Stephen Vasconcellos
on The Regenerative Enterprise
A new type of change-maker has emerged! The Regenerative Entrepreneur.
It's Stephen Vasconcellos who noticed this interesting pattern arising within the impact landscape and decided to dive deep into the behaviour and vision of "this new one”. The one who challenges the status quo disrupting the traditional way of doing business while thinking long-term as custodian of future generations. The one who goes beyond current notions of sustainability, shifting our economy away from its roots of extraction and exploitation towards caretaking and regeneration through a holistic 360° perspective. The one who sees themselves as part of Earth’s living systems. The one who considers the company as a living system with an evolutionary purpose and a collaborative value-for-all mindset.
Stephen cares deeply about telling a new more empowering story for humanity and believes it is time for a new Golden Rule that encourages people to value all life: “Regeneration is about aligning with Life and its never-ending capacity for renewal, thrival, and reinvention. It’s about finding humility before Nature, and surrendering to the heartbeat of Mother Earth and her boundless creativity. It’s also about taking our place in the circle of life, alongside all our human and non-human living relations.”
He is the co-founder of Positive, Reboot the Future charity and (SALT) Magazine, and co-author of Visions of Transformation book with Nobel prize winners Gore, Tutu and Yunus.
The Regenerative Enterprise, the book he co-authored with Niels de Fraguier and that was described by Christiana Figueres as a “seminal book, a visionary and practical pathway for entrepreneurs building future-fit organisations”, answers a vital question: “What if creatives could rally behind regenerative futures to accelerate systemic change?” Drawing inspiration from nature alongside indigenous wisdom, Stephen illustrates how companies can transition from mere preservation to active restoration of ecosystems, fostering human thriving.
Positive Impact Companies(PICs) combine five essential elements - purpose, partners, people, partners and places - with an explicitly nature-inspired decision-making approach. The ideal momentum, as Stephen thinks we are facing a historic moment: “The pace of change has never been faster. The current model of economic ‘success’ is built on extraction and exploitation. Left unchecked, it will drag humanity over a cliff edge from which we will not recover.”
Read Stephen Vasconcellos’s answers for Inspirators and follow the courageous inspiration thread of regenerative entrepreneurs: “We must stand up and be counted. It’s not enough to be good from the comfort of our armchairs. We need to participate in co-creating the best world our hearts know is possible!”
Thank you, Stephen, for being a Regenerative Entrepreneur!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Stephen Vasconcellos
Company / Institution: Positive; The Earth Elders
Title: Author; Regenerative Changemaker
Website: www.makeapositiveimpact.co ; www.theearthelders.com
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvasconcellos
Country of origin: Scotland
Country you currently live in: Scotland
Your definition of Regeneration: Regeneration is about aligning with Life and its never-ending capacity for renewal, thrival, and reinvention. It’s about finding humility before Nature, and surrendering to the heartbeat of Mother Earth and her boundless creativity. It’s also about taking our place in the circle of life, alongside all our human and non-human living relations.
Main business challenge you face: Getting people who are addicted and locked into advancing the ‘death economy’ to unplug from the matrix and a lifetime of conditioning so that they can help us co-create an economy that supports all of humanity and all life on earth.
Main driver that keeps you going: Being in service of life, surrendering to that impulse within that has connected me to an irrepressible force much greater than I could ever have imagined.
The trait you are most proud of in yourself: My capacity to feel empathy and think out of the box.
The trait you most value in others: Kindness.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: Watching the sunset at dusk, the smell of warm bread as it comes out of the oven, crossing paths with ladybirds and bumble bees, and sitting around a fire.
The Inspirators who determined you to take the regenerative path:
Wangari Maathai
Jane Goodall
Daniel Christian Wahl
Alistair Mcintosh
A starting point for companies or professionals that are beginning the regeneration journey: We wrote our book, The Regenerative Enterprise, to help entrepreneurs and changemakers put regenerative theory into practice.
Most used and abused clichés in sustainability that bother you:
That switching from a gas guzzler to an electric car will somehow save us. The truth is, of course, less facile. We need to switch from a consumption economy that overproduces to supply goods (which are often ‘bads’) for a small fraction of relatively wealthy people to an economy that creates the conditions to support all of humanity and builds regenerative capacity for all of creation. This means creating an economy that involves less meaningless consumption where wellbeing and other values are prioritized.
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope:
We’re living at perhaps the most challenging time in human history, but also one of the moments most pregnant with transformative possibility. Our species, and life in general, need crises to evolve. Our poly-crises present a tremendous opportunity. So stick with it and be the best version of yourself you can be. This is, as Joanna Macy said, about nursing the dying and midwifing the emergent. So choose your best future and live into it. If we all do that, we will succeed in co-creating a more loving planet for all.
Books that had a great impact on you / Must-Reads for any regenerative professional:
Designing Regenerative Cultures by Daniel Christian Wahl
Soil and Soul by Alistair McIntosh
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
Movies / Documentaries you would watch all over again:
Grand Central Station
Cinema Paradiso
The Gods Must be Crazy
Planet Earth
The Blue Planet
The Color Purple
Websites / Podcasts you visit frequently:
Daniel Christian Wahl – Regeneration Rising
Tyson Yunkaporta – The Other Others
Setting Sun Productions - Children of the Setting Sun
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing:
Chantress Seba – Om Nimah Shivaya
Peia – Blessed We Are
Krishna Das – Sri Ram Jai Ram
Caledonia – Dougie Maclean/Paolo Nuttini
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you:
Seven Sisters, Scotland
Uluru, Australia
Iguacu Falls, Brasil
Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
Global Regenerative Voices you recommend us to follow:
Bill Reid, Regenesis
Alan Watson Featherstone, Trees for Life
Alan Savory
Johan Rockstrom, Planetary Boundaries
Mossy Earth
Alistair Mcintosh, Soul and Soil
Trends in Regeneration we should keep an eye on:
How regeneration is being embraced by businesses, though we must watch that it doesn’t get diluted in the same way that sustainability has as it has already become a hook for marketers.
Impactful and relevant Sustainable Development or Regeneration courses or certifications:
John Fullerton’s course on the Regenerative Economy
RegenerateX’s Regenerative Business Innovation Course
Columbia University’s Regenerative Entrepreneurship Course
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030:
More and more people are realizing that they must participate in co-creating the best world our hearts know is possible. That we must stand up and be counted. It’s not enough to be good from the comfort of our armchairs. This is the way we make meaningful change happen.
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030: Global Superpowers competing for influence, and the shadow of war. The rise of populism and the battle for truth. Overconsumption.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today: Empathy. Compassion and empowering others. Servant leadership. Truth and integrity. Authenticity.
The Inspirator you are endorsing for a future edition is:
Niels de Fraguier
The quote that inspires you:
