1948
Cybernetics
Norbert Wiener makes feedback a science: systems that steer themselves.
N. Wiener, Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (MIT Press, 1948).History
The history of an idea
Regeneration did not begin as a market. It began as a way of seeing — living systems as wholes, and every place as something already becoming — and over eight decades that way of seeing grew into a practice that adds capacity to the places it touches.
- 1968
General System Theory
Ludwig von Bertalanffy describes living things as open systems, understood only as wholes.
L. von Bertalanffy, General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications (George Braziller, 1968). - 1972
Steps to an Ecology of Mind
Gregory Bateson names the gap between how nature works and how people think.
G. Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Chandler, 1972). - 1972
The Limits to Growth
Written for the Club of Rome, it models the planet as one interacting system.
D. H. Meadows, D. L. Meadows, J. Randers & W. W. Behrens III, The Limits to Growth (Universe Books, 1972). - 1978
Permaculture One
Bill Mollison and David Holmgren design farming as an ecosystem.
B. Mollison & D. Holmgren, Permaculture One (Transworld, 1978). - 1987
Our Common Future
The Brundtland Commission defines sustainable development: doing less harm.
World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future (Oxford University Press, 1987). - 1994
Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development
John Tillman Lyle gives regenerative design its name.
J. T. Lyle, Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development (Wiley, 1994). - 1994
The LEED Technical Committee
Bill Reed begins co-chairing the committee that shaped green building, through 2003.
Omega Institute, “Bill Reed” (faculty profile). - 1995
Regenesis Group
A new starting point: work from the potential of a place, not its problems, beginning with its Story of Place.
Green Building Council of Australia, “Bill Reed on the power of place” (April 28, 2022). - 1997
The value of the world’s ecosystem services
Robert Costanza and colleagues publish the first global estimate of what nature provides.
R. Costanza et al., “The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital,” Nature 387 (1997), 253–260. - 2007
Shifting from “sustainability” to regeneration
Bill Reed sets out the trajectory from doing less harm to adding capacity.
B. Reed, Building Research & Information 35(6) (2007), 674–680. - 2008
Thinking in Systems
Donella Meadows brings the discipline to every reader.
D. H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (Chelsea Green, 2008). - 2015
Regenerative Capitalism
John Fullerton carries the same living-system patterns into the economy.
J. Fullerton, Regenerative Capitalism (Capital Institute, 2015). - 2016
Regenerative Development and Design
Pamela Mang, Ben Haggard and Regenesis set the practice down as a method.
P. Mang, B. Haggard & Regenesis, Regenerative Development and Design (Wiley, 2016). - 2021
Ecosystem accounting
The United Nations adopts SEEA Ecosystem Accounting, so living systems can enter national accounts.
United Nations et al., System of Environmental-Economic Accounting — Ecosystem Accounting (2021). - 2023
Nature-related disclosure
The TNFD publishes its recommendations, and nature enters the balance-sheet conversation.
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, Recommendations of the TNFD (September 2023). - Today.
What came next
The practice had the way of seeing, the method and the argument. What it lacked was a financial architecture to carry it: a standard for what counts, a record anyone can re-perform, and a vehicle for capital. That is the work we took on — Regenerative Development Corp, the Planetary Regenerative Trust, The Place Fund, and VLAS.
See how the model works →
Sources
- N. Wiener, Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (MIT Press, 1948).
- L. von Bertalanffy, General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications (George Braziller, 1968).
- G. Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Chandler, 1972).
- D. H. Meadows, D. L. Meadows, J. Randers & W. W. Behrens III, The Limits to Growth (Universe Books, 1972).
- B. Mollison & D. Holmgren, Permaculture One (Transworld, 1978).
- World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future (Oxford University Press, 1987).
- J. T. Lyle, Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development (Wiley, 1994).
- Omega Institute, “Bill Reed” (faculty profile).
- Green Building Council of Australia, “Bill Reed on the power of place” (April 28, 2022).
- R. Costanza et al., “The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital,” Nature 387 (1997), 253–260.
- B. Reed, Building Research & Information 35(6) (2007), 674–680.
- D. H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer (Chelsea Green, 2008).
- J. Fullerton, Regenerative Capitalism (Capital Institute, 2015).
- P. Mang, B. Haggard & Regenesis, Regenerative Development and Design (Wiley, 2016).
- United Nations et al., System of Environmental-Economic Accounting — Ecosystem Accounting (2021).
- Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, Recommendations of the TNFD (September 2023).