Regeneration means healing, replenishing or restoring.

Learning From Nature

Nature is regenerative. In biology, for instance, regeneration refers to the process where some organisms grow back lost body parts, like a salamander regrowing its tail.

When we talk about a regenerative development, we mean “giving back more than we take” or “net positive.”

It’s about healing and strengthening the systems that support life, like the soil, biodiversity, and communities, so they can thrive long into the future.

The goal is to follow the principles of nature to create conditions in which life can adapt itself and flourish within our constantly changing world.

Ancient Wisdom and Indigenous Knowledge

The concept of regeneration is not new. It has deep roots in Indigenous knowledge systems, where living in harmony with nature and giving back to the Earth has always been a way of life.

Many Indigenous cultures have practiced regenerative principles for centuries: caring for land and communities in ways that restore balance and support long-term wellbeing.

In the Western world, the idea gained traction in the 1970s through the regenerative agriculture movement, which explored ways of farming that restore soil health and biodiversity.

Beyond Sustainability

The term resurfaced around 2010, fueled by rising climate awareness and growing frustration with the limits of sustainability. Sustainability was (and still is) often used as a green bandage.

It is a nice flyer or catchy slogan to justify maintaining the damaging status quo by claiming to do “less harm.”

However, people began to ask: What if doing less harm isn’t enough? What if we need to actively repair and rethink our systems?

Unlike sustainability, regeneration poses: How can we do good? How can we grow food, build businesses, and live in ways that heal the planet, support people, and create lasting wellbeing for everyone?

Changing Worldviews

Another way to look at this mindset shift is by tracing the move from ego-centric, to eco-centric, to what some now call the seva worldview.

In the ego-centric (or degenerative ) mindset, humans see themselves as separate from nature, and in control of it.

This way of thinking puts the individual and their needs above everything else: profit over people, efficiency over empathy, and the exploitation of natural resources without care for the consequences.

It leaves us feeling disconnected: from nature, from each other, and from a deeper sense of meaning.

This extractive worldview has caused decades of environmental damage. The “me first, then others” mentality has weakened our sense of collective responsibility, leading to isolation and loneliness.

It also fuels polarisation and inequality through an “us-versus-them” dynamic.

But most of all, it denies our basic human need for connection, purpose, and belonging.

Eco-Centric Thinking

In the 1970s, reports like The Limits to Growth and the Brundtland Report sparked a shift toward a more eco-centric (or sustainable ) mindset. Humans were now seen as equal to and a part of nature. With that connection came a duty to reduce our environmental footprint and protect the planet.

At its core, this mindset carried a clear message: take what you need, but don’t compromise the needs of future generations. Or: preserve natural resources, but for the sake of human wellbeing.

As a consequence, nature was still treated as a resource, something to manage, rather than relate to.

This approach has fallen short: biodiversity continues to decline, and greenhouse gas emissions are still rising.

Towards the Seva Worldview

Many now call for a deeper shift: the seva worldview, sometimes referred to as regenerative sustainability.

Seva, Sanskrit for “being in service,” is rooted in reciprocity. This is the heart of regeneration: nature supports humans, and humans, in turn, support nature.

It asks us to move through the world with empathy, care, and intention. As nicely phrased by Ed Gillespie:

“The planet does not want to be saved. Or rescued. Or even changed. Our planet wants to be loved. Love is not a game of numbers and spreadsheets, checks and balances, debts and contracts. It is an exalted dance of joy, respect and gleeful, mutual appreciation and true partnership“
–Gillespie (2020)

Regeneration calls us to be in service to nature, to each other, and to future generations. It reminds us to strengthen the social and economic systems that support life and to build communities rooted in trust, care and belonging.

In Service to Life

In this light, it invites us to ask: Are my choices life-giving? Are my actions helping to heal and strengthen the communities I’m part of?

This highlights that regeneration is not a new trend or another “green bandage,” it is a transformation of how we relate, act and imagine our future.