Investigating Regenerative Ideation within Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

The rapid deterioration of ecosystems and the growing impacts of climate change, which is expected to increase the average global temperature by 3–6 degrees Celsius by 2100 according to The Paris Agreement, reveals that sustainability is no longer an adequate solution to these ongoing challenges. As a result, a paradigm shift toward a more evolutionary approach has recently become a demand, where regenerative concepts have rapidly replaced current sustainable practices. Rather than minimizing human impacts on the environment, regenerative ideation aims to generate more than consume and tackles many shortcomings of conventional sustainability. Therefore, the study attempts to provide an answer for the debate on how far can regenerative ideation go beyond current sustainability, and to what extent does this concept deliver on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, the study aims first to develop regenerative development goals that adopt an integrated approach and secondly to assure their compliance with the UN’s SDGs. The study employed a qualitative methodology and the case study approach to examine the applicability of the proposed principles. The findings provide clear criteria for architects and urban designers to use in spreading regenerative design to create a more responsible built environment. The study recommends further research on creating regenerative development and design metrics and indicators for practicing the concept within the built environment.

A neighbourhood‐scale conceptual model towards regenerative circularity for the built environment

“…Based on what the literature presents for each separate approach, the RC4BE conceptual model could contribute mainly to SDG6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG7 (Affordable Energy and Clean Energy), SDG8 (Decent Work, and Economic Growth), SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG12 (Responsible Production and Consumption), and SDG13 (Climate Action) (Pathak et al, 2022). Also, it could directly address what has been proposed by Ibrahim and Ahmed (2022) as RDG. It has also been designed to improve cities' safe and just operating spaces and facilitate the responses to the burdens imposed upon the global and local ecological (Rockström et al, 2009;Steffen et al, 2015) and social (Raworth, 2017b) boundaries.…”

“…It is also about regenerating human connections within a community by providing the conditions for human interactions and citizen empowerment and participation, fundamental to a regenerative transition (K. Brown, 2012). This is particularly important when we note that the SDGs may still fall behind the bolder approaches of regenerative thinking, particularly the need for a more holistic vision, the coevolutionary processes between humans and the environment, and the positive impact rather than negative impact reduction approach (Ibrahim & Ahmed, 2022). Boselli (2016) suggests regeneration should focus on four core aspects: (1) resources, (2) natural capital and urban ecosystems,…”

“…It is clear that both CE and RD foster systemic and LCT, with potential to contribute to a post‐Covid sustainability transformation of cities (Newman, 2020), the achievement of the SDGs (Williams, 2021), and even beyond that, the regenerative development goals (RDGs) (Ibrahim & Ahmed, 2022). Although their origins and development intertwine (Calisto Friant et al, 2020), frameworks and standards derived from them, like Level(s) (Dodd et al, 2017), British Standards Institution (BSI)'s (2017) and ISO's (2022) CE standards, the Circle City Scan Tool (Circle Economy, 2020), or ILFI's (2017) Living Community Challenge still fail in this integration.…”

Biodynamic Agriculture – A Tool for Regenerative Development

“…Agriculture plays a key role in this process, as it must provide enough crops for consumption by the population and the manufacturing requirements of companies. Studies conducted to date show that sustainability is no longer a sufficient solution and that new evolutionary approaches must be sought (Ibrahim & Ahmed, 2022). An approach which goes beyond sustainable development is regenerative development (Mang & Reed, 2012).…”

“…According to Gibbons (2020, p. 6), regenerative development is "a place-based development and design methodology that grows the capabilities necessary for living systems to increase in complexity, diversity, capacity to support all life, and the potential to change to provide future options (i.e., health and wellbeing)". One of the tools of regenerative development is biodynamic agriculture (Ibrahim & Ahmed, 2022). The benefit of biodynamic agriculture is that it protects people from the health damage of long-term pesticide exposure, enhances soil fertility and stability, conserves the ecosystem's biodiversity, and produces healthy products (Hatem & Sekem 2007;Ibrahim & Ahmed, 2022).…”