We are very excited to report on the launch of the first season of Regenerative Civics!
Regenerative Civics consists of a Project Incubator of community and project initiatives taking action to address our global challenges and build Bioregional Economies, and an Alliance of global organizations coming together to provide a growing variety of support for these projects.
For the Project Incubator, different organizations have proposed their projects in the making to test drive our collective intelligence, bridge ancestral and emerging wisdom and technologies and bring forward real cases of regenerative cultures spawning across our Mother Earth.
These are the 13 projects chosen for Season 1
The NYX
The NYX was founded in 2019 as a location based community in Bali. An experiment which aims to understand what optimal existence is and how it can be achieved. The foundation of the community is built on the idea that by leveraging co-operation and collaboration, we can achieve exponential progress, in natural systems this is achieved via a positive feedback loop.
Curiosity, ‘the desire to know’, is at the heart of project, which is often referred to as a ‘Curiosity Campus’. To facilitate this we operate 4 ‘Nodes Of Curiosity’.
- α – Science β – Environment
- δ – Personal Development
- γ – Art
Enter ‘The NYX loop’, a positive feed back loop geared around not only creating optimal existence through fostering meaningful relationships but also generating innovation which runs our economic model for sustainability (each node must have at least one business model) Please read more about our idea for exponential progress via The NYX loop here.
Abundancia & Ubuntu
Located near San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. We are creating a regenerative community development project that serves as a model for how all life can thrive in harmony with nature and each other while regenerating the environment. The living systems we develop will create ever greater vitality, abundance, and prosperity for all life.
We are using a whole systems approach such as in permaculture, where we see how what we are doing betters the environmental around us, like capturing water from rain and building with the surrounding dirt, it will create ponds for more life to flourish in and making sure the water we use goes back out to the land it was meant to go to through plant filtration systems. Any plastic that is used will be turned into fuel and energy through pyrolysis machines.
One of the most important factors is that we will be guided by the Living Building Challenge Certification standards in everything we do, and sometimes beyond their standards where possible.
Finca Sagrada
Finca Sagrada is on sacred land (located in Vilcabamba, Ecuador) as designated by the Kogi indigenous shamans from Colombia, in collaboration with the Palta people, who are the traditional custodians of this land. We respect and honor Mother Earth.
Finca Sagrada is stewarded by Susan Davis Moora, Walter Moora, Jon Love and many more contributors.
Finca Sagrada exemplifies a farm-based, multicultural learning center where people can reconnect to self, community and nature through heartfelt thinking. “A healthy social life is found only when, within the mirror of each soul, the whole community finds its reflection, and when, within the whole community, the virtue of each one is living”. (Quote from Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy).
The KINS Operating Principles, developed by Susan Davis Moora are the foundation of our community:
- Our strategy is generosity, and our intention is wonder.
- A deal is a good deal when it is good for all concerned, especially Earth.
- Everyone does what we love to do and do well, and little else.
- We sit at the table of unknowing and invite the Universe to co-create with us for the highest good for all concerned.
Finca Sagrada has been a catalyst for local organizing of:
- Community Gardens
- An organic farmers market,
- A grassroots movement to create the Upper Catamayo Sovereign Watershed
- An eventual deployment of Seeds as the local, regenerative currency
- A project to train and support local entrepreneurs in developing their own regenerative enterprises, supported by the Global Transformation Core.
- We work directly with indigenous and local communities in strengthening indigenous roots, hosting ceremonies on the Finca Sagrada land, and attending ceremonies in the area.
La Tierra Regenerative Village
Situated in the North Pacific of Costa Rica. As a partner of the Buckminster Fuller Institute, la tierra aims to help “Make the world work, for 100% of humanity […] without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”
La Tierra wants to be an example of regenerative living, giving, growing, finance and thinking. The bio-inspired buildings will be made with natural materials; the agriculture will be fully organic; the culture, governance, and economy will disallow the needless over-exploitation of resources and people and will strive to tend to the needs of all. La Tierra will aim to be self-sufficient and/or interdependent in energy, food, water, etc.. We will have the water for the land very well planned to ensure a highly productive ecosystem. We will endeavour to capture every drop that falls on the land, and use/reuse it wisely. Wastes from one system will be inputs for another (eg: food scraps from restaurants/cafés will be composted, sewage will be biologically treated and will become nutrition for our agricultural zones.) Re/upcycling will be the built-in norm.
