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.”

Regenerative health care prioritizes holistic well-being over industry profits

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)

Establish inclusive supply chains by supporting both producers and buyers

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Regenerative enterprises seek to restore nature and human dignity through their innovative business models.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Soil quality is rapidly declining, but eco-friendly business practices are helping to rebuild it.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">By reusing and repurposing waste, regenerative companies create a circular economy.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Establish inclusive supply chains by supporting both producers and buyers.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Employee ownership can boost productivity and profits, while reducing economic inequality.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Regenerative ventures that support vulnerable women improve family and community outcomes.</li></ul>

Working to Restore

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.”

Regenerative enterprises seek to restore nature and human dignity through their innovative business models

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)

By reusing and repurposing waste, regenerative companies create a circular economy

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.

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

Environmental innovators are encouraging consumer demand for clean energy

<ul><li>Eco-friendly tourism preserves biodiversity and creates local jobs.</li><li>Regenerative health care prioritizes holistic well-being over industry profits.</li><li>Environmental innovators are encouraging consumer demand for clean energy.</li><li>Impact investors understand the unique needs of regenerative businesses and commit to promoting positive change over the long term.</li></ul>

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.”

Impact investors understand the unique needs of regenerative businesses

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.”

Employee ownership can boost productivity and profits, while reducing economic inequality

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.”

Regenerative ventures that support vulnerable women improve family and community outcomes

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.”

Eco-friendly tourism preserves biodiversity and creates local jobs

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.”

Soil quality is rapidly declining, but eco-friendly business practices are helping to rebuild it

Harnessing the Power of Regenerative Business to Heal the World

Dispatches from the regenerative landscape, where pioneering entrepreneurs use their businesses as catalysts of change to go beyond sustainability and solve social and environmental problems Political upheaval and social turmoil have peeled back the glitzy layers of capitalism to reveal an uncomfortable truth: historically, businesses have sourced materials from remote corners of the globe and moved millions of people and tons of cargo around the clock—all in the name of profit. Yet many of today’s startups are rewriting the rules of business: how it’s done, by whom, and, most importantly, for what purpose. Journalist Esha Chhabra draws on her decades of reporting to explore not only the “feel good, do good” factors of these restorative enterprises but also the nuanced realities and promise of regenerative business operations. Working to Restore examines revolutionary approaches in nine areas: agriculture, waste, supply chain, inclusivity for the collective good, women in the workforce, travel, health, energy, and finance. The companies profiled are solving global issues: promoting responsible production and consumption, creating equitable opportunities for all, encouraging climate action, and more. Chhabra highlights how their work moves beyond the greenwashed idea of “sustainability” into a new era of regeneration and restoration. We meet and learn from people like: <ul><li>Marius Smit, founder of Plastic Whale, the first company to build boats entirely out of plastic waste removed from our oceans and waterways</li><li>Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion, cofounders of Veja, a shoe brand whose mission it is to make the most ecologically sensitive shoes possible</li><li>Konrad Brits at Falcon Coffees, a trading company leading the way with a “collaborative supply chain” by investing in the local farmers who grow and harvest coffee beans</li><li>“Chief Toaster” Rob Wilson and Tristram Stuart at Toast Ale, who partner with Wold Top Yorkshire Brewery to repurpose surplus bread and produce an award-winning IPA</li><li>Scott Fry and Martha Butler of Loving Earth, a supply chain company that sources cacao from indigenous communities and brings their people and practices to the forefront</li></ul> Working to Restore highlights our most innovative entrepreneurs yet, those who understand that we cannot expect to create radical change if we try to “sustain” a system that has long been broken. Instead, their efforts of restoration and regeneration should be used as a model for other forward-thinking enterprises. Inspiring and engaging, this book shows it is possible for a business to thrive while living its mission and how the rules can be rewritten to put both the planet and its global citizens at the center.