An Invitation to Discuss Regenerative Sustainability

This Friday, January 5th, 2024 from noon-1 PM Eastern I'll be hosting the first of many conversations around the idea of Regenerative Sustainability.

You Are Invited!

I've included the WebEx details below.

Please feel free just to join, or you can email me at: johnchavens @ gmail DOT com and I'll send you an invite.

I'll be hosting and recording (after letting everyone know who joins the call to get their permission) these conversations on a regular basis.

Why I'm Doing This

I am the Regenerative Sustainability Practice Lead for The IEEE Standards Association. This work / these calls are designed to explore concepts around the idea of Regenerative Sustainability as a part of my role.

A core aspect of Regenerative Design, as I'm beginning to understand it, is to directly involve a community you want to understand, honor, and influence in your work. A large part of who I am since the birth of "New Media" (remember that term?) is to always ask the "four most powerful words for any conversation" which are: What do you think?

Note: I credit Christopher Penn with that idea so hopefully I quoted it correctly. Chris - if I didn't, "what do you think?" and please provide your thoughts in the comments if you'd like).

My first book with the amazing Shel Holtz, SCMP is called, Tactical Transparency: How Leaders Can Leverage Social Media to Maximize Value and Build their Brand (2008). The foreword was written by the likewise amazing, insightful and badass Lynne d Johnson who I had the pleasure of speaking with at SXSW in 2011 in our presentation, Augmented Reality for Marketers: Future of Consumer Interactions (I've been writing / thinking about Augmented Reality, AI, and ethical / societal / wellbeing considerations since 2011 when I wrote an article for Mashable called Who Owns the Advertising Space in an Augmented Reality World? You can also note that my Mashable Bio lists me as a "Human Author" after I updated my bio in 2017 recognizing back then that AI would influence journalism and society to such an extent that listing myself as a human journalist would be important for disclosure.

I mention all of this not only to do the "here's elements of my bio" thing but to begin the process of uniting the people from the various worlds I've been in as part of this Regenerative Sustainability process. I've worked as a professional actor, am still a blues musician, am a writer and journalist, worked at the forefront of the podcasting revolution, was an EVP of a Top Ten PR firm in New York City, ran a non-profit focused on the intersection of technology &happiness/flourishing research, wrote a book about data and tracking, another book about AI and values, and then came to work at IEEE where I am now.

Plus I'm a Dad, and went to college thinking I was going to be a Minister. So aspects of faith-based traditions, ethics, and values drive how I live my life. Apparently over 80% of the world's citizens also formally recognize a faith-based tradition driving how they live (and note I say "faith-based" versus "religion" to avoid separation thinking at this point since the institutions around various manifestations of faith don't always lead by example in terms of living with love, kindness, and prioritizing others - no judgement intended here, but my point is where I discuss these issues it's about how 'faith' of any kind actually drives one's actions along with their ideology).

A huge part of Regenerative Sustainability is actually focused on how a person can "regenerate" themselves or their thinking. For myself, this process has only started to take root in ways I'm fully beginning to understand. But basically when I started really working in areas of "sustainability" (in quotes because how one defines this word is a key part of what we'll be exploring) I became overwhelmed, and often scared and depressed. I was an am often still unsure how to make changes in my own life or in my work that will cause any actual impact to help address issues of climate change and nature-based / biodiversity needs.

But apparently "impact" in regards to taking care of the planet can start with being kind to oneself. Not avoiding action, but taking a deep breath and saying, "I have NO IDEA how to actually make a lasting change for the planet and I am SCARED ****LESS for myself, my kids, and our beautiful planet."

So let's be scared together! And let's recognize fear can OPEN DOORS in your mind and heart as well as close them.

And while doing things like recycling and other actions are great, our larger world needs a massive systems change from existing paradigms that got us to a world where separation and domination keep many, many people and the planet marginalized versus cared for.

Regeneration Definitions

Since I began working in areas sustainability for IEEE over two years ago I have learned a great deal about issues of technology and climate /? biodiversity.??

But it was the amazing Mila A. who first taught me how the concept of Regeneration can expand one's notion of "sustainability" to a more comprehensive view of taking care of the planet and people.??

She is also the one that informed me and reminds me that Regeneration involves a personal, holistic transformation as much as the actions one takes to proactively help the planet.