Starseed Village
A place based project located in Guatemala. We are a regenerative project by incorporating Agroforestry, Permaculture, effective waste management systems and preserve de land while service as an Educational Center. We are currently using hydropower and serve as a pilot for free energy machines. As we dwelve into the tools for decentralized organizations we participate in the DAO universe.
Check our Project 5-minute video pitch here.
Tabi Regenerativo
Place based community located in Yucatán, México. Our vision for this project is to co-create a sustainable, regenerative, Living-Lab, Research-Center and project Incubator-Hub focused on the heart of our creative nature; to inspire the merging and connecting of people, nature and technology in harmonious integration. As a nature-based, contextual eco-community founded on the principles of restoration, we co-create unity between people and nature by using the latest frameworks and methods to meet the social and environmental needs of the region of Yucatan.
We are going through the first phase of co-creation with guests, visitors and partners from Yucatan and around the world to create the conditions necessary to enable and foster innovation in this wonderful, one-of-a-kind laboratory. A home for thought leaders, educators, researchers, scientists, creatives, impact investors, social entrepreneurs, and indigenous and local leaders in an environment of unparalleled beauty.
Salt Cross Garden Village
Located in Oxfordshire, UK, it is one of the more advanced of the UK Government’s 37 ‘Garden Communities Programme’ sites, and it is meant to be a beacon of citizen-participation, community-wealth generation and ecological approaches in order to accord with the Garden City Principles (TCPA) that the programme enshrines. Within the 2,200 home masterplan which includes housing, office and retail, the Developer’s key slogan is “a place that celebrates natural and social ecosystems, allowing wildlife, plants and people to co-exist, thrive and benefit from each other”.
There is an intention for the community ownership of assets across the site, including the 1,100 affordable homes, allowing the resources for adaptation and change over decades. Commitments for net biodiversity have been made with design-focus on embedding nature and wildlife and a passive/’fabric-first’ home design approach with no gas infrastructure on site. 105 homes across three clustered neighbourhoods will be reserved for self-builders as per District planning policy.
Our proposal is for the development of place-based wealth generation within a Community Land Trust to support sustained and nimble investment in Salt Cross and the village of Eynsham over decades.
Check out our Regenerative Civics pitch video here.
Traditional Dream Factory
Traditional Dream Factory is the first village in the Oasa network and it is located in Abela, Portugal.
We are here to re:imagine how we live together, to put into practice years of research in creating abundant food systems that work with nature, to retain water in our soils and avoid erosion and droughts, to create human living systems that leave a positive trace on it’s environment. View our impact map here.
Liminal Village
Liminal Village is a co-living and co-creation hub in the center of Italy. We have been experimenting with creating temporary communities aimed at creating value for the world, heal themselves and heal the collective, by emphasising the balance of personal, local and global needs. Inspired by the concept of a Resource-Based Economy, Liminal, meaning “a place of transition” or “a place that occupies both sides”, is an embodied experimental ground where value-aligned people can co-create and experience the future they would like to see. Using natural cycles to guide progress, we focus on reinventing how we can live in harmony with each other and the planet, by “upgrading the operating system of society” and transitioning from scarcity based market economies to “access abundance”
Visitors of the Liminal Village are invited to focus on these three aspects:
- Personal: Do something for yourself. During your stay at the village, you will set your personal goals and directions. Find your Ikigai, learn something new, write your book or your TED talk!
- Local: Do something for the people around you and for your surrounding: Teach something you know, build something, create art, regenerate the place around you.
- Global: Do something for the planet and the people living on it: Find a cause that you deem important in the world, find out more about it, then find ways to help and improve!
Heartland Collective
Heartland Collective is to humans what an abundant jungle is for the species that live there. The most lush, abundant, and diverse jungle’s in Costa Rica gave Heartland Collective its initial inspiration. The abundant life experience we can witness animal & plant species receive in the jungle is what Heartland Collective aims to mimic for humans.
We are currently 100% off-grid and function sustainably 85-90% of the year through solar power with batteries as backup, and generators as a redundant power source. We have 6 biofilter EcoZoic commercial compost toilets enabling us to safely close the loop in our waste cycle and create a valuable resource from our waste. Our drinking water is from our 20 gal/min well (measured in drought). Solar power pumps the water to the high point of our land, and gravity feeds us up to 28,800 gallons of water per day to our project. Our farm, irrigation, and retreat currently only uses roughly 2,000 gal per day.
We started implementing a full permaculture land design in 2021 seeded at our first annual Permaculture Design Certification course. We expect the plan to take roughly 5 more years to complete the full design. Our full design plan offers a massive diversity of species, native reforestation efforts, food forest, orchard, Vineyard, water catchment, pond development, and further power redundancy.
