Thomas Mansfield
on Building Regenerative Literacy through Cards for Life
What is your language of connection?
Regenerative literacy is more essential than ever. Words that speak to the hearts, words that unite us in service of life.
Thomas Mansfield guides us into rethinking our vocabulary, helping us see the world more as it is. Fluid, moving, ever-changing: “Being idealistic is the most real thing there is. The bravest, most imaginative, most creative thing we can be. Idealism is about creating reality and generating energy. We need it to imagine the post-growth futures, the post-collapse realities of greater connection, with ourselves, with each other and the more-than-human world.”
What began as “permaculture play,” a list of standard principles Thomas created just for fun, evolved during his The Bio-Leadership Project Fellowship into a creative card deck exploring three key directions: self and system (Dynamics), inner (Being), and outer (Doing). Cards for Life has since become a vocabulary of living systems that supports innovators, leaders, and practitioners of all kinds in re-harmonizing human systems with the living world. By identifying language misaligned with individual and organizational purpose, it becomes possible to transform concepts and create meaningful change.
Thomas now asks the big questions: Do you feel a need to do things differently and to do different things? Are you prepared to meet regeneration halfway and define it for yourself in your context? Can you commit to regeneration not as a goal to complete but as a lifelong practice? As he reflects, “It will be trial and error, ‘sense and respond’ along the way but we can do this work together.”
More regenerative frameworks are needed to answer and live the question: “How do organizations participate in life-sustaining systems?” As the founder of Pale Blue Perspective, Thomas serves planetary health as a coach and consultant, creating tools and programs for participatory learning. He has worked with cultural institutions and liminal spaces like festivals, creating cross-sector climate restoration and cultural programs.
For him, regeneration brings “cycles of renewal,” a living, adapting, pulsing way of being and doing. He sees it as planetary healing, the impulse and capacity of life to self-heal, seeking to work through humanity in this time. To bind these ideas together, he invites us to reflect on this question: “How is life loving itself through me?”
Read Thomas Mansfield’s answers for Inspirators and add some regenerative spice to your vocabulary!
Thank you, Thomas, for being a Regenerative Literacy Ambassador!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Thomas Mansfield
Company / Institution: Pale Blue Perspective; Cards for Life
Title: Founder
Website: https://paleblueperspective.com/
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-mansfield-8a520a30/
Country of origin: UK
Country you currently live in: England
Your definition of Regeneration: "Cycles of renewal." A living, adapting, pulsing way of being and doing.
Collectively, I think of it as planetary healing, the impulse and capacity of life to self-heal seeking to work through humanity in this time. To bind these together I like to consider the question ‘How is life loving itself through me?’
Main business challenge you face: Practically, the challenge is continuing to develop with a post-growth approach and ‘scaling out’ rather than ‘scaling up’ while maintaining the integrity of embodying the values expressed in Cards for Life.
This means producing a product that is better than sustainable and constantly practising letting go of creative control and attachment to how bio-regional adaptations will look. This is the challenge with my primary offering although it holds a cultural challenge around adoption which is about supporting people to do less and be more, to slow down, to increase their tolerance for uncertainty, to become collapse aware and many other things that go against the grain the progress of continuous growth.
Main driver that keeps you going: Awe that we are intimately part of this inexplicable unfolding. Finding ways of being loving and the possibility of flourishing beyond what we can imagine from here.
The trait you are most proud of in yourself: A deeply earnest sensibility that helps me seek the authentic in myself and others
The trait you most value in others: Authenticity, wisdom, clarity. Charisma, enthusiasm and all those ways of creating energy for change.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: The more-than-human world, especially animals and the love of dogs especially. Morning stillness and waking to the world with a tea in quietude. Poetry, writing and performing it. Exploring new places, I love to wander in a place foreign to me.
The Inspirators who determined you to take the regenerative path:
Fritjof Capra
Daniel Christian Wahl
Wendy May
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Lyla June
Pat McCabe
Bayo Akomolafe
Tyson Yunkaporta
Donella Meadows
Carol Sanford
Joe Brewer
Neil Thiesse
Paul Hawken
Arran Stibbe
Laura Storm
Giles Hutchins
Jeremy Lent
Adrienne Marie Brown
Vanessa Andreotti
Nora Bateson
John Fullerton
Nate Hagens
Janine Benyus
Michael Pawlyn
and many more I could name. The Bio-leadership community in all its richness.
