Blog - The Transform Series

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Usury is the sin that commodifies people and planet

Kevin Jones

How do we keep the lights on, avoid revolution and turmoil, keep children in school and people in work, yet still manage to fundamentally.

What is Blended Finance and Is It Needed?

Design for the Climate Crisis: A 4-Step Framework

Usury is the sin that commodifies people and planet

Interest payments are designed as a way to transfer money from the poor to the rich. That system of interest, compounded, requires exponential growth and the commodification of people and nature. There is no morality governing the money put in the first pocket by a two pocket thinker; he is doing what the system demands

What is Blended Finance and Is It Needed?

Interest in blended finance, it seems, is growing in popularity. Having personally designed and invested in multiple transactions involving blended finance structures, I felt it was time to take a step back from my usual discussion topics and describe what blended finance is, what conditions should be met for it to work well, and delve

Design for the Climate Crisis: A 4-Step Framework

By Raz Godelnik Let’s face it. We have a design problem when it comes to addressing the climate crisis. We have good ideas (Project Drawdown), but we fail quite miserably when it comes to actually implement them. It is time to consider a different design approach that is implementation-oriented and is serious about context and

Take a stand.

That's the theme of the Transform/Neighborhood Economics conference next Spring in the Twin Cities.

Designing a Biocultural Diversity Fund

If I were designing a fund to create wealth and culturally relevant assets in indigenous cultures while also making money and paying investors, it might look like this. Or at least, this is the first look.

Ejido Verde may have cracked the code on how to pay for the trees we need for climate change.

The best thing we can do for climate change is plant and maintain millions and millions of trees. But finding the patient capital, slow money that can wait until harvest to get paid for investing in those trees is hard to find. Even people who call themselves impact investors most often want their money back

Bypassing Banks & Disrupting Mortgages with Somali Immigrants

I was recently chatting with some Episcopal clergy and theologian friends of mine and my wife’s colleagues. The following is how I described our idea to solve housing shortages for Somalian immigrants. An imam who’s built mosques or islamic centers in 30 cities is going to get 200 people to collectively buy two houses, starting

Somali led Minneapolis partnership coalesces

Star Finance, a Somali led social enterprise bringing a disruptive, community-created home ownership solution within reach of muslims in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, is partnering with Mission Driven Finance, a multicultural investment bank with a track record in Islamic finance, to build the plumbing to make the faith compliant financial housing

How SOCAP Changed “Two Pocket Thinking”

This is the second blog post in the series on collective behavior change. It addresses one of the key questions we use in the Transform labs; whose thinking needs to change. Read the first post here. SOCAP, the world’s largest impact investing and social enterprise conference, was born in Bill Gates’ office. We wanted to invest in a fair

Catfish and Collective Behavior Change

This is the first of three stories about collective behavior I have been working on. I am writing them to Calvin Nguyen, co founder of Brain Mind. I’ve been invited into Brain Mind’s ecosystem and my focus is on collective behavior change. In other words – what we need to do to ensure our collective survival

A Perfect Example of a Systems Entrepreneur

How do you get 1,000 people in your community to invest $500 to solve a problem the community has? If you are Said Sheikh Abdi, you start by having conversations with other Somalis, people who have a big network, sometimes taking an hour and a half. His pitch is simple: what he’s proposing can solve

Star Finance: A Mortgage Solution for Somali Refugees in Minneapolis

The Transform lab focused on creating culturally appropriate and non predatory mortgages for Somali immigrants in Minneapolis looks like it’s going to create a real answer to the problem. Mission Driven Finance, an innovative finance company, has signed on to build the “plumbing” of the mortgage product (underwriting criteria, credit enhancements, etc) for a Somali led startup

Kaleidofin: Can a Disruptive Fin-tech Create a Mass-Market for Savings and Investment in India?

The Impact Money Blog sat down with Puneet Gupta to find out why he left Dvara Trust (formerly known as IFMR Trust), a group he co-founded in 2007, to start Kaleidofin, an ambitious fintech company that wants to make savings and investment convenient for millions of customers at the base of the economic pyramid. By Anthony Randazzo, CFA

Radical Supply Chain Transparency in the Age of Blockchain

Scott Leonard, CEO, and Matt Reynolds, President, the leaders of the pioneering B Corporation & ethical clothing brand INDIGENOUS are doubling down on an already impressive commitment to “crafting a supply chain focused on the needs of our artisans.”

Goal: Healthy, Vibrant, Resilient, Rural Communities from Farm to Fork

By thinking about the food system, we can see that it can be an engine of growth or contribute to a vicious cycle of collapse. We can build an engine of growth by relocalizing the food system and attract people to come back to the heartland. What they are doing can be replicated throughout the Midwest. It will take telling new stories about health and agriculture to continue to spur the engine of growth, the virtuous cycle of healthy agriculture and healthy people.

What is a Holistic Management Framework?

This is a guest post by Sarah Savory, sister to Rodger Savory, who spoke at Transform and daughter of Allan, the father of holistic management. She wrote it in Seth Itzkan’s soil4climate group, but it was going to vanish in the flow of Facebook Groups where great content that makes you stop and see something

Leveraging Models and a bit of Chaos for Systemic Transformation

By Denny Pallenberg Leveraging Models and Chaos for Systemic Transformation Transformation at its core is about achieving a higher state. To reach that higher state, change agents must clearly understand what system they are trying to change and what goal they are working to achieve. Gather Lab’s first conference in the Transform series shared a

Innovating Regenerative Agriculture through Farm to Hospital Multicapitalism

Over the last few months I’ve been collaborating with Carol Hays (The Collaborative Strategic Group), Erin Meyer (Basil’s Harvest) and Claudia Meglin (MetaIntegral) to get ready for our LAB at Transform next week. The lab is focused on “scaling regenerative agriculture in the heart of the Midwest.” Carol and Erin are both based in Illinois

World Turned Upside Down

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” – Thomas Paine As Transform approaches, the pressing issue on our mind is how we can get the most out of this opportunity. As the conference webpage says, transformation take more than ideas – it demands action. We have written several posts about

Video: Regenerative Agriculture In The Heartland, A Farm To Institution Solution

Feat: Carol Hays & Erin Meyer Climate Change. Diet-Related Chronic Disease. The food system is bankrupting our healthcare system. Basil’s Harvest and our partners invite you to become part of an incredible opportunity to change the way that we are growing, preparing, and delivering food into institutions and communities. Our collaborative team of passionate local,

New Dashboard Wants to Distinguish Heroes from Villains Based on Climate Action and CEO Pay Ratio

While it may be difficult to fit sustainability into a Marvel comics’ narrative, we find ourselves at a moment where we desperately need to know which companies behave more like Captain America and which act more like Thanos. A new dashboard offers some help!

An Intention of Wants

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin. In the last post we discussed why it was important to improve association to solve wicked problems. A social contract facilitates the structure of better associations and aligns preferences. But we must pay attention to how the members of a community negotiate with each

Art of Association, Portrait of a Social Contract

“Among the laws that rule human societies, there is one which seems to be more precise and clear than all others. If men are to remain civilized or to become so, the art of associating together must grow and improve in the same ratio in which the equality of conditions is increased.” – Alexis de

Video: Carol Sanford

What does "transform" really mean? Carol Sanford fills us in.

Excerpt from “This View of Life” by David Sloan Wilson

From the Introduction:Whatever you think you currently know about evolution, please move it to one side to make room for what I am about to share in the pages of this book. I think you’ll find that my argument doesn’t fall into any current category. Politically it isn’t left, right, or libertarian. It’s not anti-religious

Protecting What Is, Saving What Could Be

If the Tragedy of the Commons diminishes what is, the Tragedy of the Anticommons destroys what could be. Our first two posts discussed how a lack of formal structures or a dominant central power can inhibit collaboration. But at least those flaws are readily apparent to the agents in the group. People can feel friction

Augmented Social Labs

By Jack Park, Mark Szpakowski, and Marc-Antoine Parent “The power of solutions lies primarily in the people who believe in and own them” – V. Srinavas We currently have an opportunity to explore ways to augment the Social Labs movement. Stuart A. Kauffman tells the story of Gertrude the flying squirrel: Around 63 million years ago

Video: Ethan Soloviev

There are 4 paradigms in agriculture - Extractive, Conservative, Restorative and Regenerative. Ethan Soloviev of HOWGOOD tells us more.

Peril of Paradigms & the Heroism of Heresy

Capital produces action, and that can lead to change. But there is no guarantee that change will occur, or that any change will be positive. Just as financial capital can warp people and outcomes, so too can other forms of capital. As we discussed in the last post, organization is an engine to generate social

Video: Claudia Meglin of MetaIntegral

Talking to Claudia Meglin of MetaIntegral on what it means to have a "Wisdom Economy"

Organization as Social Capital: Lessons from the Impact Hub

Social capital is trust, which makes it one of the most difficult resources to cultivate. It is also one of the most important things to have. Building trust between two people is hard. Developing trust at scale can be insurmountable. We build trust through personal interactions. A series of poor individual exchanges can spread and

Using a Multi-capital Approach to Design a Wisdom Economy for Refugees and Immigration

In our global-interconnected world, the issue of refugees and immigration is more important than ever. This is a multifaceted issue with many layers and aspects. It is a domain that is often both heart wrenching and inspiring. It is a topic that brings us into direct contact with our own individual and shared humanity. It’s

Developing the Transforming Finance System

By Steve Wadell The Transformations Series (not to be confused the TRANSFORM series) is an important step forward in developing a badly needed system for transforming finance. Such a system will both massively upscale the resources that transformation requires, and also transform finance in line with regenerative futures. There are a lot of organizations and networks

Sunny Days Ahead: How SunCulture is Harnessing the Sun to Irrigate Small Farms Across Africa

By Anthony Randazzo, CFA Originally posted at the Impact Money Blog “I was always motivated to solve big problems” says Samir Ibrahim, CEO and co-founder of SunCulture, a provider of irrigation solutions for smallholder farmers in Kenya. I spoke with Samir on a recent trip to Nairobi, and he explained to me why he is on

A Marketplace That Values Refugees is Forming

There is a broad contingent of players who want to create a marketplace that values and is centered on refugees and immigrants. These players actually see refugees as investable.

Federating the Frontier: Building a Better System For All of Us

The next great frontier was revealed 223 days before mankind took its first steps on the moon. In a small auditorium in San Francisco, Doug Engelbart revealed the future of computing. Windows, the mouse, networks; it was all there. It was the discovery of the Digital New World. Beyond the obvious importance of the introduction

Eating Sand: Tasting Textures of Communication in Warm Data

For years I have written about the systemic crises of our times in terms of tenderness, and rawness. I have exposed my inner world in its morphing potential. I have felt it important to offset the many graphs and articles that blaze facts of climate change, people trafficking, addiction, immigration crisis, racism and wealth gap

Generating Systemic Wealth : Misconceptions About Wealth Generation

The intention to authorize a wealth-building mechanism (via the corporation) has been undermined by at least three common myths about what wealth is and how it is generated.

CNote: A Retail Impact Investment Revolution in the Making?

The Impact Money Blog spoke with Yuliya Tarasava, co-founder and COO of CNote, to learn what motivated her to create a retail impact investing platform and how it might be a game-changing innovation.

Video: Christian Shearer of RegenNetwork

Christian Shearer of RegenNetwork talks about financing complicated regenerative agriculture projects.

A Quest to Build a Lab on Refugees

As you know by now, a major component of what we’re building at Transform are ongoing deep dives into issues which we call labs. Labs are for self identified groups with a clear goal that have figured something out and are ready to take it to the next level. Like Audrey Seilan and her SDG

Our Listing of Regenerative Agriculture and Forestry Funds is Here

Regenerative agriculture, forestry, and agroforestry funds are part of a lesser-known but rapidly growing US$24 billion funding base fueling the next generation of innovations and practices to address climate change The TRANSFORM Regenerative Agriculture and Forestry Funds List is the most comprehensive listing of funds focused on net-positive agriculture, ranching, agroforestry, and related food systems, and the

Video: Nora Bateson

Nora Bateson is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and educator, as well as President of the International Bateson Institute, based in Sweden. Her work asks the question “How we can improve our perception of the complexity we live within, so we may improve our interaction with the world?

Video: Joel Glanzburg Of PatternMind

Joel Glanzburg, Applied Naturalist, is founder of PatternMind.com and principal at Regenesis Group. He'll be joining us at Transform in May, 2019. I had a good chat with him discussion how understanding process and patterns in nature ca

Video: Ferananda Ibarra on Commons Engine

Ferananda Ibarra leads key impact projects to further the development of a thriving planet at Commons Engine. I took a few minutes to chat with her about commons engine and how they are using Holochain to help producers and entrepreneurs move from economies of extraction to Commons of shared abundance.

Regenerative Principal: Five Steps to Spiritual Capital

By Gary Gach Problems cannot be solved with the same mind set that created them. — Einstein Transform is using a map of 10distinct types of capital, and how they interact, to measure healthy impact and regenerative growth. Of the ten, counted as a series, I’d like to spotlight the tenth, known as spiritual capital. My nickname for

Using a 10-capital Asset Map

Below is a recent exchange between Kevin Jones and Sean Esbjörn-Hargens that occurred in an online Slack channel as part of a 10-week online Master Course in Designing Wisdom Economies. The course focuses on measuring and growing 10 distinct types of capital. Sean is teaching the course and Kevin is one of the 40 participants. Sean

Ecoopoly: An SDG Game

By Audrey Selian We are excited to announce the development of a multi-stakeholder game that aims to solve water and sanitation issues by teaching a more systems thinking approach to problems. It’s called Ecoopoly. The Ecoopoly team is based in Switzerland and working under the auspices of the Social Transformation Lab at MIT using the

Kevin Rowell: system entrepreneur for refugees/immigrants guild

Here is how I explained what I’m doing to one of the circles of advisors we are gathering as we, the people behind Transform, launch a multi year exploration of the issues of refugees and immigrants. We are partnering on several initiatiaves focused on this area, including co creating a topic map guided by Jack

Who Transform Was Built For

I need to come clean about what the Transform event is for me. It’s a chance to make the largely invisible work of system entrepreneurs visible, and therefore fundable, investable and the first job you hire for when you are working at landscape or other system scale. When you are making the impact creator who

Q&A: Jean Pierre Candiotti & Kevin Jones

Since 2017, Jean Pierre Candiotti (JP) has empowered more than 100 refuges in cooperation with different educational institutions, municipalities and businesses at the local, regional and inter-continental level. Among other works, he has designed the Refugee Entrepreneurship Sweden program and Digital Inclusive Entrepreneurship Scandinavia, a multi-sectoral and trans-national educational program partially funded by the Nordics

Pitch: Crowdfunding a Campaign to Build The Refugees Transition Lab

By JP Candiotti I have a passion and skill for building local eco-systems and connecting networks and resources to help people use their talents for personal and economic growth. With the help of Kevin Jones and Transform, we are on a quest to accelerate the transition of refugees into Nordic societies. It is an endeavor that

Pitch: Funding a “Farm to Food Service Solution”

envision leaders in healthcare, nutrition, and organic farming working together to form an innovative sector that protects public health from climate change and accelerates the transition to a low carbon economy while improving community resilience, health equity and access to nutritious food.

How Immigrants Saving in Small Groups Provide “Credit Where Credit is Due”

Instead of better microfinance institutions or expanding savings group programs I propose building on what immigrants are already doing to advance their financial lives.

