital)
• Sequesters carbon
• Increases biodiversity
• Provides meaningful livelihoods
• Produces nutrient-dense food
• Strengthens local food systems

Economic impact:

• Local jobs
• Community food security
• Reduced healthcare costs (better nutrition)
• Ecosystem services (water filtration, pollination)
• Climate resilience

See Learning from Nature for how ecosystems model abundance.

Circular Economy

Cradle to Cradle Design:

• Products designed to be disassembled and reused
• Biological nutrients return to soil
• Technical nutrients stay in use indefinitely
• No concept of waste

Sharing Economy (done right):

• Tool libraries
• Car sharing
• Community workshops
• Co-housing
• Reduce consumption through shared access

Repair and Reuse:

• Repair cafes
• Right to repair
• Upcycling and repurposing
• Extends product life

Value-for-Value Economics

At [[ Regenerate Tampa Bay ]], we experiment with value-for-value exchange:

Rather than fixed prices, we ask:

• What value did you receive?
• What can you afford to contribute?
• How can we create access for all?

This approach:

• Acknowledges different financial capacities
• Builds relationships over transactions
• Trusts people to assess value honestly
• Creates community through exchange
• Removes financial barriers to participation

Our March 2024 Convergence used this model:

• 💙 Pay nothing (supported by community)
• 💚 $10 (cover basics)
• 💛 $30 (full cost)
• 🧡 $60 (support others + speakers)

Results:

• Everyone who wanted to come could come
• Speakers were fairly compensated
• Event was financially sustainable
• We told a new story about exchange

Measuring What Matters

Move beyond GDP to measure:

Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)

• Accounts for environmental costs
• Values household and volunteer work
• Subtracts social costs (crime, pollution)
• Measures actual well-being

Doughnut Economics

• Social foundation (meet everyone’s needs)
• Ecological ceiling (stay within planetary boundaries)
• Sweet spot: meeting needs within limits

Gross National Happiness

• Bhutan’s approach
• Measures: psychological wellbeing, health, education, cultural diversity, ecological resilience, living standards, time use, community vitality, good governance

Regenerative metrics:

• Soil health improving?
• Watershed health improving?
• Biodiversity increasing?
• Community resilience strengthening?
• Are people thriving?

Challenges & Transitions

The Extraction Lock-In

Current system is locked in:

• Debt-based money requires growth
• Corporations legally obligated to maximize shareholder profit
• Infrastructure designed for extraction
• Power concentrated in extractive institutions
• Cultural stories normalize extraction

Transition requires:

• Building alternatives alongside existing systems
• Policy changes to enable regenerative approaches
• Cultural shift in values and stories
• Growing movement of practitioners

Scale Matters

Some regenerative approaches work locally but challenge:

• Global supply chains
• Concentrated corporate power
• Financialized economy

Response:

• Start local, connect bioregionally
• Build resilient local economies now
• Don’t wait for system-level change
• Demonstrate viability of alternatives

Not a Return to Past

Regenerative economics is not:

• Going back to barter
• Rejecting all technology
• Romantic primitivism
• Impossible in modern world

It’s evolving forward:

• Using modern tools and knowledge
• Learning from traditional wisdom
• Creating new possibilities
• Adapting to our time and place

Practicing Regenerative Economics

In Your Life

Shift spending to align with values:

• Buy from local, regenerative producers
• Choose cooperatives when possible
• Support B Corps and social enterprises
• Invest in community (not extractive funds)
• Reduce consumption overall

Participate in alternative exchange:

• Join a co-op
• Time bank skills
• Gift economy (tool sharing, seed swaps)
• Local currency if available

Create value beyond money:

• Volunteer time
• Share skills and knowledge
• Build relationships
• Mentor others
• Participate in Community Gatherings

In Your Community

Build local wealth:

• Support local businesses
• Start cooperatives
• Community land trusts
• Local food systems
• Community-owned renewable energy

Create commons:

• Community gardens
• Tool libraries
• Maker spaces
• Shared resources
• Open-source knowledge

Practice solidarity:

• Mutual aid networks
• Pay-it-forward systems
• Support most vulnerable
• Share abundance

In the Bioregion

Regenerative enterprises:

• Support farms building soil
• Invest in ecosystem restoration
• Fund renewable energy
• Back regenerative businesses

Policy advocacy:

• B Corp legislation
• Community wealth building
• Green New Deal
• Ecosystem service payments
• Right to repair laws

The Transition

We’re in the space between stories:

• Old story: Extraction, competition, scarcity, growth
• New story: Regeneration, cooperation, abundance, health

Regenerative economics is the new story made real.

As Daniel Christian Wahl writes:

“We cannot transform the economic system without transforming the cultural values and stories that sustain it.”

Economic transformation requires cultural transformation. This is why Regenerative Culture and regenerative economics are inseparable.

The Deeper Question

Economics is ultimately about relationships:

• To each other
• To place
• To future generations
• To the more-than-human world

Extractive economics treats these as transactions.
Regenerative economics honors these as relationships.

What kind of relationships do we want to create through our economic exchanges?

This question is at the heart of Regenerative Culture.

Explore Further

• Regenerative Culture - The cultural foundation
• Bioregional Design - Place-based economies
• Community Gatherings - Practicing new economic relationships
• [[ Value-for-Value Economics ]] - Our experiments with exchange
• Circle Process - Democratic decision-making
• Living Systems Thinking - Understanding economic webs

“Economics is too important to leave to economists. It’s about how we organize > ourselves to meet our needs while caring for our home.” - adapted from Buckminster Fuller

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