A starting point for companies or professionals that are beginning the regeneration journey: Do you feel a need to do things differently and to do different things? Do you recognise the fundamental shift needed in determining what business is for? Are you excited by the prospect of bringing it into service of planetary health? Are you prepared to meet regeneration halfway and define it for yourself in your context? Can you commit to regeneration not as something to complete or finally achieve but as a lifelong practice to serve life?
It will be trial and error, ‘sense and respond’ along the way but we are no longer working in silos, we can only do this work together.
Most used and abused clichés in sustainability that bother you: Having worked in carbon removal for some time I find carbon tunnel vision and the messaging that comes with it the most bothering.
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope: Crisis means opportunity.
The systems of civilisation that are harming us and the community of life are breaking down and in those cracks, new shoots will grow. Being part of the new growth is an opportunity to not compromise on who you want to be and how you want to live your life. Modernity has stifled authentic expression and severed connection, more than grand solutions and ‘fixing it’.
I think this moment invites you to follow your heart.
Books that had a great impact on you / Must-Reads for any regenerative professional:
The Systems View of Life - Fritjof Capra
Designing Regenerative Cultures - Daniel Christian Wahl
Regenerative Purpose - Wendy May
Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
Sand Talk - Tyson Yunkaporta
Thinking in Systems - Donella Meadows
The design pathway for regenerating earth - Joe Brewer
Notes on complexity - Neil Theise
Regeneration - Paul Hawken
Ecolinguistics - Arran Stibbe
Regenerative leadership - Laura Storm & Giles Hutchins
The web of meaning - Jeremy Lent
Emergent strategy - Adrienne Maree Brown
No More Gold Stars - Carol Sanford
I have to recommend Resurgence magazine too. And a distillation of these great inspirations, my own creation Cards for Life!
Movies / Documentaries you would watch all over again: Kiss the Ground, Wilding, The Overview Effect, Planetary and My Octopus Teacher.
Websites / Podcasts you visit frequently:
Podcasts: Wild with Sarah Wilson, The Great Simplification, The Blindboy podcast, The Emerald.
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing: Rising Appalachia and that kind of uplifting earth-loving genre. Contemporary classical of so many composers and conscious hip hop, I rap and freestyle so instrumental beats are my place to play.
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you: The Azores left a unique impression on me, I keep thinking of them and longing to go back there.
Global Regenerative Voices you recommend us to follow:
Many are mentioned above in the reading list. I recommend following people who are focusing on global cooling through water cycle restoration and shifting us away from carbon myopia to look at whole systems and see that biodiversity is the convergence of solutions to meet the convergence of crises. This shift leads us to people who have place-based knowledge so those leaders of indigenous communities and the land back movement and all the brilliant voices of the bioregioning movement.
Trends in Regeneration we should keep an eye on: Regeneration broadly. Nature governance. Post-growth and business as activism holds exciting potential for radical transformation.
Events we should attend / Best places for networking (online or offline): Those that are bringing together communities of practice rather than trying to stand out alone! Go for the authentic collaborative events that support your mission.
Impactful and relevant Sustainable Development or Regeneration courses or certifications: The BIo-leadership fellowship, Regenerators academy, Capital Institutes Regenerative economics, Gaia University, Regenesis groups TRP programme to name a few.
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030: We are part of the living earth, we are the planet and we have to work through this difficult developmental stage. Amidst all the turmoil may the 2030s be the green age where we really see just how much life we can create, together.
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030: Forces of domination can be overpowered and there is a lot of energy to be spent by forces of imperial modernity as they try to dig in and monopolize power, geopolitical polycentrism looks volatile and confusing.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today: Personal integrity, sourcing one's inner wisdom and empowering others with the same sensing, fascination and curiosity about planetary health.
The Inspirator(s) you are endorsing for a future edition:
Alexandra Pimor of the Nature Governance agency
Kai Njeri of Kai.retu's Forests
Any of the fellows of the Bio-leadership project!
The quote that inspires you:
"Today the world we see outside and the world we see within are converging. This convergence of two worlds is perhaps one of the most important cultural events of our age." (Ilya Prigogine)
Your quote that will inspire us:
