UNPACKING REGENERATION
Iread the recent feature from WeAr Denim where industry innovators offered a range of perspectives on new technologies. It seemed half the comments were focused on addressing critical problems like water use. Yet the other half were focused on emerging opportunities, such as notoriously water-thirsty technologies like AI. Surely, I thought, there is very little point saving all that water just to waste it again cooling down AI servers. But what do I know?
Our strategic design practice helps organizations make things people want, rather than make people want things. Recently, as a byproduct of a futures project with the United Nations Development Programme, I began to feel both “very” small in the face of planetary problems, and yet “driven” to try and do something about them.
Reading widely across industries, I kept coming across the word “regenerative.” It was used in urban planning, in agriculture, and of course in fashion, too. I wondered what the principles underpinning the broader concept of regeneration between industries are based on? What does the industry know?
Herein lies the issue. Regenerative systems help maintain positive, enforcing cycles which support life on earth. It means thinking beyond just what a person knows, or what an industry knows. It spans environmental, societal, and economic factors. It draws on older, wiser ways from cultures and communities around the world. It claims us as a part of nature, not apart from it.
Too often, sustainability becomes small so it can be manageable. It focusses on the impact of your actions, maintaining the business model that got you here.
Regeneration demands you think bigger, broader, and most crucially, together. The ideas around material sourcing, waste reduction, personalization, and many more, are abundant. Weaving them together is the trick; a collective effort to become a net positive industry for the planet.
I wonder if denim could become the hard-wearing garment a hard-worn world needs. Because what people really need is a pair of jeans that doesn’t cost the earth.