Regenerative Design
Encyclopedia
Regenerative design is a process-oriented systems theory
based approach to design. The term "regenerative" describes processes that restore, renew or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials, creating sustainable systems that integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature. The basis is derived from systems ecology
with a closed loop input–output model or a model in which the output is greater than or equal to the input with all outputs viable and all inputs accounted for. Regenerative design is the biomimicry
of ecosystem
s that provide for all human systems to function as a closed viable ecological economics
system for all industry. It parallels ecosystems in that organic (biotic
) and synthetic (abiotic) material is not just metabolized but metamorphosed into new viable materials. Ecosystem
s and Regeneratively designed systems are holistic frameworks that seeks to create systems that are absolutely waste free. The model is meant to be applied to many different aspects of human habitation such as urban environments, buildings, economics, industry and social systems. Simply put, it is the design of ecosystem
s and human behavior, or culture
that function as human habitats.
Whereas the highest aim of sustainable development
is to continue growth without harm, the end-goal of regenerative design is to redevelop systems with absolute efficiency, that allows for the co-evolution of the human species along with other thriving species.
was built over two years and opened in 1994. In that same year Lyle's book Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development was published by Wiley. In 1995 Lyle worked with William McDonough
at Oberlin College for the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies
completed in 2000. In 2002 McDonough's book, the more popular and successful, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
was published reiterating the concepts developed by Lyle.
Lyle saw the connection between concepts developed by Bob Rodale
of the Rodale Institute for regenerative agriculture and the opportunity to develop regenerative systems for all other aspects of the world. While regenerative agriculture focused solely on agriculture, Lyle expanded its concepts and use to all systems. With regenerative agriculture, the concepts are very straight forward and simple but Lyle understood that when developing for other types of systems, more complicated ideas such as entropy
and emergy
must be taken into consideration.
Swiss architect Walter R. Stahel
developed approaches entirely similar to Lyle's also in the late 1970's but instead coined the term cradle-to-cradle design made popular by McDonough and Michael Braungart
There is also a linguistic problem with the word "sustainable." The use of the word "sustainable," by experts in the field, is meant to mean "self-sustaining". However, an attempt to change this definition to mean self sustaining is not faring well with the general public. Because the root word "sustain" means only "last" or "endure," the general public and even many non-experts in the industry define the word only as "able to last" or "the capacity to endure." The term sustainable is becoming a universal term to not refer to inequality in environmental, social and economic systems but for anything that has the capacity to endure. Under this term a plastic bottle buried in a landfill is sustainable because it has the capacity to endure.
"Regenerative" also has a linguistic problem, however a very different one, the term is still competing with the biological community in terms of its use for the re-growth of limbs. However once the word itself gains wide usage, it may become a non-specialized word and thus be applicable to all fields, much like the term "sustainable" has experienced. When this occurs it may not suffer the same fate as the term "sustainable" because a system or item must be renewable in order to be regenerated. Regenerative's root words are "re" and "generate" respectively meaning "again" and "to bring into existence." Thus the base meaning of regenerative means the "capacity to bring into existence again." So if an item or system is regenerative the item or system has the capacity to bring itself into existence again.
A completed object (an object with emergy
, or embodied energy) can however create more energy than was used to create it. I.e. a solar panel outputting more energy than its given embodied energy. However the system used to make up the solar panel: the inputs such as the materials for the object (silicone) and the solar radiation can only be regenerated if enough energy is produced to generate the materials used to make up the solar panel. However, the solar energy absorbed by the solar panels is still lost or at the very least converted into something else.
is the only University to offer a degree in regenerative design. The degree is offered as a Masters of Science in Regenerative Studies, (MSRS) and focuses on ideas developed by John T. Lyle and his books Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development and Design for Human Ecosystems. Cal Poly Pomona also offers a minor in regenerative studies through the College of Environmental Design
The Regenerative Design Institute offers courses in permaculture, nature awareness, wildcrafting, and health and wellness.
Systems theory
Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems in general, with the goal of elucidating principles that can be applied to all types of systems at all nesting levels in all fields of research...
based approach to design. The term "regenerative" describes processes that restore, renew or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials, creating sustainable systems that integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature. The basis is derived from systems ecology
Systems ecology
Systems ecology is an interdisciplinary field of ecology, taking a holistic approach to the study of ecological systems, especially ecosystems. Systems ecology can be seen as an application of general systems theory to ecology. Central to the systems ecology approach is the idea that an ecosystem...
with a closed loop input–output model or a model in which the output is greater than or equal to the input with all outputs viable and all inputs accounted for. Regenerative design is the biomimicry
Biomimicry
Biomimicry or biomimetics is the examination of nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements to emulate or take inspiration from in order to solve human problems. The term biomimicry and biomimetics come from the Greek words bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate...
of ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
s that provide for all human systems to function as a closed viable ecological economics
Ecological economics
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system for all industry. It parallels ecosystems in that organic (biotic
Biotic component
Biotic components are the living things that shape an ecosystem. A biotic factor is any living component that affects another organism, including animals that consume the organism in question, and the living food that the organism consumes. Each biotic factor needs energy to do work and food for...
