What would a culture that was built on the principles of regenerative design look like?
“Envisioning a cultural model around regenerative design would require us to move away from our current systemic model of competition and individualism towards one of sharing,” Jenni Zell, MIG Director of Regenerative Design, said. “It’s a wonderful model to think about and is based on the ecological understanding of how plant communities work in cooperation with one another for mutual survival.
“We used to imagine forests as groups of individual trees competing for nutrients, but decades of research has shown the opposite that plants are chaperones facilitating the growth, survival and reproduction of others. These complex interactions of support are a model for social and cultural systems: Instead of constantly competing with one another, what if we instead focused on doing work that benefits everyone and lifts everyone up?”
One example of project work that aims to uplift the voices of a community is Magic Johnson Park. In early community meetings, the community expressed the desire for a world class park and that ambition and vision of possibility made the way for this eventual pendulum shift away from increasing degradation to increasing vibrancy and life.
Magic Johnson Park is a place with a history of egregious environmental injustices which led to the fraying of community connections and health.
“I was talking with a woman at Magic Johnson Park who told me the story of her family’s connection to the park,” said Jenni. “Her husband lived close to the park when he was little and one day, he rode his bike through the park and his bike was stolen out from under him and he never went back to the park. He grew up, moved away, got married, and in 2019 they moved back to the neighborhood and into her husband’s childhood home. The renovated and improved park became one of the reasons they moved back. She takes her son to the park every day, he loves it, and it is the place where she meets her neighbors, established a friend group–the park is where she found connection to her community.”
Her story brings to life, in a nutshell, how restoring nature and community places, like Magic Johnson Park, can bring about a regenerative culture advancing both environmental and social health and well-being. We need to do deep listening with communities to hear and tell these stories of transformation toward a positive, hopeful future. Focusing on community process creates a culture of care that is at the core of so much of our organization and how we approach projects.
Nature really leans on the interconnectedness of the other plants and ecosystems around them to grow and thrive. By moving towards a cooperative regenerative framework, we can create a more restorative culture that prioritizes better physical spaces where people can heal and regenerate themselves.
“When you tap into that personal experience of joy, pleasure, and beauty, it settles in and shapes the outward environments in ways you can’t even predict,” said Jenni.
Whether we know it or not, these spaces—public gardens, recreational areas, natural spaces—provide an unspoken permission to pause. To rest. And when we’re rested and our proverbial cups are full, we’re more likely to advocate for more spaces like that in our communities.
Because when we create resilience, we create a stronger sense of community and better built environments. And eventually, a more beautiful world.