As the vast majority of humanity becomes urbanised, we need to rethink sustainability. Making our cities socially, environmentally and economically fit means embracing the concepts of net zero carbon, planet positive, the circular economy and zero waste — through a shift in mindset towards a “regenerative revolution”.
The need for this shift has become increasingly clear — there are planetary limits to the amount of raw materials we can consume and the amount of waste we can generate.
There’s no such thing as infinite resource extraction in a finite world. Our cities — which are a product of the first, second and third industrial revolutions — were not built with this mindset and are simply not sustainable.
The revolutions that got us to where we are
The first industrial revolution, which began in the middle of the 1700s, was marked by the advent of steam power and mass-production manufacturing sites. In England and France, landless rural residents became urban dwellers working in factories.
The second industrial revolution in the 1890–1960s was characterised by big transformations, such as electricity, petrol engines, and radio — which, again, fundamentally reshaped rural and urban landscapes. Our metropolitan areas sprawl into the country, bringing with it car-centric patterns of development and a new culture of consumerism that accelerated throughout the third industrial revolution.
MECLA, through the power of collaboration, looks to solve the challenges faced by organisations to reduce their emissions, by fostering markets for low carbon materials for building and construction materials.
The first and second industrial revolutions were built on the false promise that we could extract a limitless supply of raw materials and cheap fossil fuels that could be burnt forever without consequence. Increasingly urban communities were divorced from their direct relationship with the planet, with increasingly dire consequences.
Then came the third industrial revolution in the 1970s, also known as the digital revolution. The period was characterised by the expansion of automation and digitisation — enabled by electronics and computers that connected to the world wide web.
As a result of the exponential growth in computing power and connectivity during the third industrial revolution, we gained access to the tools and knowledge we need today.
We have more information than ever before on the problems and consequences that humanity is facing — whether that’s climate change, loss of nature, rising inequity, nuclear weapons, social injustice, cyber security, or basically any other self-inflicted problem we are now grappling with as a society.
In addition, we have many of the solutions at hand, in the form of global science, collaborative options, and incremental technologies. We must put them into action at scale and in a way that mitigates some of the unforeseen consequences and unintended impacts.
The first regenerative revolution
Today, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), we’re in the fourth industrial revolution. The WEF describes this revolution as representing “a fundamental change in the ways that we live and work. It is a new chapter in human development… merging the physical, digital, and biological worlds and fusing technologies in ways that create both promise and peril”.
However, the “industrial revolution” notion can be traced back to the 1800s — it was used to understand that moment in time. But the world was very different then. Previous revolutions were defined by their exploitation of our natural planet and local communities. The idea that this type of thinking can underpin the fourth industrial revolution, I would argue, is hugely problematic.
It’s time to ask ourselves the question: what do we want the current revolution to deliver for humanity?
Despite the enormity of the (often unintended) negative impacts, the promise of a better world was core to the previous three industrial revolutions.
For example, throughout the third industrial revolution, more women and youth gained access to quality education, overall health improved and hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty.
The concept of a circular economy, which has been around for decades, is based on reducing, reusing and recycling products, and supporting sustainable packaging. But it’s more than that — it’s about changing our economy from a linear industrial machine to one that is circular and regenerative.
However, the past decade has also seen rapidly increasing inequity, worsening climate crises and the rapid destruction of nature — which are threatening to destroy what we gained in the previous industrial revolution and causing greater instability.
That’s why we need to rethink our approach. Purpose should be at heart of the current revolution — not only in rhetoric but in global targets and impact. We need to create a future society that’s regenerative and that can feed, clothe, house and provide clean and abundant energy to people equitably, whilst maintaining a healthy planet.
It’s up to us as a society to determine what is the future we want. A 19th or 20th century mindset does not do justice to our capabilities as humanity. Three industrial revolutions got humanity to the position we are in today. We need to make sure the next revolution gets us to where we collectively need to go.
What is the regenerative mindset?
The regenerative revolution is not about replacing the sustainable development goals with other targets. We know what we need — net zero, safe climate, responsible consumption and production, greater equity, diversity and inclusion. These are all critically important.
However, we need to learn from the past 300 years — and, in doing that, reimagine how 10 billion people can thrive along with nature on our planet going forward.