) and synthetic (abiotic) material is not just metabolized but metamorphosed into new viable materials. Ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
s and Regeneratively designed systems are holistic frameworks that seeks to create systems that are absolutely waste free. The model is meant to be applied to many different aspects of human habitation such as urban environments, buildings, economics, industry and social systems. Simply put, it is the design of ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
s and human behavior, or culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
that function as human habitats.
Whereas the highest aim of sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
is to continue growth without harm, the end-goal of regenerative design is to redevelop systems with absolute efficiency, that allows for the co-evolution of the human species along with other thriving species.
History
During the late 1970's, John T. Lyle (1934–1998), a landscape architecture professor, challenged graduate students to envision a community in which daily activities were based on the value of living within the limits of available renewable resources without environmental degradation. Over the next few decades an eclectic group of students, professors and experts from around the world and crossing many disciplines developed designs for an institute to be built at Cal Poly Pomona. In 1992 the Lyle Center for Regenerative StudiesLyle Center for Regenerative Studies
The John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies, informally called LCRS, is a research facility at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in Pomona, California, United States. Based on regenerative principles of sustainable design and sustainable agriculture the center offers both a...
was built over two years and opened in 1994. In that same year Lyle's book Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development was published by Wiley. In 1995 Lyle worked with William McDonough
William McDonough
William Andrews McDonough is an American architect, founding principal of , co-founder of with German chemist Michael Braungart as well as co-author of also with Braungart...
at Oberlin College for the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies
Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies
The Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, located on the campus of Oberlin College, is one of the most advanced examples of Green building in the United States. Construction crews completed work on the building in January 2000...
completed in 2000. In 2002 McDonough's book, the more popular and successful, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things is a 2002 non-fiction book by German chemist Michael Braungart and U.S. architect William McDonough. It is a manifesto detailing how to achieve their Cradle to Cradle Design model. It calls for a radical change in industry: a switch from a...
was published reiterating the concepts developed by Lyle.
Lyle saw the connection between concepts developed by Bob Rodale
Robert Rodale
Robert David "Bob" Rodale was an American adherent of organic farming and gardening and a publisher focused on health and wellness lifestyle magazines and books.-Early life and education:...
of the Rodale Institute for regenerative agriculture and the opportunity to develop regenerative systems for all other aspects of the world. While regenerative agriculture focused solely on agriculture, Lyle expanded its concepts and use to all systems. With regenerative agriculture, the concepts are very straight forward and simple but Lyle understood that when developing for other types of systems, more complicated ideas such as entropy
Entropy
Entropy is a thermodynamic property that can be used to determine the energy available for useful work in a thermodynamic process, such as in energy conversion devices, engines, or machines. Such devices can only be driven by convertible energy, and have a theoretical maximum efficiency when...
and emergy
Embodied energy
Embodied energy is defined as the sum of energy inputs that was used in the work to make any product, from the point of extraction and refining materials, bringing it to market, and disposal / re-purposing of it...
must be taken into consideration.
Swiss architect Walter R. Stahel
Walter R. Stahel
Walter R. Stahel is a Swiss architect who has been influential in developing the field of sustainability. He has written on what some term Regenerative Design, and may have first applied the "cradle to cradle" term in this area....
developed approaches entirely similar to Lyle's also in the late 1970's but instead coined the term cradle-to-cradle design made popular by McDonough and Michael Braungart
Michael Braungart
Michael Braungart is a German chemist who advocates that humans can reduce our negative environmental impact by redesigning industrial production processes...
Regenerative versus sustainable
Regenerative and sustainable are essentially the same thing except for a one key point, if the world were to become regenerative or sustainable, under the term sustainable, lost ecological systems are not returned to existence. Under regenerative those lost systems can ultimately begin "regenerating" back into existence.There is also a linguistic problem with the word "sustainable." The use of the word "sustainable," by experts in the field, is meant to mean "self-sustaining". However, an attempt to change this definition to mean self sustaining is not faring well with the general public. Because the root word "sustain" means only "last" or "endure," the general public and even many non-experts in the industry define the word only as "able to last" or "the capacity to endure." The term sustainable is becoming a universal term to not refer to inequality in environmental, social and economic systems but for anything that has the capacity to endure. Under this term a plastic bottle buried in a landfill is sustainable because it has the capacity to endure.
