Ways into regeneration: What our recent public dialogue event taught us about sustainability and ambiguity

Rethinking regeneration through dialogue, creativity and wisdom

On an unusually mild October afternoon, conversations about what it means to ‘become regenerative’ filled the Loughborough University London campus. Voices from the UK, US and Japan contributed to a rich dialogue exploring more personal engagements with regenerative values and leadership.

Through workshops and discussions, our recent event Ways of Becoming Regenerative: Learning from ecological thinkers, artists and Indigenous wisdom invited participants to explore regeneration through intercultural, creative and relational lenses. Part of our research at Becoming Regenerative (B-Regen) investigates how innovative regenerative ideas emerge, evolve and gain traction within entrepreneurial contexts.

From reflective workshops to an evening of talks and discussion, the event created space to question, listen and reconnect - not just to new ideas, but to one another.

Uncovering the many meanings of regeneration

A collective dialogue exploring how regeneration is understood and practised across cultures laid the foundations for a day of open curiosity. Dr Tuukka Toivonen briefly outlined B-Regen’s research and interest in unconventional approaches to regeneration. We’re interested in how regenerative paradigms in art and design education shape the emerging landscape of regenerative innovation and more-than-human relations.

Event collaborator Yasuhiro Kobayashi, Founder of Ecological Memes, touched on a project mapping a rural watershed ecosystem in Japan and reconnecting people with traditional animistic stories. B-Regen’s Project Manager, Hannah Lyons Tsai, noted how, in their practice, Ecological Memes were “the weaving of old and new stories,  and how this sparked a conversation about the etymology of nature from our more Western perspectives.

This reflective opening set the tone for the afternoon’s embodied, dialogic exploration.

The Words of Suiten: Reconnecting with nature’s wisdom through dialogue

Suiten no Kotoba (The Words of Suiten) are described as practical wisdom rooted in nature. The cards, inspired by Buddhist philosophy and Ecological Memes’ exploration of living ecosystems in practice, invite reflection and offer wisdom on life patterns, emotions and our relationships with the more-than-human world. B-Regen was honoured to host the first English-language version of the workshop facilitated by Yasuhiro. 

Comprising 27 cards of practical wisdom (each called a ‘seed’), the deck spans four distinct themes:

• Inner exploration (eg, listening to your somatic voice and reawakening your senses)

• Awai and Emergence (eg, appreciation for chaos and surrendering to flow)

• Re-encountering the world (eg, learning to ‘savour the hassle’ and allow for differences) 

• Living with the more-than-human (eg, being in a heterogeneous community)

Working in small groups, participants intuitively picked cards to explore what they evoked. With each iteration, conversations deepened, revealing shared emotion and connectedness. Many noted that relational encounters of this kind are novel in academic settings, yet essential to truly becoming regenerative.

B-Regen's Dr Ida Telalbasic reflected on the exercise, noting its resonance with her own process of “embracing chaos while looking at nature in a more internalised way.”

As the afternoon drew to a close, participants carried these insights (and this sense of interconnection) into the evening’s dialogue and panel discussion.

From linear systems to relational ontologies and ‘generative ambiguities’

With guests settled in the lecture theatre, Dr Ida opened the evening by presenting early insights from our investigation. A screening of Echoes from Clouds by Japanese artists Koichi Sato and Hideki Umezawa followed, bringing the physical reality of living in infrastructures while relying on nature (water) into anxious focus. 

Panellist Yasuhiro shared that in Japan, the concept of “nature” as separate from humans is a relatively recent Westernised import. Architect and regenerative design pioneer Michael Pawlyn built on this, drawing from his new book, Biomimicry in Architecture, to compare Western colonial and Asian Taoist mindsets.

Scholar and filmmaker Saori Ogura introduced her work with communities from the Himalayas to Zimbabwe through the Centre for Braiding Indigenous Knowledge, highlighting Indigenous relationships to seeds as kin and the cultural revival of millet practices and stories.

During the inspiring panel discussion, chaired by Dr Tuukka, the conversation shifted toward regenerative ontologies: “While most public discourse treats regeneration as a linear shift from negative to positive impact, our discussions revealed another way - an ambiguous, more-than-human, relational ontology rooted in how we see, feel and relate to the world.”

He noted that the ability to move between scientific and animistic lenses signals a growing comfort with multimodality in regenerative thought.

Embracing ambiguity as opportunity

From the workshops to the panel discussion and the conversations over hot coffee in-between, the event invited us to imagine regeneration not as an end goal, but as a way of being - one that values ambiguity, interdependence and planetary care.

For the B-Regen team, these conversations opened new questions about how entrepreneurs navigate between economic systems and ecological sensibilities, and how ambiguity itself becomes fertile ground for innovation. As our research progresses, we will continue exploring how entrepreneurs shift between economic, aesthetic and relational modalities.

We extend our thanks to all our speakers, partners and participants, including Climate & Ecological Transitions Research Hub at Loughborough University London, Ecological Memes, Living Things drinks and Holon gin. 

Watch a recording of the evening presentations and panel discussion here. 

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