It starts with being planet positive. That means putting all nature at the heart of our solutions, and restructuring to reduce global, regional, national and provincial inequities — across all sectors (gender, diversity, etc.). Global stability and human rights are essential for our long term success.
That means we need to ask questions about the role of government, the purpose of business, and the contribution that civil society and academics should make. No sector can do this alone — it needs to be a collaborative effort.
Transforming the built environment key to the regenerative revolution
It’s hugely ambitious for us to need to fundamentally rethink how we can feed, clothe, house and provide clean energy to people in a way that’s both environmentally sustainable and socially equitable.
Our urban environment is at the heart of these big challenges. Just as we reshaped our built environment for the three industrial revolutions before, we now need to reshape it as part of the regenerative revolution phase.
The good news is that there is momentum in rethinking our cities and towns. In Australia, there are important initiatives underway — at a national, state and local level — to fundamentally rethink things.
Two such initiatives are the Materials and Embodied Carbon Leaders’ Alliance (MECLA) in NSW and Regen Melbourne.
MECLA, through the power of collaboration, looks to solve the challenges faced by organisations to reduce their emissions, by fostering markets for low carbon materials for building and construction materials.
Meanwhile, Melbourne is leading the way in thinking about regenerative innovation. Regen Melbourne is a community platform, established in 2020, where everyone comes together to listen, talk, and take action — to create a city that thrives within the ecological boundaries, and provides social, cultural and economic prosperity for all. Regen Melbourne’s roadmap is for the regeneration of the city’s local ecosystems, neighbourhoods and organisations.
Both of these initiatives show how, through a regenerative revolution mindset, we can build partnerships between business, government, the community sector and academia to find solutions to our shared sustainability challenges.
Creating sustainable cities — is a circular building economy the way forward?
The concept of a circular economy, which has been around for decades, is based on reducing, reusing and recycling products, and supporting sustainable packaging. But it’s more than that — it’s about changing our economy from a linear industrial machine to one that is circular and regenerative.
According to a recent report from the Holland Circular Hotspot, Circular Buildings: Creating a Sustainable Future, by harnessing the principles of a circular economy, we address building industry’s footprint across all stages of the supply chain — from the building design and development and operations stages, right through to the end-of-life of buildings.
As outlined in the report, one example of embedding circular economy principles in the initial stage is designing buildings so that they can be dismantled and repurposed after they reach end of life — and are built with low emissions or zero emissions materials that are much more biophilic and part of the ecosystem.
In the operations stage, after the building has been developed, an asset management process should be put in place to routinely maintain and renovate buildings to maximise their lifespan. And at the end of a building’s lifespan, methods such as recycling and reusing resources will be critical to reducing waste — which is one of the key elements to building a regenerative city.
According to the National Waste Report, Australia generated an estimated 74.1 million tonnes of waste in 2018–2019. Much of this waste comes from urban and industrial areas.
Cities that empower communities
According to the UN, the number of people living in urban areas worldwide nearly doubled from 2.3 billion in 1990 to over 4.3 billion today — and this will continue to grow.
As more and more people move to urban areas, the built form of our cities should allow most of our needs to be filled within a much shorter distance — supported by online services, active transport (such as bikes or scooters), and quality sustainable public transport. The need for walkable communities includes easy access to healthcare, education or employment.
But it also extends to our food, clothing and basic necessities — and understanding the global supply chains that provide them.
The regenerative revolution means looking for opportunities to bring sustainable agriculture back into our built environment. We need to focus on bringing edible plants back into our cities, increasing the green space corridors between buildings.
In addition, the energy transformation currently underway is a once-in-a-century opportunity for Australia to be a renewable energy superpower — powering our circular economy and more eco-friendly forms of urbanisation. This must then empower communities to live in a way that’s more connected with nature.
Designing a better future, together
The regenerative revolution is a mental reset — away from thinking of society and the economy as a linear industrial machine, to one that is circular, purpose-driven for people and works with the abundance that nature provides.
Addressing our urban environment is a critical step towards creating a regenerative society more broadly that benefits humans, wildlife and nature.
The exciting opportunity for humanity is to design that regenerative society together.