"Regenerative" also has a linguistic problem, however a very different one, the term is still competing with the biological community in terms of its use for the re-growth of limbs. However once the word itself gains wide usage, it may become a non-specialized word and thus be applicable to all fields, much like the term "sustainable" has experienced. When this occurs it may not suffer the same fate as the term "sustainable" because a system or item must be renewable in order to be regenerated. Regenerative's root words are "re" and "generate" respectively meaning "again" and "to bring into existence." Thus the base meaning of regenerative means the "capacity to bring into existence again." So if an item or system is regenerative the item or system has the capacity to bring itself into existence again.
Ecology vs. Environmentalism
Regenerative Design recognizes the major problems in common environmentalist arguments. Many environmentalists pull what supports their arguments but ignore what might be detrimental to their argument. Regenerists utilize all systems of ecology in order to design systems including ones that may seem destructive such as evolution.Preservation versus conservation
Regenerists place more importance on conservation than on preservation. It is recognized in regenerative design that humans are a part of natural ecosystems. To exclude people is to create dense areas that destroy pockets of existing ecosystems while preserving pockets of ecosystems without allowing them to change naturally over time. By incorporating people into ecosystems all inputs are pulled from local areas and all outputs are accounted for creating a waste-less system. When human systems cease to create waste, what would once have been considered waste becomes a resource for the input in which the output comes from.Food systems
Regenerists call for the creation of demand on agricultural systems to produce regenerative foods. This is often compared to the creation of the demand for organic food. Organic foods have a relation to regenerative foods in that regenerative food is all organic, but not all organic food is regenerative. Organic food is not regenerative if the byproduct of the food crop is not a resource for the next seasons crops and if other inputs for the crop did not come from other resources within the farm which it is grown in.Size of regenerative systems
The size of the regenerative system effects its regenerativity. The smaller a system is designed the more likely it is to be stable and regenerative. Multiple small regenerative systems that are put together to create larger regenerative systems help to create supplies for multiple human-inclusive-ecological systems.Quantifying regenerativity
No system can be absolutely regenerative, in other words there can be no system that is 100 % regenerative. Due to evolution and the continuing and largely unpredictable changes that occur over the lifetime of Earth, it is impossible to create a 100 % regenerative system. One can only reach 99.999 % efficiency, the ultimate goal. However, with the energy material interchange, it is possible to create enough energy to potentially create the equivalent amount of material used to create the system in the first instance. See example below.A completed object (an object with emergy
Emergy
Emergy is the available energy of one kind that is used up in transformations directly and indirectly to make a product or service. Emergy accounts for, and in effect, measures quality differences between forms of energy. Emergy is an expression of all the energy used in the work processes that...
, or embodied energy) can however create more energy than was used to create it. I.e. a solar panel outputting more energy than its given embodied energy. However the system used to make up the solar panel: the inputs such as the materials for the object (silicone) and the solar radiation can only be regenerated if enough energy is produced to generate the materials used to make up the solar panel. However, the solar energy absorbed by the solar panels is still lost or at the very least converted into something else.
Education
Currently Cal Poly Pomona home to the Lyle Center for Regenerative StudiesLyle Center for Regenerative Studies
The John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies, informally called LCRS, is a research facility at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in Pomona, California, United States. Based on regenerative principles of sustainable design and sustainable agriculture the center offers both a...
is the only University to offer a degree in regenerative design. The degree is offered as a Masters of Science in Regenerative Studies, (MSRS) and focuses on ideas developed by John T. Lyle and his books Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development and Design for Human Ecosystems. Cal Poly Pomona also offers a minor in regenerative studies through the College of Environmental Design
The Regenerative Design Institute offers courses in permaculture, nature awareness, wildcrafting, and health and wellness.
See also
- Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental StudiesAdam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental StudiesThe Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, located on the campus of Oberlin College, is one of the most advanced examples of Green building in the United States. Construction crews completed work on the building in January 2000...
- Appropriate technologyAppropriate technologyAppropriate technology is an ideological movement originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr...
- Cradle to cradleCradle to CradleCradle-to-cradle design is a biomimetic approach to the design of systems. It models human industry on nature's processes in which materials are viewed as nutrients circulating in healthy, safe metabolisms...
- Landscape urbanismLandscape urbanismLandscape Urbanism is a theory of urbanism arguing that landscape, rather than architecture, is more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban experience. Landscape Urbanism has emerged as a theory in the last fifteen years...
- Lyle Center for Regenerative StudiesLyle Center for Regenerative StudiesThe John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies, informally called LCRS, is a research facility at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in Pomona, California, United States. Based on regenerative principles of sustainable design and sustainable agriculture the center offers both a...
- SustainabilitySustainabilitySustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
- Walter R. StahelWalter R. StahelWalter R. Stahel is a Swiss architect who has been influential in developing the field of sustainability. He has written on what some term Regenerative Design, and may have first applied the "cradle to cradle" term in this area....