The long term model of Heartland Collective is multifunctional and flexible. It is designed to self-fund itself, provide an amazing home for participants co-creating the system, provide community and great people to connect with, as well as offer very lucrative business opportunities for people to join. If there are major world emergencies the flexibility of the design offers a natural digression from business to community and people care. All add-on financial models are designed to be agile, modular, and collaborative so they can be removed if they are ineffective and duplicated at other centers if they are successful. All add-on business models incubated from Heartland are designed to leverage all the positive aspects of living within this system to create a better place for people not so fortunate.
LaLa Gardens
As an established permaculture designed project, both as a site and social design. This is a Natural Farm utilizing indigenous technologies to restore the ecosystem as well as cultivate nutrient dense foods and medicines while preserving the garden into it’s natural succession. We utilize inter-species systems and IMO (Indigenous Micro Organisms) technologies to build soil and increase diversity. We have water systems through catchment to hold and store water.
We are a membership model open to a small number of artists residencies and short term immersion courses. We have community outreach through ignition of ‘Trade Routes.’ The industries that emerge through the function of an increasingly diverse and robust garden are utilizing a point system towards skill acquisition and shared economy.
We are feet in the Soil, head in the Cloud (so offer a rooted model (sandbox) for web3 projects aligned with regenerative systems to keep things ‘grounded’ in real place and time, seasonal and living data responsive).
The Tioga Community
The Tioga Community has several ways in which we are regenerative. On the spiritual level, we offer connection and support by means of our overarching spiritual society, Rhizae Society. One of our Trustees hosts an online spiritual support group called ConnectiviTea. On the mental and emotional realm, we build real connections with people and network with other communities that have similar intentions.
We are always looking to create long term and healthy relationships. In New Hampshire, we are moving towards a “one small town” movement, which is the networking of several properties in one town to align in similar goals and regenerative projects to really make a change.
In the physical realm we have two of our Trustees that hold leadership roles in Permatours, an organization which travels around to land locations and co-creates regenerative projects with the land owners. On our own land, we plan to sequester carbon from the air, plant trees, participate in sustainable forestry, replenish the soil and grow organic food, restore the land in harmony with nature, recycle, upcycle, use alternative energy sources when possible, and continuously be striving to improve upon the Earth and leave things better than we found them.
The Tioga Community is founded in three main concepts that capture our core values and beliefs. Whenever there is a situation where choices need to be made, and there is more than one possible route, we can always relate back to our core values and beliefs to see if the decision aligns. The fundamentals can relate back to: always doing everything out of love and intending no harm, while focusing on our connections with ourselves, each other, and planet Earth.
- Always Choose Love: – Spiritual – Do everything out of love. Intend for the highest good of all. (Radical Self Care, Intend No Harm, Harbor Good Intentions, Gratitude, Compassion, Strive For Balance)
- Interpersonal Connection: – Mental, Emotional – Treat others as yourself with honor and respect. Do our own inner work and be willing to support others as well. (Golden Rule, Vulnerability, Accountability, Have Integrity, Radical Self Reliance, Transparency with Responsibility, Playfulness and Fun, Integration, Radical Interdependence, Sovereignty and Social Responsibility, Loyalty, Friendship, Courage, Self-discipline)
- Earth Stewardship: – Physical – Care for the Earth and our environment through practices such as regenerative farming, permaculture, and consideration for all living things. (Leave a Better Place, Communal Effort, Permaculture, Positive Work Ethic)
- Goals and Focus: To create a safe place where we can live in alignment with our core values and beliefs. Building an intentional community that is regenerative and sustainable to the best of our abilities while deepening the connection with ourselves and all life.
Valhalla Farms
We are restoring 88 acres of former GMO corn and soya field to a fully organic permaculture and market gardening farm as well as live in community.
We are doing this by building 150 person village that is dedicated to Freedom Culture: To empower and encourage all individuals to spread their unique gifts to the world. Our goals are simple, how can we provide all the needs of a 150 person community from the land while inviting others to come learn and share their own gifts.
Learn more and follow the evolution of First Season
Find out more about the Regenerative Civics program and how to participate on the Regen Living notion page.
You can find more details of all the pilot projects on the Regen Living Wiki Pilot Projects page.
Follow the virtual meetings and conversations through the Regen Civics Season 1 playlist on Youtube.
Even more conversations around the whole SEEDS Regenerative Civics concept and movement here.
