What is Regenerative Real Estate?
A brief background before we jump into it…
At the beginning of 2019 my business partner — also my wife and the mother of our child — and I both were at all time lows.
Despite being at the helm of a fast growing real estate company, a comfortable life, and good friends, something wasn’t right.
Our business had no purpose or mission other than to profit financially. While this may be good enough for some people, overtime we found that it created a severe misalignment of our personal values with how we were spending our time and what we were contributing to the world.
For most of our careers we had been a part of mission driven teams and organizations. Our work had brought us to all parts of the globe working with incredible organizations and leaders that were helping to advance humanity and the planet. This ranged from climate change adaptation and threatened species conservation in the Maldives, cultural heritage preservation in India, and agriculture and potable water projects in rural villages in Moldova.
After taking what seemed like a hard right turn into real estate after living abroad for the better part of a decade, we knew to advance our impact we needed to become more fluent with how real property is transferred, financed, developed, and managed.
As our expertise grew in the real estate industry, so did our company Latitude. We were growing double and triple digits year-over-year until it got to a point where we had to pump the brakes and take a hard assessment of our lives and business. When we looked in the mirror we did not like what we saw: two people delusional with other people’s metrics of success; too busy and stressed to appreciate each other, our families, or the world around us.
That’s when we knew in our heart of hearts that something needed to change. Rather than throw in the towel and give up so much of what we had learned and built, we decided to infuse our backgrounds in sustainability with our real estate business.
The obstacle that we found is that the word sustainability had a far different meaning than what we began practicing. You see for many people when you talk about sustainability in the built environment they think solar panels, energy efficiency, and “smart” home devices. These things are part of the equation, but by no means the solve-all solution to combat climate change or impact the prevailing culture of convenience.
We wanted to take a more holistic look at the built environment with an approach that underscored mindfulness and reverence for our spaces that we inhabit and the land we reside.
For years we had been following the regenerative agriculture movement and were captivated by the principals put forth in permaculture. This approach was one that instilled hope that we can create change in a massive way that brings humanity and the natural world in harmony with each other.
By borrowing from this philosophy, Regenerative Real Estate was born. Little did we know at the time how beautiful, enriching, and impactful this journey would prove to be, as well as the incredible visionaries that we would meet along the way.
The purpose of this article is to paint the picture of this emerging field and how we conceive of Regenerative Real Estate. As people tune in from across the world to our message, we are both surprised and humbled by the receptivity and support people have shown. We hope that this can be a catalyst for positive change in the world so that all living beings and creatures can thrive.
Emerging definition of Regenerative Real Estate
Regenerative real estate is the intersection between health and wellness, sustainability, community-orientation, and ecological integration. It is these four elements that create a holistic environment that helps people thrive.
Regenerative real estate can apply towards both urban and rural contexts, and while its origins came from the residential built environment, it is a framework that is adaptive and can be applied towards any human-sculpted environment.
Health & Wellness
Our land, our spaces, and our homes are places that are much more than just dirt under our feet or a roof over our heads. They are the backdrop to our lives where we raise our families, rejuvenate our bodies, minds, and souls. This is where we work, play, and love. Our spaces are sacred, and they should resonate and encourage health and well-being.
This looks like spaces that have incorporated biophilic design and non-toxic materials. The space should help to ground us, and root us in place by celebrating life and encouraging wildness and beauty.
Sustainability
From the resources and materials that are sourced, to the systems of our buildings, sustainability is about intentional design. The built environment is traditionally one of the most wasteful industries in the world. A truly regenerative space takes advantage of the patterns that nature provides to work it to harness in order to provide abundance. This can be everything from sustainably harvested materials, building science, energy generation and consumption, resource management, and water catchment/treatment systems.
Community
As a species we are social creatures that need and thrive upon the interaction of others. The recognition of community is what separates regenerative real estate from mainstream sustainable real estate.
While people have inherent preferences on a sociability continuum, no one is meant to live in isolation.
We all need community.
Our community bonds are what hold us together as thoughtful, emotional, and spiritual beings. It is our community that shapes our culture. We rely upon community to cultivate our children, grow our food, stimulate our minds. We gather in community to celebrate as well as honor, morn, and pray. Community does not happen on accident, and it must be intentional with mindfulness of diligence and design. We are all co-creators of the communities we live in.
Ecology
We are living beings within living systems. Our role should be as that of a steward, here to tend the land so that it will remain productive and resilient for infinite generations. We can do that by working with the land, soil, and place in a way that encourages life and helps all living things live in ecological symbiosis.
Our homes are living systems within living systems. We can and should help guide the land so that it retains water, plays host to beneficial pollinators, honors the native species, while still allowing for food production.
Adapting our culture to be more ecologically integrated is what makes this world beautiful.
Our vision
We envision a world full of living and regenerative systems that enable people and planet to thrive.
This is no small vision, and no one person or company can create the transformative change in which we believe the world needs.
We are looking for co-creators and collaborators. We want to hear your stories and ideas. We want to learn about your projects. We want to share your work and philosophy.
If you would like to get more involved please be sure to give this article a clap and follow along so that you can stay up to date.
For a deeper dive that is not only inspiring but soul-fulfilling, listen to the thought-leaders and practitioners that are guests on The Regenerative Real Estate Podcast. You can also be a part of the online Facebook community to connect with other like-minded professionals.
And for all those real estate professionals out there that feel the same misalignment that we did, I hope that this article and approach will give you hope.
Hope that you feel empowered to bring your business into alignment with your values.
Hope that you can make a difference in your community.
Hope that you too can become an agent of change.