Transform begins multi year focus on refugees

At Transform we are beginning a multi year focus on refugees and immigrants. We’ll be looking locally in the Bay Area, nationally and internationally, at the ways the system is broken economically, politically and societally. We’ll be highlighting things that are working in some places that could be replicated somewhere else. We are also looking

Transform is what should always happen after conferences

Our hypothesis : Many of us who care about specific issues have learned to come together, at a common event to share thinking, insights, ideas and contact information. We’ve put on world class events that bring thousands of people from scores of countries who want to move capital to the intersection of money and meaning.

An Argument for Knowledge Gardens

By Kevin Rowell Since the first humans, people have moved from their place of birth — be it for love, better living conditions, or simply greener pastures. People also move because of violence, oppression, environmental degradation, economic and social well being, and a litany of factors. Unfortunately, in these times, mass migration is seldom completely

Video: Laurie Lane-Zucker

Laurie Lane Zucker sits down with me to talk about the future of philanthropy. In a new world of impact minded-ness what role does philanthropy play? How will it evolve alongside impact investing to make a real difference?

Video: Jonny Price (WeFunder)

Jonny Price at Wefunder sat down with me the other day to talk about the ways that #EquityCrowdfunding is allowing ordinary folks to reap rewards while investing in their community. You'll be a Chattanooga Football Club fan after watching this viddy...#trans4mseries

Video: Jeffrey Ashe

Jeffrey Ashe, Lecturer and Research Fellow, Financial Inclusion and International Development, sits down to talk about Savings Circles with Nick Aster on the eve of the TRANSFORM conference

Community-led R&D can power job growth in small-town America

By Nick Smoot, Originally Published on Venture Beat Over the past few years, economic inequality has become a topic of focus for economists, politicians, and leaders of industry. Tech titans are starting to discuss concepts like the future of capitalism, universal basic income, and wealth redistribution as the technology they’ve developed starts to automate more and more jobs. New

Crowdfunding System Entrepreneurs

In a couple weeks, we’re having a zoom call with two experts on crowdfunding. We have an idea we want to try that I’m getting pretty excited about. It’s kind of complicated: crowdfunding system entrepreneurs. Why? To make this often invisible role visible and for it to become a line item on system change budgets.

Africa in the Balance: A Vision of Sensitive Action

By Leland Lehrman Introduction Modern civilization has discovered the hard way that the social and ecological practices of indigenous people are often better suited to planetary health and happiness. That does not mean modernity has produced nothing of value, just that its fragmented system of governance and production leaves no one in charge of the

Entrepreneur Inclusion — What’s In It For Me?

How do I find an Inclusive Community for my business?

Innovation Collective will Present at Transform

A message from Nick Smoot, founder, Innovation Collective First I want to say how honored I am to share our crazy experiment, Innovation Collective, with all of you at Transform! A few years ago I was sitting in a room as Bill Gates, Tony Blair, and Michael Milken were discussing the massive shifts in our

Lineages of Regenerative Agriculture (Short Version)

I’m writing a more complete and expanded version of this article, including graphics and structured analyses of these lineages. Sign up for my mailing list if you want to read the finished version. There are 5 primary intellectual and practical Lineages of people who are using the term “Regenerative Agriculture”. Each lineage has a different definition, farming philosophy, and

Video: Sean Esbjorn-Hargens on “Ten Forms of Capital”

I talk to Sean Esbjörn-Hargens at MetaIntegral about the concept of "Ten Forms of Capital"... understanding where philanthropic capital is needed and what story it needs, compared to investor capital, etc and what story it tells with the goal of helping to catalyze capital to communities & climate.

Impact Entrepreneurship: February 2019

Originally published on LinkedIn, this is Laurie Lane-Zucker’s monthly wrap up of the Impact Investing world Wednesday, February 14, 2019, Noon Eastern (U.S.) Time Senior leaders from Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation discuss the role of philanthropy in building an impact economy and a Call to Action for philanthropies to step up

The Salt in the Broth, Warm Data and Systems Change

Is there space in the keyboard strokes for the pink of life? Assembling letters into words and images that reach into feelings, inviting memories, things once known, regrets, and touching the purple bruises of this moment. Is there a chance now to say what we have known and previously tried not to voice? People will

Colorado — “The Delaware of Cooperative Law”

Benefits to Incorporating a Worker Cooperative in Colorado

Opportunity Zone investors want impact. Let’s help them get it.

