Most of the time I forget that most people I talk to about regenerative development don’t really understand the difference between a development model and sustainable building certifications, and this can include architects and other built environment consultants, property developers, and even regenerative experts and consultants
I started my grounding in property development through the Property Council of Australia, then partnered with a 30-year veteran property developer to create GreenNote our licensed building and property development company (opened just before and collapsed during Covid), before founding Smart Green Group
Wanting to do the most socially and environmentally responsible development from the beginning, I got my accreditations in most of the social and sustainable building and infrastructure certifications including the International Living Futures Institute’s Living Building Challenge, Passive House, Green Building Councils of Australia’s Green Star, Sustainable infrastructure Council of Australia’s ISPA, NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation Design, and studied 2 separate Permaculture Design Courses for the natural world
Every time I finished a course and got accredited I felt that there was more… I hadn’t found ‘it’ but permaculture did really come close with the backing of the rest for built environment design models, though it was missing something I couldn’t put my finger on
Digging further into regenerative development I found Regenesis Group’s book Regenerative Development and Design, and after reading I knew this was what I was looking for and signed up for the next TRP course
This gave me the paintbrush I needed for my canvas, a true development design system for engaging with community to generate energy and excitement toward deep connection with each other and the natural world, and lay the foundation to empower them toward self organising conscious civilisation design
From this development design system, and leveraging the Integrative Design Process, you can then lean into all the technical learnings of the building certifications that are suitable for the project and definitely incorporate permaculture design
Regenerative development is a system that you can use to design almost anything but what could be more important than the restructuring of the foundations of our global civilisation towards social and ecological harmony?
