Realigning with regenerative design thinking
Nature-centric systems thinking, to (re)imagine a future where humans and the natural world thrive together
Sporesight believes many things, but these three are on our radar this year:
1. By closing the human-nature disconnect, we can shift from extractive back to regenerative relational care between humans, our multi-species neighbours and our home, Mother Earth.
2. By assessing how we relate to our futures, we can choose our role in them, shifting from merely reacting to change, to actively shaping it.
3. By integrating nature-centric intelligence and systems thinking, we can imagine and inspire regenerative futures.
In September 2025, we’re launching ‘Fungi as Your Futurist’ - a playbook of design principles. It poses new ways to imagine regenerative futures, inspired by nature’s intelligence. We’re pretty excited to share it. Here’s a teaser:
Fungi as your Futurist: A toolkit for imagining symbiotic futures. Posing 12 regenerative design principles, inspired by fungi. Sporulating in 2025.
It invites us to be more like a mushroom, inspiring public imagination and collective action to secure good futures, for humans and our more-than-human neighbours.
Over the next few weeks we’ll share our thinking around the human-nature disconnect; why including nature as a stakeholder in decision-making is critical; including a more-than-human perspective in design; how fungi and futures thinking can help us imagine symbiotic futures; why none of this is new, just a realignment; and why talking about this stuff is important in Earth 2025.
Let’s start with regenerative design, a term you may have noticed floating about the internet.
Regenerative practice means shifting from extraction to collaboration. From seeing people and nature as resources to be 'used', to a practice of relational care for our planet, communities and future generations.
The term, in how its emerging today, is relatively new. But we have the solutions already. Regenerative design isn’t about inventing new, but rather realigning with ancient and Indigenous wisdom, to practices and ways of knowing that sustained communities and their ecosystems for generations.
In regenerative viticulture, vineyard farming is transformed from monoculture soil degradation, to actively working to reverse climate change by “improving vineyard soil quality, reintroducing biodiversity and sequestering carbon”. I'm no expert here, but my brother Joel Jorgensen of Vinescapes is. In our conversations about regenerative viticulture (over a good glass of UK-produced wine, obvs.), we can’t talk soil without talking fungi. Through mycoremediation, fungi play a key role in regenerative agriculture, supporting soil and ecosystem health.
In systems design, regeneration looks at the whole system. It's a holistic approach to reshaping policy, business models, products and services. It aims to align human needs with ecological integrity and long-term equity.
As climate impacts intensify, bold action is urgent. Regenerative design offers more than mere harm reduction; it actively heals the environment. By working with its principles we can co-create restored ecosystems, supporting life now and allowing us to become good ancestors.
A regenerative culture is one that’s alive, adaptable and caring. Tending to Mother Earth and all life is the wisest way to shape a thriving future together.
I had the pleasure of talking with Sporesight partner Jasper Tahany recently. Jasper has spent the past five years immersed in regenerative design thinking and social entrepreneurship. In 2021 he co-founded Myteria Minds, an Earthshot Prize-nominated startup transforming agricultural waste into mushroom-based cattle fodder.
He’s also a co-founder of The Regenescape, a growing community “advancing pro-social technology through workshops and online media to encourage more regenerative approaches to both designing and relating to technology”.
He shared this:
Image description - Quote by Jasper Tahany: “Regenerative design thinking is a movement that's trying to go beyond systemic sustainability and maintaining the status quo. It's the idea of designing systems that restore the health or complexity of those systems, both human and natural.”
Regenerative design thinking for is for anyone who cares about our planetary impact. From policy to products, farming to futures, consumer goods to urban planning and waste management. It offers a whole-systems based approach to heal what we’ve harmed.
The principles in our ‘Fungi as Your Futurist’ playbook are for designers, policymakers, technologists, marketers, growers, sustainability officers, strategists, researchers and you.
Regenerative design thinking is gaining traction in many sectors, which is great to see. However, it is often fragmented, with many methods being built separately. I think it’ll be important to develop a common, shared language and tools. We’re toying with the idea of a ‘Community of Practice’, inviting our peers and colleagues to work together, exploring the emergence of nature-centric regenerative design principles across the research and insight spaces.
“Regenerative design is about the pathway to a world where human and natural systems coexist and coevolve in harmony.”
I love a good 2x2. The Regeneration Journal poses this framework, adapted from Bill Reed’s 2007 Trajectory of Environmentally Responsible Design (original here), which helps to clearly understand regeneration in relation to ‘sustainability’ and ‘business as a usual’:
Image description: Two-by-two framework. X axis is ‘fossil fuels’ on the left to ‘renewable energy’ on the right. Y axis is ‘war on nature’ at the bottom and ‘collaborating with nature’ at the top. From the bottom left quadrant, titled ‘Degenerating systems for private profit’, is an arrow through to the top right quadrant, titled ‘Regenerating systems for the common good’. From bottom to top along the arrow, are labels of traditional sustainability terms and practice: in the bottom left quadrant: ‘Conventional practice’, ‘Green’, ‘Sustainable’, and in the top right: ‘Restorative’, ‘Reconciliatory’ and ‘Regenerative’.
“What’s the business case for this?”
We are often asked, “What’s the business case for sustainability / regenerative design?”
It’s hard to resist an eyeroll and declare “Isn’t it obvious?!” But let’s take a deep breath and respond maturely…
This question itself is rooted in economic separatism: where business thinks it is separate from society and nature.
What about ‘sustainability’? The Regenerative Marketing Institute argues that terms like "sustainability" and "resilience" are important in environmental discourse. However, they don't tackle the root causes of ecological and social issues. Also, these ideas may not serve a holistic interest.
Sustainability often involves balancing trade-offs between economic, social, and environmental goals. It lacks a clear, widely accepted definition. This causes problems in implementation and may lead to greenwashing. Resilience is about bouncing back from disasters, stress, or shocks. However, it often puts short-term economic gains ahead of lasting change.
Regenerative design thinking focuses on humans and nature working together. We evolve side by side, leading to lasting, long-term benefits for both people and the planet.
So let’s flip the script to: “What’s the sustainability case of your business?”
It’s leaderships’ responsibility to define their sustainability case to ensure their survival.
We can open avenues for new ways of thinking, and ease a choice of narratives. Once decision-makers see the scale and urgency of this challenge, we can help them make a change.
If we are to shape a future where humans, the natural world and our more-than-human neighbours thrive together (rather than collapse), nature-centric thinking is critical. Regenerative design invites Nature to the table: as a stakeholder in decision-making, with a seat at the boardroom table, as a participant in research, and a collaborator in systems change.
With the right insight, tools, and principles — plus some fun(gi) inspiration — we can create solutions that are strategic, ethical, and successful.
Tobias Revell of Arup Foresight says best:
“You can’t do business on a dead planet.”
Thanks for reading.
Yours in spores,
Jess Jorgensen
Founder, Sporesight
Sporesight is growing for good, not greed. Given the pace of happenings in the world, we appreciate your support. We're a Social Enterprise, inspiring regenerative innovation and systems design, with nature as a stakeholder. Profits go back into the work. Email us to learn more about our mission and how profits are redistributed: hello@sporesight.co