By Lisa Green Hall and Jennifer Collins for Impact Alpha Photo by Tyler Perry Studios Not since 2000 (with the New Markets Tax Credit legislation) has a tax policy so dramatically captured the attention of investors and community development practitioners as has Opportunity Zones. Regulations have not yet been finalized. Opportunity Funds are just beginning to close. But our early

Video: Bill Baue

I had a chance to sit down with Bill Baue the other day to learn a little more about Reporting 3.0 and the work they're doing on transformative workshops - with some of his insight coming to the TRANSFORM conference in San Francisco, May 22-24! hashtag#trans4mseries

Two New Labs Coalescing for Transform

Image by PixaBay Two labs are coming to Transform that I am working closely with and am really excited about. Labs, you might remember create systemic solutions that are ready to go to scale or replicate but need some key blockage removed or a bit of a strategic life. Labs provide a place to workshop

Regenerative Real Estate Building Wealth for All: Coming to Transform

Well designed real estate revitalization projects have shown they are capable of regenerating a neighborhood or a small town; bringing it back to life and making sure people in marginalized communities get not just jobs, but ownership of thriving businesses. A job helps you get by, but an asset like owning a part of a

Using the Ten Forms of Capital for Impact

An exclusive focus on financial capital and profit creation for shareholders all too easily leads to an externalization and harmful liquidation of many if not all the other types of capitals.

Impact Economy Opportunity Zones

If you are an investor looking to have impact and for the latest, greatest thing since sliced bread, opportunity zones may well be your XS Max, Hyperloop and Impossible Burger rolled into one. A multi-billion dollar investment fund proclaimed this week, at the Opal Impact Investing Forum in New York City I attended, that they had set aside 25% of their assets for opportunity zone investing.

Introducing the Integrated Impact Finance Vehicle (IIFV)

Originally published on Linked In. Photo by Michael Longmire on Unsplash Everybody loves a success story. Entrepreneurship is built on them, even if they only happen less than 10% of the time. Let me tell you the story of a successful impact enterprise. The company’s founder started with the seed of a great, disruptive idea (yes, it came

The ‘Purpose Paradigm’: Solution or Scam?

There is a clear and deepening frustration amongst some with the rhetoric of “purpose”. For those of us who believe in the power of business to do good, this is an opportunity for some honest self-reflection. But ultimately purpose is still worth believing in for three good reasons.

Place-based Education, Entrepreneurship and Investing for an “Impact Economy”

A little over twenty years ago, Dr. John Elder and I coined the term “place-based education”to give a name to the pedagogical model we were developing at The Orion Society with funding from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

Darwin vs. Impact Investing

Originally Published on Linked In. Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash One thing about venture capitalists: they love their Charles Darwin. Sitting at a restaurant overlooking a Newport harbor recently, sipping an Arnold Palmer and waiting for my lobster salad to arrive, I turned to my lunch companion, an experienced tech VC turned ‘impact investor” from Connecticut’s Gold Coast

Generating Systemic Wealth: Generating Wealth for the Co-Creators

Originally posted on Medium The co-creators invest in growing intelligence, wisdom and the ability to create a better future for themselves. They do this by being challenged to contribute their talents and motivation to meaningful work. They are most motivated when they are self-directed and well supplied with mentors and human development opportunities. Even for

Generating Systemic Wealth: Evaluating Wealth Generation for Each Stakeholder

A business can only be a Responsible Corporation if its takes on wealth-generating from a living systems mindset. Here is a living systems way of thinking about wealth generation for each of the stakeholders in a Responsible Corporation.