Here's a definition of Regeneration to inform your awareness from the Regeneration website :?Regeneration?is the radically new approach to the climate crisis, one that weaves justice, climate, biodiversity, and human dignity into a seamless tapestry of action, policy, and transformation that can end the climate crisis in one generation."

For a more thorough definition, this is from the website?EcoCart on Regenerative Sustainability :

"Regenerative sustainability goes beyond simply preventing further damage caused by human activity; it not only strives to remediation it but also ensures any future environmental degradation is avoided.?

This is achieved through the three key pillars of regenerative sustainability:

Planet.?The health of our planet is crucially important, which is why we need regenerative actions that address a wide range of environmental issues. This goes beyond reducing carbon emissions—a worthwhile endeavor in its own right—and includes initiatives like water conservation, supporting biodiversity, and transitioning to a circular economy.

People. Social and environmental justice are two peas in a pod. If we want to make a real impact, we’ve got to take a regenerative approach to sustainability and address systemic inequalities alongside the climate crisis. That’s why regenerative sustainability encompasses practices that create a more just and equitable world for all of us.

Governance. It’s crucial to integrate sustainability management into economic-financial functions by promoting transparency, efficiency, and integrity. This ensures regenerative sustainability is a core part of the decision-making process, not an afterthought or greenwashing tactic."

Thank you to EcoCart for this awesome definition and quote.

Create Your Own Regeneration Plan!?

As an invitation, before reading further, I recommend you go to the upper right hand portion of the Regenerators site and click,?Take Action .? You'll be asked to answer five questions and then you'll get a detailed Action Plan.??

The site is also focused on creating media that communicates what Regeneration looks like in action, so after you create your action plan you'll be supported by seeing how others are already doing amazing things in terms of caring for the Planet and People.?

Here's my Action Plan .? It has multiple areas I'm interested in that I'm focusing on for my work.? So I was pretty excited to see what they recommended.?

Beautiful Engaging Skepticism!?

If you've gotten this far in this post you may be thinking:?

• "Regeneration" sounds like a buzzword.?

• We need to focus on action, not just academic terminology.?

• It's unclear how "regeneration explicitly links to technology or pragmatic business efforts.

?This is beautiful and engaging skepticism and here's why!?

• Having worked in PR for a number of years, when a phrase attains the label of "buzzword" it's reached a level of public consciousness and awareness that means said term is ripe for discussion.? And where people are skeptical about a term, great!? This creates the perfect environment for passionate consensus based, volunteer discussion leading to action.?

• Having now delved deep into the world of "sustainability" and "climate change" (both with quotes around them as these are HUGE terms), a key part of helping our beautiful planet is educating people about the urgent need to focus on the entire planet and its people, not just "climate" change where people may get caught up in only reducing carbon emissions.?

Biodiversity, reducing pollution, and increasing agricultural health are also urgent areas of focus and helping with any of these things demands a new way of thinking about economics and inclusion of Indigenous and marginalized peoples not often brought to the table.??

• "Technology" as a word and concept is quite different depending on who you ask, especially when coming from a Global South, Indigenous, or non-Western viewpoint.? This means a great deal of the power of Regenerative Design is in simply about bringing new people to a table and asking them how they view technology and how it can be implemented.?

The Seen Transition

I'll be discussing the concept of The Seen Transition a lot during these calls. You can read what this means in the LinkedIn article I wrote on this idea here .

Meeting Link for This Friday

Here's the meeting info below. I may change the timing of when I do these weekly events, and the way I send invites. Thoughts are welcome - especially if you join the call!

I hope you do and thanks in advance.

Meeting link:

https://ieee.webex.com/ieee/j.php?MTID=m169f6ab28db0230b3e13494b516854a5

Meeting number:

2634 111 4109

Password:

3iJ3VVux2sD

Join by video system

Dial [email protected]

You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number.

Join by phone

+1-646-992-2010 United States Toll (New York City)

+1-904-900-2303 United States Toll (Jacksonville)

Access code: 2634 111 4109

Host PIN: 1575

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*Thanks to Zach Walsh not only for the fantastic image I've used here, but for his article, Global Polycrisis as a Pathway for Economic Transformation I discovered when looking for images relating to sustainability and loneliness.