instructor Hood's Key Ideas from Working to Restore
by Esha Chhabra

Conventional businesses tend to downplay social and environmental costs to maximize shareholder profit. Regenerative businesses, on the other hand, prioritize social and environmental agendas as their primary purpose. By giving primacy to challenges like gender inequality and food waste, they generate profits that are transparent to consumers and shared with stakeholders.

“Business is a powerhouse that can steer the economy and consumer behavior, and the impact all that has on Mother Earth, in a direction for the better.”

Business has the power to affect the challenges facing humanity, including social justice, climate change, water shortages and famine. But it will take more than lip service made up of mission statements and inspirational quotes.

The leaders of regenerative companies are rethinking business from the ground up, challenging the notion of profit-making as the corporation’s primary purpose. Regenerative entrepreneurs instead seek to uphold the values of transparency, simplicity, compassion and equity, while tackling global problems such as soil quality, health care access and renewable energy.

Everything from cotton and leather to timber and livestock depends on fertile soil. Unfortunately, intensive farming and chemical fertilizers strip nutrients from the soil, making it less productive. By 2017, one-third of the world’s soil had been depleted. But eco-friendly farms and businesses are mitigating the worst effects.

“So many of the things we consume every day are grown in soil, not manufactured in factories.”

Conventional business encourages consumers to buy products repeatedly, so there’s little incentive to create durable merchandise. Regrettably, this linear thinking produces significant waste. Globally, consumers buy about 20,000 plastic bottles per second; yet only 14% of all plastic gets recycled.

In a circular economy, businesses account for the complete production process, including disposal.

“To change the world, you have to throw a better party than those destroying it.” (Toast Ale CEO Rob Wilson)

Inclusivity isn’t just about appreciating a diverse group of colleagues in a corporate office; it also translates into respect for and inclusion of everyone who contributes to supply chains, such as farmers, for example. Despite a multi-decade rise in coffee exports, coffee farmers have seen their earnings cut in half due to artificially low prices and rising production costs.

“If we want to have these supply chains in the future, we need to take care of the people who make them happen.” (coffee trader Konrad Brits)

In most organizations, senior executives earn far more than employees, despite all workers making essential contributions to the company’s success. The resulting workplace inequality affects the broader economy. Although the United States has the world’s biggest GDP, it also has the highest rate of poverty and levels of economic inequality among comparably advanced countries.

“To achieve more economic inclusivity, the United States needs to find an economic model that works for its diverse population.”

Unequal access to resources not only impacts gender equality – one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – but it ripples out to affect access to education, food, income, health care and more quality-of-life issues. When women have resources and support to farm organically, for example, they create healthier soil that retains more water.

“Regenerative businesses celebrate the strength, wisdom and resilience of women, instead of shying away from it.”

Tourism employs 10% of the international workforce, but it also produces about 8% of global climate emissions. Its climate impact is likely to rise, so the tourism industry needs to find ways to provide jobs while protecting biodiversity. Eco-friendly options – including bio-based fuel for planes and decreased linen usage in hotels – can help reduce tourism’s carbon footprint. 

“The challenge for the tourism industry, be it in East Africa or other areas of natural beauty, is to find a balance between humans and nature.”

Health care challenges vary globally; developing countries struggle to provide basic care, and the United States wrestles with soaring prices and limited access within a profit-driven system. Despite the Affordable Care Act, 10% of Americans remain uninsured. And although Americans spend significantly more on health care and pharmaceuticals than people in any other developed country, they have the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rates. 

“Ideally, health care should go beyond providing medications to helping people lead more holistic lives.”

“It should be a no-brainer that our energy sources need to be diverted from fossil fuels to cleaner options.”

Many depend on personal finances for seed money, and it often takes 10 to 15 years to mature the business. The right impact investors understand the needs of regenerative enterprises and focus on investing for positive, long-term impact.

“Just as all consumption has an impact, including the most planet-conscious efforts, so do all investments.”