Warm Data: Contextual Research and New forms of Information

Originally published at Hackernoon Recognizing that complex problems are not susceptible to predetermined solutions, the International Bateson Institute has taken up the task of generating a category of information specifically dedicated to description of contextual relational interaction, calling it “Warm Data”. The units of knowledge by which reasoning and calculations are made namely, data, information,

Good Housing=Good Health; Hospitals Invest in Affordable Living

In the United States, place of residence is a huge indicator of life expectancy. So if a hospital is committed to the well-being of its community, beyond traditional health care, it makes sense to invest in quality, affordable housing for personal and communal well-being. Hospitals across the U.S. are doing just that. In May 2018,

Why Labs?

At Transform, we are trying to shift the perspectives of investors from their silos to a bigger picture. We want environmentally focused investors to be able to do meaningful deals that help communities respond to the twin threats of climate change and wealth disparity in ways that work for people in every neighborhood. We have

Activists Working To Expand Regenerative Agriculture In Great Lakes, Around The World

Republished from Your Mark on the World. Regenerative agriculture is suddenly sexy. Practitioners have been advocating its use for more than a decade but only recently has it begun to catch media attention and with it the public imagination. Why now? Some might say that it is because we are just waking up to the

Why Transform Now?

When we created SOCAP, it had one main goal: to demolish the dominant two pocket thinking myth. That is, that you could only invest for financial return and later on give back some of that return to “do good”. That’s been done, or is nearly done. People now understand that they can invest for good

#BubbleSharing & #BubbleSurfing for Cross-Network Learning

Originally published on Medium The combination of #BubbleSharing & #BubbleSurfing is a great way to accelerate cross-network learning. What is it exactly? Let’s start with #BubbleSharing. In our culturally-determined pursuit of “objectivity”, we often try to remove our biases from the picture and strive for a comprehensive overview when we attempt to synthesize what is

Sharing My Bubble: Tuning into the Global Field of Systemic Change on the Eve of 2019

When Kevin Jones asked me to “unload” what I am noticing in the field of systemic transformation to a radically better world, I realized that doing it for a broad audience will be quite a challenge. With so much information that is never complete and always changing, it is hard to settle with a particular overview, but

Agrihoods Grow Local Food, Future Farmers, and Real Estate Value

For more than three decades starting in 1963, a sprawling Hunt-Wesson factory in Davis, California operated as the embodiment of modern industrial agriculture. Taking in millions of processing tomatoes trucked in on open flatbed trailers from throughout California’s Central Valley, the 564,000 square-foot plant rendered them into Hunt’s ketchup, tomato paste, and other supermarket staples.

‘Regeneration’ hits the mainstream, but what about the deeper practice?

Republished with permission from Medium A couple of days ago, Anna Pollock, who is currently engaged in a deep inquiry into what ‘regenerative tourism’ might look like, sent Michelle Holliday, Giles Hutchins and me a message alerting us to a recent ‘trend report’ on regeneration by a major marketing and communications firm. The speed at which the regeneration

Agroforestry and Drawdown

In this second post of our BRASA series, we’re going to dive a bit deeper into the carbon drawdown implications of agroforestry. Why? Because they are massive!

Swerving

The work of the coming decades is not the work of manufacturing, of software development, or of retail seduction, it is the work of caring. Caring for each other and the biosphere

Why choose transformative over sustaining innovation?

How do we keep the lights on, avoid revolution and turmoil, keep children in school and people in work, yet still manage to fundamentally transform the human presence on planet Earth before ‘business as usual’ leads to run-away climate change, a drastically impoverished biosphere, and the early demise of our species?

I asked 20,000 people for the top Regenerative Agriculture videos. Here’s what they said…

Out of a total of 35 videos recommend, 6 rose to the top. I grouped them into two categories: “Start Here” (~20 minutes or less) and “Go Deeper” (Usually 1 hour or more).

The Regenerative Agriculture Continuum

I am often asked, “What IS Regenerative Agriculture?” “Can you just define it quickly and simply for me?”

The $10,000 Tree

This weekend I gifted a fellow farmer a chestnut tree. As I was driving I was thinking, “What is this tree worth, really?” So I did the math.

What if? — Scaling-out regenerative development glocally

Building educational ecosystems of collaboration to improve planetary health